Will I never sell this house now I’ve found this out?

[Housesall]

I bought a house in 2022 and decided to sell this year. The agent came round today to do photos and in doing so, commented that the roof had asbestos throughout. He used to work in asbestos and said it looked like it would need to be replaced in around 3 years but it was typical of this sort of gone and nearly all homes from this time period will have it. However I have been googling tonight and it seems most people either won’t buy it at all or will want a price reduction for replacing the roof. Posting here for traffic really as I’m totally alone and I’m already having to move due to some awful circumstances. Thanks.

After you have seen a lot of it you can be pretty sure, its texture, the way the fibres are visible in tiny clumps on cut edges, the pattern on the back of some sheets, and of course trade names often embossed or on labels on the reverse.

Agree with this.

My sisters MIL is selling her house and despite it not actually being officially listed until the next day she got an offer from someone it turned out was a "developer" going in with an offer of £800k on a £1mil house in a very desirable area. Made it clear it was a once only offer in cash so take it or leave it. My sister is like me, quite forthright (!) and said to tell him to fuck off. So she said thanks but no thanks. He came back with another £25k (so not a one off then?!) and a bit of SM stalking turned up that he is a friend of the EA, who was putting pressure on her to sell as her house would be "difficult to shift". She binned him off, her new EA did an open day and she got asking from a lovely family who genuinely loved the house. They are also cash buyers so hopefully should be all done relatively quickly. She was recently widowed and I think the bastards were trying to bamboozle her thinking she would just sell up as fast as possible.

If an EA told me the sun was in the sky, I would look up to check.

I'm surprised at everyone commenting on your choice of survey. When we bought our house (8yrs ago?) we went with a level 2 survey and the surveyor still left advice on suspected asbestos. We then arranged a specialist, who confirmed there wasn't any. Agree with everyone who is saying to get a second / third EA opinion and don't mention what the first one said! See if they raise it themselves.

Please tell me that you didn't tell this estate agent your awful circumstances. Estate agents should never be told anything about your reasons for selling.

Find two more estate agents and say nothing!!

intrigued as to how he can tell it is an asbestos roof just by looking up at it yet your mid range survey missed this. I don't know anything about asebetos roofs but it seems strange that he can just glance up from street level and confirm this. Maybe get someone else to take a look

https://www.checkatrade.com/blog/cost-guides/asbestos-removal-cost/

WTF? Absolutely dont touch it yourself and you can't take asbestos to the tip either. Massively illegal. What dangerous and stupid "advice". Why do people post on threads like this when they don't know what they're talking about?
https://www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos/faq.htm

To be honest it would put me off. I have an old asbestos tank in my house, I’ll get it removed eventually, but as it’s in the loft and I don’t go up there it’s not a priority. It did put me off at first, I think if you’re prepared to drop the price to reflect it someone will buy.

You absolutely can take certain types of asbestos to some tips.

Just as an example
https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/waste-and-recycling/household-waste/asbestos-and-hazardous-waste#paragraph-9522

Have you actually read the report? did they look in loft?
Find it shocking that even a “mid range” did not look in the loft space for obvious leaks or …. The asbestos sheets you say is obvious.

When selling the house - recommend same inspector and give them your 2022 report, maybe they won’t bother paying up for an additional report.

I’m totally alone and I’m already having to move due to some awful circumstances
Am so sorry you are selling in these circumstances. I echo the person upthread who said I hope you didn't tell the estate agent this. Years ago, my DM had a valuation from an EA, and he totally took advantage of her awful situation. With hindsight, he was hoping to pass it on to a friendly builder. Luckily, I intervened, and rescued the situation for her. There's some good advice above, including getting other EAs in.

I would get another estate agent to look. Loads of period houses have asbestos, it's not the end of the world. I'd just get another opinion.

Finally someone on this thread who knows what they are talking about!!

OP - ignore the idiots telling you that you might need to drop the price; many, many houses have some asbestos in them and it's fine so long as you don't disturb it by , for example, drilling into it.

My last house - late 1960s - had asbestos soffits (very common, especially in houses of this age). Not a big issue for me or my buyers when I came to sell it - it just isn't unusual or a massive problem.

Please don't do it yourself! It's incredibly dangerous. It's not enough to just wear a mask!

He’s not a professional surveyor, he’s an estate agent
He sounds like he may have a mate he’ll pass a deal onto.
I know I’m cynical but you’d be amazed how much scamming goes on.

Get another estate agent. If it’s deemed an issue a buyers surveyor will pick it up. Yours didn’t only a few years ago so I wouldn’t worry about it.

Asbestos isn’t an issue as long as it’s not disturbed

With experience it’s easy to spot.
Im an architect and I can tell straight away

Yes and no.. when the roof was put up would be more of an indicator because asbestos was banned (i don't know the year) at a certain point the only real way to know is with testing. But I'm sure someone in the industry can make an educated guess, I'm sure that's the case as often it's someone's guess something is made of asbestos which is what triggers testing. When I worked in local authority plumbers often had a good eye for this too but again the year something was put in is also important.

"Please tell me that you didn't tell this estate agent your awful circumstances. Estate agents should never be told anything about your reasons for selling.
Find two more estate agents and say nothing!!"

This is good advice. We were shown around a house recently by a silly EA who said the couple were divorcing, the wife was very sad and the EA thought it was "quite sweet." I found this inappropriate (btw, didn't want the house).

@JoyousEagle you cannot just drop off asbestos at your nearest tip like the post I was answering said. Read your own link. We've had this exact thread several times before and there's always some fool who pops up claiming asbestos removal is no big deal. It's known to be highly dangerous.

Oh FFS. Yes you can! Please get your facts straight.

You can take SHEET asbestos. It can be taken down safely using correct PPE, wrapped as per the council guidelines (damped down and 1000 gauge polythene), then contact council tip to let them know 24 hours in advance to make sure they have space.

I did this last month with a garage roof.

Other asbestos as I mentioned earlier needs to be removed by professionals. Council tips only take the sheets.

@johnd2 thanks, to me it looks like a piece of dark grey slate slotted under the roof tiles. Is that under cloak?

Yeah that's a pretty good description of it.

Just a point about surveys- we had the most expensive one done and it said some things that weren’t true and left out important stuff. Foil purchased a house a few months later. Paid for an expensive survey. It was like a cut and paste job of ours.

Where are you? Having asbestos in your roof (if you are not living in a municipal building) is very rare. I've lived in 27 homes in my life, not one of them has had asbestos. It sounds as if your estate agent knew, in the UK if they sold it to you knowing that they had to disclose it, if they didn't you can sue them, also it should have come up when you had your survey done in 2022 before buying the property.

Our full structural survey did not advise on asbestos. We had to have a separate asbestos survey in addition to the full structural (we only did this because our loft had vermiculite insulation - it tested negative). Sack off the agent and find one you like better. Don't worry about the possible asbestos thing unless a buyer brings it up, its on them if they want to do asbestos testing. Soooooo many houses have it; I've got it under my downstairs loo.