Asbestos Garage - Buyers chasing me for removal costs

batemanuk

I’ve just bought a house and the survey picked up that the garage had an asbestos roof. Your buyers should have paid for a better survey and negotiated the price at that point. I can’t see how it is your problem anymore.

headcoat

Just ignore them, otherwise they will want you to re-wire the house because the wiring is not up to current regulations. It was up to their surveyor to identify anything like this.

not_loaded

Years ago we had an old lawyer friend of the family who dealt with all the basics, family matters and conveyancing. He put it very well and concisely:

All the good things about your property and all the bad things about your property are conveyed at completion.

They are clearly trying it on, just like the other recent thread where a new boiler (cost precisely £1000) was required, so please send the money… :rotfl:

Goldenyears

It's not just garages. Houses built up to the early 1980s are fairly sure to contain asbestos cement somewhere. After 2000 they are fairly sure to be asbestos free.

If this garage claim were to succeed then buyers could also claim the cost of replacing the sofits from vendors !

JonnyBravo

I agree with the others. Ignore them. How is it your fault they didn't spot it/get a survey which spotted it?


As an aside, I too bought a house with a similar garage. It was obvious what it was. Asbestos concrete sheets are fairly safe and generally contain <10% asbestos.
I carefully dismantled the garage being careful not to break the sheets where possible and whilst wearing a face mask. Our council (as do many others) takes asbestos in concrete sheet form from private dwellings.

lincroft1710

How stupid are your purchasers? Was the garage camouflaged so that they couldn't see it was asbestos? Dossers!! (or similar word)

sunshinetours

Funniest thing I've seen for ages! Some people really do live in a bubble don't they.

Obviously assuming you haven't told your previous buyers that there wan't any asbestos in the garage then I would be considering advising those buyers as to why their solicitors are taking there money acting for them when any decent solicitor should be advising them not to bother and they would be wasting their time (he may of course have done this and been ignored I guess in fairness)

Unless you personally get a formal letter at your home address i wouldn;t even bother worrying about it!

Richard_Webster

My view would be that it was up to the buyer to find it, not for the seller to reveal it and therefore there is no liability.

OP should certainly be asking his solicitors why the buyer's solicitors think there is some liability. If the buyer's solicitors are able to cite some regulation that fixes liability on the seller in this kind of case we will all have to think again. In the meantime the practical answer is for OP's solicitor to go back and tell them to take a jump and see whether they say they won't and if so, why?

The only thing I can think of is that there was some general question raised about asbestos and they are trying to pin OP to an answer given. Usually the answers would be vague and given to the extent of a seller's knowledge so the buyer would have to prove that OP knew that there was asbestos there. Does everyone know what asbestos looks like?

silvercar

Even if the seller knew there was asbestos, so what?

The seller isn't going to know that the buyer wants to remove the shed. Even if the seller knew the buyer wanted to remove the shed and it contained asbestos, it would be reasonable to assume that the buyer had costed for this in their plans.

Milliewilly

If the buyers asked if there was asbestos in the garage and the seller said no (even innocently) then its misrepresentation as you have to give a 'full and truthful answer' any partial answer or even wrong answer is regarded as a lie.

Proving it is another matter though.