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- Is an asbestos roof illegal?
Is it illegal to have an asbestos roof in South Africa?
No. Owning one is legal. Working on one is regulated.
Asbestos was banned on 28 March 2008, and that ban covers new material only. An existing asbestos roof may stay where it is, with no removal deadline. The rules that bite are about removing, repairing, cleaning and reusing it.
Roof in Gauteng that has to come off? Send the address on WhatsApp for an estimate, or see what removal costs.
No. It is not illegal to have an asbestos roof in South Africa, on a house or on a business, and no law sets a date by which it must come off. The 2008 ban stopped new asbestos from being made, imported or sold. It did not reach back to roofs that were already up.
What the law controls is work on the roof. Since 10 November 2020 the Asbestos Abatement Regulations decide who may remove, repair or seal asbestos cement, and they ban cleaning it, cutting it with power tools, and selling or giving away the old sheets.
| Doing this | Legal? |
|---|---|
| Owning or living under an asbestos roof | Yes |
| Selling or buying the property | Yes |
| Painting it without cleaning or preparing the surface | Yes (type 1 work) |
| Removing less than 10 m², once in six months | Yes (type 1 work) |
| Removing the roof yourself, or with an unregistered roofer | No |
| High-pressure cleaning, sanding or wire-brushing it | No |
| Cutting or drilling it with power tools | No |
| Selling, donating or reusing the old sheets | No |
| Installing solar panels on it | No, since 9 Nov 2022 |
| Buying new asbestos sheets | No, since 28 Mar 2008 |
Sources: Asbestos Abatement Regulations, 2020 (GN R1196, Government Gazette 43893), regulations 1 and 24; GN R341, Government Gazette 30904, regulation 2; Department of Employment and Labour instruction of 9 November 2022.
What did the 2008 asbestos ban actually ban?
Government Notice R341 of 28 March 2008 says no person may acquire, process, package or repackage asbestos, manufacture asbestos-containing materials, or distribute them, and no person may import or export them. Every verb is about supply. None of them is about owning a building that already has asbestos in it.
That is why a roof laid in 1975 is lawfully there today, and why a merchant cannot sell you a matching sheet to patch it. More on what the 2008 ban covers.
When does an asbestos roof become a legal problem?
When someone works on it. Removing asbestos cement sheets is type 2 asbestos work. It needs a contractor registered with the Department of Employment and Labour, seven days' written notice to the Department, an approved plan of work, air monitoring by an approved inspection authority, and a clearance certificate at the end.
A contravention carries a fine or up to 12 months' imprisonment under regulation 25, plus R500 for each day a continuing offence runs. The offence sits in the handling, not the ownership.
Check any company against the register of asbestos contractors before work starts.
Do businesses and landlords have extra duties?
Yes. The 2020 regulations are made under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, so they bind employers and self-employed people. A workplace must identify asbestos in place and keep a written inventory of it under regulation 4, with a risk assessment and a plan for managing it. A private home that is nobody's workplace has no inventory duty.
The full list is on the 2020 regulations in plain English.
If it is legal, why do people replace them?
Four practical reasons. Solar panels may not be fitted over asbestos. A cracked or leaking sheet cannot be cleaned, sealed or patched the way other roofs can, because preparing the surface is banned. Buyers price an old asbestos roof into their offer. And a broken sheet releases fibres, which is the point at which a low-risk roof stops being low risk.
In Gauteng, stripping and disposal runs R150 to R250 per m².
Questions people ask
Is it illegal to have an asbestos roof in South Africa?
No. Owning a building with an asbestos roof is legal and no law requires you to remove it. The 2008 ban covers acquiring, manufacturing, distributing, importing and exporting asbestos, and the Asbestos Abatement Regulations, 2020 control work done on asbestos that is already in place.
Is there a deadline to remove asbestos roofs in South Africa?
No. Neither the 2008 ban nor the 2020 regulations sets a date by which existing asbestos roofs must be removed. Workplaces must identify and manage asbestos in place, which is a management duty and not a removal deadline.
Can I remove my own asbestos roof?
Only if the job is type 1 work: less than 10 m² of asbestos cement, not repeated on the same site within six months. Anything larger is type 2 work and must be done by a contractor registered with the Department of Employment and Labour.
Can I be fined for having an asbestos roof?
Not for having one. Fines and up to 12 months' imprisonment under regulation 25 apply to contraventions such as unregistered removal, cleaning or cutting the sheets, or selling and reusing them.
Can I sell a house with an asbestos roof?
Yes. No law requires removal before a sale. See the page on selling a house with an asbestos roof for how the mandatory disclosure form applies.
It is legal to have an asbestos roof in South Africa and there is no deadline to remove it. Government Notice R341 of 28 March 2008 banned the supply of new asbestos. The Asbestos Abatement Regulations, 2020 require a registered contractor for any removal over 10 m² and ban cleaning, power-tool cutting and reuse of the sheets. Solar panels may not go on an asbestos roof.