Selling house - asbestos in en bloc garage

timmy500

Hi

We're in the middle of the lovely task of selling up and buying a new property. The survey on our house has picked up the presence of asbestos in our en bloc garage which I would guess is in the corrugated roof. Our buyers have asked for this to be checked and removed. My understanding is that as long as it is left alone, it should be ok, and I would imagine that it would be very costly to have this removed and replaced and so would prefer to leave it be, especially as it is linked to the other garages.

Does anyone know if it should be ok to leave and then to advise our buyer that the work involved out weighs the risks.

Thanks

SG27

The house I bought has a freehold garage in a block also with an asbestos roof. The surveyor pointed it out in his report but there was no mention of any problem. Probably because there isn't one. Id just say remove it yourself if your not happy as it's not causing a problem.

dimbo61

The only way to be sure of Asbestos is by taking samples of the roof material and sending off to a Lab!
Now the RICS surveyor did not do that ? Did he ?
If the roof is in good condition and not flaking or breaking up then best to leave alone.
I removed an old garage roof which may or may not of had asbestos it the material in it.
Got a face mask, goggles,paper suit and plastic wapping to wrap up the sheets when I removed them from the roof.
Spoke to the council to find which tip allowed me to dispose of.
Hired a van ( must be carried in a sealed van) and used an angle grinder to cut metal bolts.
Took a couple of hours to remove old roof, wrap in plastic sheeting and tape, ( one sheet at a time due to weight)
Load into van and take to the tip. Staff at Tip are not allowed to help moving waste and have special enclosed skip to store waste!!!
Cost me about £150 for van, sheeting/tape, safety kit
Will cost you more to put a new roof on!
Special firms will do this and charge you £500/600 for a single garage roof

timmy500

Thanks for the replies. Think I will speak with our solicitors as we really don't want to be spending hundreds of pounds sorting a garage we are then leaving behind. The roof looks solid anyway so probably best to leave it.

Think our buyers have got scared seeing the word Asbestos on the report, when in reality it's not really a problem.

G_M

Tell you solicitor to write to the buyer's solicitor saying:

1) unless the survey says there is definitely asbestos then it is up to the buyers to investigate further if they wish to

2) if there is asbestos there (which you have never known about), then provided it is not disturbed, it is safe. If the buyers wish to redecorate the garage, thus disturbing the asbestos, that is their choice. If they leave it alone, there is no issue.

Building_Surveyor

If your thinking of doing a DIY job to remove it yourself, DON'T. Removing asbestos is a licensed industry. If you don't have a license to remove/test it then my advice would be not worth messing with it. Asbestos is only dangerous if the fibres are disturbed.

If your garage has it then you may find that all of them have it. In fact youd be surprised at how many homes have it in- in places you would never imagine.

It would only be an issue if any refurb or demolition works were being done to the garage or whether it was damaged. If its neither of the above its fine, but feel free to get a specialist survey done (which are relatively cheap) if you/the buyer need reassurance.

Dan-Dan

timmy500 wrote: »

Our buyers have asked for this to be checked and removed.

Sorry ,but your buyers are idiots , tell them to take a hike

timmy500

Thanks again for the replies guys. Will be chatting to our solicitors tomorrow, as there is no way we are prepared to pay out for this job. We may well stretch to getting a survey on the garage to prove that it is ok, but beyond that we will be telling our buyers to sort it themselves.

System

Building_Surveyor wrote: »

If your thinking of doing a DIY job to remove it yourself, DON'T. Removing asbestos is a licensed industry.

Please don't pedal this fallacy. A licence is NOT needed to remove all types of asbestos products.

For example asbestos cement which the tiles are probably made of can be removed without a licence and disposed of through your local council's asbestos disposal route.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos/essentials/

The problem that the OP will have is that the complete block will be asbestos tiles and will probably have to be done as a whole. Something tha no single garage owner will be able to do.

G_M

timmy500 wrote: »

Thanks again for the replies guys. Will be chatting to our solicitors tomorrow, as there is no way we are prepared to pay out for this job. We may well stretch to getting a survey on the garage to prove that it is ok, but beyond that we will be telling our buyers to sort it themselves.

Do not do this. Thin end of the wedge.

What if your survey does find asbestos? By agreeing to pay for the survey you are implicitly acknowledging some responsibility. Thus is YOUR survey finds asbestos, buyer will then expect YOU to remove it.

Transfer ALL responsibility on to buyer.

Caveat emptor - buyer beware.

ognum

I have a house with a block garage that has an asbestos roof, these houses change hands all the time none of the roofs have been changed!

In fact one person just sold their garage off for £20k with the same roof with no problem.

Tell them you feel it's of no concern.