There's asbestos and electrical problems - what do we do now?

[ohN0Whatnext]

We've just had the survey of the house we are buying and as above. We obviously don't know how bad it is yet but the surveyor said the electrics hadn't been looked at for many many years.

We've organised separate surveys but have no idea what we do next. People (friends) are mentioning that we should re-negotiate because of these issues but what is the correct protocol?

[oscarwilde]

Some friends had this. They told the owners that regardless of the current safety standard of the asbestos (which for them was not dangerous unless you start hammering nails into it apparently), they were not prepared to move in with young children unless it was removed. They got a firm in to fix prive quote for it's removal, and the amount was taken off the price of the house. The ceilings were removed and new ones installed and plastered before they moved in. Took about two weeks. They had the walls done too and the whole place painted. Looked like a showhome

Electrics - you can either assume a full rewire is required (prob a good opportunity if other major works are happening) and open a conversation about it. They are likely to insist on an actual electrician's opinion which will cost you. You need to decide whether or not you can afford a full rewire and how badly you want the house if they don't agree to any deduction [or have other richer buyers lined up].

[Utterlyastoundedmum]

To my mind what you do next depends on what basis you made your initial offer. For example, when DP and I bought our current house it had been lived in by an elderly lady for over fifty years, and obviously needed completely renovating. Our offer reflected this and was accepted on that bais.

Obviously there are many shades of grey, but only you can say what you might have realistically guessed needed doing, if it's done up to the mines all new throughout then I think you could reasonably expect that electric etc would be newish, same for asbestos issues, many many houses have Asbestos ( usually only a big problem if disturbed but I agree this is one thing it's good to get an extra survey on) for example if you see rated ceilings then most likely that's got asbestos in it.

Whether you want to try to renegotiate price might depend on the above and also you desire to get this particular house, can you risk them putting it bak n market, can you afford to do the work.

Once you have a rough idea of cost of doing the work then maybe talks again to the vendors EA to get a sense of whether they might be open to renegotiate!

[LIZS]

Depends really . Dormant asbestos isn't really an issue and very common in 60s and early 70s builds. It is only if you want to do work or is damaged that it is of concern. Presumably the electrics are associated with the date of the house so may need an update if 20+ years old - but that is usually taken into account on your offer anyway as visible.