Asbestos lined chimney

girlie1412

Our solicitor provided documentation for the house we are hoping to purchase and advised that chimney is asbestos lined the work was completed in 1972. 

Would you still go ahead with the purchase or try and drive the price down a bit. As far as we can see the fire is now closed however if and when we try to reopen the fire it could pose us with issues. I have advised our survey of this issue and ask him to confirm in his report if this is still an issue or was it removed at some stage which is highly unlikely. 

AdrianC

As a rough rule of thumb, expect any pre-90s house to contain asbestos.

Yes, of course you can ask to renegotiate or get the work done pre-purchase... but they don't have to agree, and can simply walk away.

Davesnave

It will be your choice if you decide to have an open fireplace, so logically it's your cost to bear if you decide to do it. The house is not being offered with that feature.

purplebutterfly

If it helps, our 1920's property "probably" has asbestos somewhere in the ceiling and walls and the survey warns against removing large sections of plaster without having it assessed by specialists.  
It hasn't made a difference to us - we're just not planning to drill into the ceiling.    We haven't even considered renegotiating.

FreeBear

girlie1412 said: As far as we can see the fire is now closed however if and when we try to reopen the fire it could pose us with issues.

If you open up the fireplace, you would be installing a multifuel or wood stove ?

They are much more efficient than an open fire as well as being safer (no hot embers spitting out for one). Often, one would insert an appropriate sized stainless steel liner down the flue - This would provide a barrier between any possible asbestos. The alternative is to have the asbestos professionally removed, but this could get extremely expensive very quickly if the whole flue is lined with the stuff.