Explore expert-written blogs covering the latest trends, practical tips, and in-depth guidance on asbestos safety, inspections, and compliance—helping you stay informed and confident in every decision.
Quick answer: A standard building inspection is a visual check, and it cannot confirm whether a material contains asbestos. Only laboratory analysis of a sample can do that. A dedicated asbestos report, based on a pre-purchase asbestos inspection, locates and samples suspect materials, rates their condition and gives you findings you can use to negotiate before settlement. For buildings built before 1990, and up to the national ban at the end of 2003, skipping it means any asbestos found later becomes your cost to manage.
A proper asbestos inspection of a shared building covers every accessible area, including plant rooms, roof spaces and car parks, not just the common walkways. It grades the condition of each material, separates common property from individual lots, and ends with a report your committee can act on. In Queensland, a person with management or control of a workplace must keep an asbestos register at the workplace and review it at least every five years. Getting the inspection right the first time costs less than redoing it after a contractor disturbs something nobody flagged.
