Does the duty to manage apply to residential buildings?

It applies to non-domestic premises, which includes the common parts of residential blocks: corridors, stairwells, plant rooms, risers and roof spaces. The individual flats are outside the duty to manage, although other duties still apply to work carried out in them.

How often should an asbestos register be reviewed?

The assessment must be reviewed when it is no longer valid or there has been a significant change, and the condition of the material must be monitored. Annual reinspection is the common benchmark, and more frequently for material in poorer condition or in areas subject to disturbance.

Do I need a survey to comply with regulation 4?

Not necessarily a survey, but you do need a suitable and sufficient assessment. You can presume asbestos is present and manage it accordingly, but in practice a management survey is usually the cheaper route, because presuming asbestos everywhere makes routine maintenance slow and expensive.

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Free Asbestos Register Template (UK): Duty to Manage, PDF & Excel

Q: Who is the dutyholder for asbestos?

Whoever has the obligation for repair and maintenance of non-domestic premises under a contract or tenancy, or, where there is no such contract or tenancy, anyone who has control of the premises to any extent. In let commercial buildings the repairing clause in the lease usually decides it, and on a full repairing lease that can be the tenant.

The register records what is there. The management plan records what you are doing about it. Regulation 4 requires both.

Free Asbestos Register Template (UK): Duty to Manage, PDF & Excel

The duty to manage asbestos is failed far more often through a stale register than a missing one. A survey done in 2014, filed and never revisited, tells a contractor drilling a wall in 2026 nothing useful about the condition of what is behind it. Regulation 4 requires the assessment to be reviewed and the condition monitored, which is why this template pairs the register with a management plan and a reinspection date on every line.

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Free for use within your organisation. No sign-up required. If it saves you time, a link back to this page is always appreciated.

Tell me when the rules behind this template change (free, one email when it happens, nothing else).

What the law requires

Regulation 4 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 places the duty to manage asbestos on the dutyholder for non-domestic premises. The dutyholder is whoever has the obligation for the repair and maintenance of the premises under a contract or tenancy, and where there is no such contract or tenancy, anyone who has control of the premises to any extent.

The duty requires a suitable and sufficient assessment of whether asbestos is or is liable to be present, a record of its location and condition, and a written plan identifying the parts of the premises concerned and the measures for managing the risk. Note the phrase "liable to be present": where you have not established otherwise, materials in a building of the relevant age must be presumed to contain asbestos and managed accordingly.

What's in the template

Asbestos register: reference, location, material or product type, extent, whether presumed or confirmed, condition, risk assessment score, action and reinspection due date
Management plan: the control measures and actions with an owner, target date, completion, confirmation that contractors were informed, and the review record

How to use it

Give every entry a reference and use it consistently across the register, the plan, the survey report and any labels on site. Record whether each item is confirmed by sampling or presumed, because that distinction changes what a contractor is allowed to do near it.

Set a reinspection date on every line, typically annually, and diarise it. Condition is the variable that changes: asbestos insulating board that was sealed and in good condition can be damaged by an unrelated leak, and nobody will tell you unless someone is looking.

Then close the loop that actually prevents exposure: show the register to every contractor before work starts and record that you did. The management plan has a column for it. Most asbestos disturbances in occupied buildings happen because a contractor was never shown a register that existed. Related: asbestos records on construction sites and the CDM pre-construction information pack.

Who must keep this record

The dutyholder, as defined above. In a let commercial building the repairing obligations in the lease normally decide who that is, and it is worth checking rather than assuming: on a full repairing and insuring lease the duty can sit with the tenant. Where obligations are split, more than one party can hold the duty, and they are required to cooperate.

The duty applies to non-domestic premises, which includes the common parts of residential blocks. The flats themselves are outside it, but the corridors, plant rooms, risers and roof spaces of the same building are not.

How long to keep it

Keep the register and plan for the life of the building, updated on every reinspection and after any removal or remedial work. Retain superseded versions rather than overwriting: the history of what was found, where, and what was done about it is what protects you, and asbestos-related claims can arise decades after the exposure.