Asbestos

ronan.h

We've gone bid accepted on a house at the moment and when there the other night we noticed the roof on the out houses have an asbestos roofing.

Not sure of the risks or otherwise of this or if it even a big deal, so should we:
1) ask seller to replace this roof prior to agreement of price?
2) leave as is - if it's not disturbed all is OK?
3) Go along with bidding and replace roof ourselves in a few years (any risks)

At a guess the floor space of the outhouses combined would be 12mX4m - is this a cost we could expect the seller to incur or reduce bid by?

Have engineer out next week - but would like to know what to expect prior to him arriving...

Cheers in advance

D3PO

whatever you do dont go with option 2 !!

either ask the seller to do this in advance of the sale or negotiate the price down to allow you do this. Either way make sure you replace it.

Ste.phen

Have you had a survey done already? (and if no, would it not have been prudent to do that before making a bid, as the bid amount may be affected by the survey?)
If you have, whoever did the survey might have an idea of how much it would cost to safely replace it, and you could adjust your bid by that much

ronan.h

Ste.phen wrote: »

Have you had a survey done already? (and if no, would it not have been prudent to do that before making a bid, as the bid amount may be affected by the survey?)
If you have, whoever did the survey might have an idea of how much it would cost to safely replace it, and you could adjust your bid by that much

Thanks for the replies - Bid agreed subject to Engineer's survey so hopefully he'll be willing to negotiate a rate following the survey??

old hippy

D3PO wrote: »

whatever you do dont go with option 2 !!

either ask the seller to do this in advance of the sale or negotiate the price down to allow you do this. Either way make sure you replace it.

^ this

beeno67

Ste.phen wrote: »

Have you had a survey done already? (and if no, would it not have been prudent to do that before making a bid, as the bid amount may be affected by the survey?)

No. It is standard to have an accepted bid first before you spend money on a report. The bid can always be changed or withdrawn subject to the survey.

Ste.phen

beeno67 wrote: »

No. It is standard to have an accepted bid first before you spend money on a report. The bid can always be changed or withdrawn subject to the survey.

I guess that makes sense, for some reason i thought it'd be the other way around (find house, get it checked out, make bid)

martyc5674

If the asbestos really irks you yeah try and have it sorted before you move in.(negotiations etc)

However if the house is really what you want and the vendor wont shift it I wouldnt let it ruin the sale of this house.(you might still be able to get them to drop price)

Your asbestos sheets contains about 2% - 5% asbestos...the rest is concrete, it will not harm you if left alone.
However these roofs can and usually are as leaky as hell so that maybe a problem in itself!!

At the moment it is very expensive to have asbestos roofing sheets disposed of in Ireland.
However a lot of this is the whole asbestos fear thing that is making a mint for some people.

In the UK you can now bring asbestos roof sheets to your local council/landfill for free as they have realised this particular source of asbestos is relatively harmeless being encased in concrete.

If you were to pay a contractor a fortune to remove it all they do is parcel it up nicely in plastic dig a hole and bury it...id be inclined to do the same!!



If you go down the route of doing it yourself(AND I DONT ADVOCATE THIS)...hose it down with water before removal...wear dustmasks and tyvek suits, and dispose of them also.

Also it is illegal to transport asbestos without a permit in Ireland(you can get a permit from your local council if you want to bring it to the disposal contractors yourself; OYNX i think are one.)

Your permit will specify how to wrap and tape the sheeting,specifying guage of plastic to be used etc.

Marty.

astrofool

Ste.phen wrote: »

Have you had a survey done already? (and if no, would it not have been prudent to do that before making a bid, as the bid amount may be affected by the survey?)
If you have, whoever did the survey might have an idea of how much it would cost to safely replace it, and you could adjust your bid by that much

It costs nothing to bid on a house, a good survey can cost €500 or more. It's cheaper to bid and then negotiate if issues are found, rather than doing a survey on every house you might bid on.

Victor

Lots of people panic unnecessarily at the word asbestos. The important thing is not to disturb broken asbestos and have it dealt with professionally.

There are different types of asbestos, some more dangerous than others, so have your engineer check it out and get a quote for removal if necessary. Deduct that amount from your bid.