Unlike the fluffy houses, the asbestos insulation was never removed from commercial buildings, so it remains in the top-floor ceiling of the flat that sits above Edgar's Inn. With commercial buildings also never surveyed, just one other has come to light – the former Goodstart childcare centre in Aranda, now closed.

Ainslie owner Jeff Darwin cannot demolish without massive cost and huge disruption to Edgar's Inn and wants to know whether he can clean the flat instead.

He said he met with the Asbestos Taskforce in December and had been waiting to hear since on whether options to clean out the asbestos, even to the extent of demolishing the top storey while retaining Edgar's Inn underneath.

"They were going to determine whether the asbestos could be removed safely. The question is whether the cavity walls are such that the top level can be removed without endangering the business below," he said.

But he had heard nothing, leaving him in limbo with a contaminated building. Work Safe had placed a prohibition notice on the first-floor flat early last last year and it has remained empty since.

"I'm hoping they will give me some options," Mr Darwin said. "I think it's in the subject of it's too hard to deal with. I would like for that asbestos to be removed but it's in a busy area and we have commercial tenants in the building who would be very seriously affected if we had to close the business off."

Ainslie businessman Manuel Xyrakis backed Mr Darwin's call for government action, saying the government should pay to have the problem solved, and should do so sooner rather than later.

"The government definitely should take responsibility and stop going round and round in circles saying it's a commercial building. And they should do it now," he said.

Mr Darwin stressed that air monitoring had shown Edgar's to be safe, but the inability to rent the top floor was costing him significant amounts.

Mr Darwin and his wife own the corner building, along with the separate neighbouring and uncontaminated building on Wakefield Garden, containing a hairdresser, takeaway and Pulp Kitchen restaurant. The neighbouring building on the other side, Edgar Street, is owned by the Xyrakis family.

Mr Xyrakis said both buildings had double-brick walls with a cavity between, so he didn't anticipate any impact on his family's building from any decision to clean or demolish part of the contaminated building.

In October, then chief minister Katy Gallagher said the government would ensure the Ainslie shops and childcare building were cleaned.

"I've asked the taskforce once all of this settles down they bring in the owner of the Ainslie shops and talk about what the plan is there, because we can't allow that to continue," she said then.

A spokeswoman for the taskforce said on Tuesday commercial buildings were not part of the buyback and responsibility was with the owner. Work Safety commissioner Mark McCabe said the government was yet to make a decision on commercial premises.

"The building is safe in its current state as long as it stays in that state, it will need to be monitored," he said. "But the longer term solution to the building has not been identified at this stage, nor whether the ACT government has a role to play in that longer term solution ... I think they are all questions that the government will come to as to whether it needs to be involved or not."

Mr Darwin insists the three-bedroom flat was rented throughout the 1990s and beyond, until perhaps six or seven years ago when it had become an office, and should be treated like residential buildings.

He bought it in 1992, discovering the contamination when he tried to renovate, and had been trying since to have it cleaned under the government's remediation program, but had met ongoing refusals.