Asbestos

If you think you have moved or damaged asbestos

Leave your home and do not return until it is safe. Call 0191 525 5000 to report a repair.

If you think you have found asbestos

Call our Asbestos Team on 0191 525 2752. We will arrange for an asbestos surveyor to visit your home and take a sample.

Before you decorate, improve or adapt your home

CAll 0191 525 5000 and select option 4. We may arrange an asbestos survey to check it is safe for you to decorate, improve or adapt your home.

Asbestos surveys

Wherever we find asbestos, we check its condition. If it is in a good condition, we either leave it in place or remove it. If it is in a poor condition or could cause you harm, we remove it.

We have a register for properties we know or believe has asbestos. We update the register every time we survey a home or remove asbestos. We have asbestos surveys for all our communal areas and we recheck these areas once a year.

If we have an asbestos survey for your home, we will give you a copy when you move in. We may also arrange an asbestos survey for your home while you live there to check it is safe for you to improve or adapt your home.

What you need to know about asbestos

Asbestos is a strong, fire-resistant natural mineral that was commonly used as a building material between the 1950s and the 1980s.

Asbestos can be dangerous if moved or damaged. This could happen if you:

• drill a hole in a wall or ceiling
• plaster a textured wall or ceiling
• remove any material or floor coverings you did not install
• sand, saw or scrub certain surfaces

Asbestos is not in cavity-wall insulation but may be in:

• cement products, like roofing and wall cladding
• insulation boards on heating cupboard doors
• textured wall and ceiling coverings
• vinyl floor coverings, like plastic floor tiles and linoleum