I inherited a house in Israel with an asbestos roof. What am I required to do about it?

Corrugated grey sheeting on a shed roof, a boiler cupboard lined with board, an old moshav house near Afula with a roof nobody has touched since 1974. Canadian heirs looking at photographs from 8,000 kilometres away usually reach one of two wrong conclusions: that Israel will force them to strip the roof, or that since nothing has happened in fifty years nothing needs to. Israeli law sits between the two, and the trigger is not the asbestos. It is the renovation.

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Detailed Answer

The Law for the Prevention of Asbestos and Harmful Dust Hazards 5771-2011 distinguishes at Section 2 between cement asbestos, meaning asbestos bound with cement in a hard state, which is what almost every Israeli roof sheet and wall panel is, and friable asbestos, meaning material in a crumbled or powdered form or capable of being reduced to powder by hand pressure when dry. Section 3 states the general prohibition: no person may manufacture, import, hold, trade in, transfer or otherwise work with asbestos, other than removal and disposal carried out under the Law. The removal deadlines that attracted the headlines are narrower than they sound. Sections 5 and 6 obliged the owners of industrial facilities and the owners of public places to cease using and to remove friable asbestos within ten years of the commencement date. A privately owned house is neither, and intact cement asbestos on it carries no general removal duty. What does apply, immediately and to everyone, is the work regime. Section 36(a) prohibits carrying out specified asbestos work without a permit from the supervisor, Section 37 requires the application to be made through a licensed asbestos contractor, and the licensing regulations separate cement asbestos contractors from friable asbestos contractors so that the right licence class matters. Section 38(a) is the provision that reaches the owner: a person who orders the work may not employ anyone in asbestos work unless that person has produced a valid and appropriate licence. Enforcement is administrative as well as criminal. Section 58 sets monetary sanctions in three tiers, beginning at NIS 59,500 for an individual and NIS 118,990 for a corporation, rising through NIS 237,990 and NIS 475,980 for an individual, with corporate amounts doubled at every level, and Section 54 carries criminal penalties from six months to three years' imprisonment for the more serious offences. The Ministry of Environmental Protection administers all of it, through the supervisor and the Asbestos Committee.

The exposure for an owner abroad is created by an ordinary email. You ask an Israeli property manager or a contractor to replace the roof, add a room, install solar panels or clear a damaged shed after a storm, and under Section 38(a) you are the orderer. If the builder who turns up breaks up the sheets with a hammer and puts them in a skip, which is exactly what happens on small residential jobs, the sanction is available against you as well as against him, and being resident in Vancouver is no answer. Three habits prevent it. Write the licence requirement into the instruction rather than assuming it, and ask for the contractor's asbestos licence number and the permit reference before any work starts, not with the invoice. Treat any job involving a roof, an old boiler room, ceiling panels or exterior cladding on a pre-1990 building as an asbestos job until a survey says otherwise, because Israeli builders quoting for a small residential renovation frequently do not raise it. And keep the paper, since the permit, the contractor's licence, the disposal certificate for the approved landfill site and the air clearance test are the documents a buyer's surveyor will ask for later; a property with undocumented asbestos work in its recent history is discounted, and one with visibly damaged asbestos can attract a removal order from the Ministry regardless of its private status. Wider obligations that come with holding Israeli property from overseas are set out in our guide to managing an Israeli rental property from abroad.

In Practice: Under the Law for the Prevention of Asbestos and Harmful Dust Hazards 5771-2011 the ten-year removal duties in Sections 5 and 6 bind industrial facilities and public places, not private homes, so intact cement asbestos on an inherited house may stay. But Section 36(a) requires a permit for asbestos work, Section 37 requires a licensed asbestos contractor, and Section 38(a) makes the person ordering the work responsible for checking the licence. The Ministry of Environmental Protection may impose monetary sanctions under Section 58 starting at NIS 59,500 for an individual and rising to NIS 475,980, with criminal liability under Section 54; permits are typically issued in 2 to 6 weeks and a small residential removal takes a few days plus clearance testing.

When to Consult a Lawyer

• A renovation is already under way and asbestos has been disturbed. Stop the work before anything else, because the sanction exposure grows with every load that leaves the site and the disposal trail is what the Ministry examines.
• The property is let to tenants. Damaged asbestos in a let building brings landlord duties and potential personal injury exposure into play alongside the 2011 Law, and the tenancy agreement rarely allocates the risk properly.
• You are selling. Asbestos discovered by a buyer's surveyor after signing is a classic non-disclosure dispute in Israeli conveyancing, and it is far better addressed in the contract than in a claim afterwards.

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Speak With an Israeli Attorney

We check the licence and permit position before an Israeli contractor touches an asbestos roof, and we handle Ministry of Environmental Protection enforcement where work has already gone wrong.

Contact us for a confidential initial consultation.