Home buyers report Asbestos

illbeurhuckleberry

Home buyers report mentions asbestos guttering on garage which is in a block. Suggested it needs to be removed but as it’s a garage in a block of garages I would need to liaise with my solicitor re cost/ shared cost.
Likely asbestos on garage roof note leaking in garage roof. 

Electrics need checking and fuse box needs replacing as near end of line. Several plugs not safe to use.

New guttering on side of house. Attic felt ripped checked the wood for depends and it read low.

Outside water pipe needs to be insulated. 

Some work to be done but concerned re: fuse box potential receiving and asbestos.
Is this bad? would you seek re negotiation over house ?

emjay2kay

Asbestos is not really a problem as long as it's intact and you leave it alone. However, if there's a hole in the garage roof and it's going to need replacing / repairing, then the fact it contains asbestos (assuming it is actually asbestos) will probably make repairs more complicated and expensive.

Davesnave

These are surveyor covering his rear end statements regarding the asbestos. Felt deteriorating in the attic is normal and it sounds like there is no wetness or decay  (depends?) up there, so no problem.

The surveyor isn't qualified to judge the electrics, but may routinely warn about older installations. An electrical safety check by a qualified electrician might be a good and relatively inexpensive investment before attempting to re-negotiate re the state of the electrics. Rewiring is likely to messy and will spoil decoration, but usually comes in under £5k.

It's a fairly normal sort of report for a house older than 30 years.

illbeurhuckleberry

Thanks both. I’m going to get an electrician to review and see what they come back with. 

The Asbestos that’s noted in the garage guttering is shared with other garages so not sure how this will be resolved but I’m sure my solicitor will look into this.
i really hope if the house needs rewording it doesn’t come to 5 grand- I’ll be definitely going into re negotiation.

Davesnave

illbeurhuckleberry said:

Thanks both. I’m going to get an electrician to review and see what they come back with. 

The Asbestos that’s noted in the garage guttering is shared with other garages so not sure how this will be resolved but I’m sure my solicitor will look into this.
i really hope if the house needs rewording it doesn’t come to 5 grand- I’ll be definitely going into re negotiation.

The garage guttering is likely to be fine; after all the other garage owners are obviously OK with it. There are tens of thousands of garages with asbestos roofs and gutters.

As for electrics, unsafe is unacceptable, but it's unlikely to cost thousands to make the system safe. Whether there are enough points for you is a different matter, but if the current owner has lived with what exists, they're unlikely to think betterment should be part of the negotiations.

AdrianC

When you viewed, you could see the electrics were an older install, and that the garage roof and guttering were not in the first flush of youth, so you took that into account in your offer... Right?

That would be my response if you came back to me asking to renegotiate over such obvious things.

Insulating the outside water pipe is the work of five minutes to put some insulation foam over the exposed run - or simply turn it off inside and drain it down before any cold nights.

Mickey666

Yes, as mentioned above, surveyor covering all bases.  It’s not a brand new house so there are bound to be some minor ‘issues’,  but nothing that sounds serious to me.  A hole in the asbestos garage roof need not mean total replacement and can probably be easily repaired with a patch - it’s only a garage roof after all.

illbeurhuckleberry

Adrain C. No I made it clear that if the house required rewriting etc we would be back to negotiations.

AdrianC

AdrianC said:

When you viewed, you could see the electrics were an older install, and that the garage roof and guttering were not in the first flush of youth, so you took that into account in your offer... Right?

That would be my response if you came back to me asking to renegotiate over such obvious things.

illbeurhuckleberry said:

Adrain C. No I made it clear that if the house required rewriting etc we would be back to negotiations.

So you either didn't even have a passing look at the ageing CU, or you failed to take it into account in your offer?

Renegotiation is for things you find out that you couldn't be expected to have known at the time of the offer.

illbeurhuckleberry

Adrain C. I disagree but thanks for sharing your thoughts.

AdrianC

You can disagree with me all you wish, but the fact remains that the information was available to you at the time of the offer - and all it took was a quick glance.