Asbestos ceiling in garage

[Fabuleuse]

We are interested in making an offer on a property where the Home Report has flagged up that the garage ceiling is lined with asbestos sheeting. Is this likely to be an expensive job to remove? I really wouldn't fancy having a go myself! It was originally a double garage, half integral to the house if you know what I mean - the integral part was then converted to a room and the part that sticks out from the house remains as a garage.

Also is this likely to be indicative of asbestos in other areas of the house? It was built in 1975. There is no artex anywhere and it has been well maintained, with modern decor.

Unfortunately we wouldn't really have time to mess around with surveys or anything as it seems that lots of people are chasing this property. It only went on the market last Friday and already they've set a closing date for this Friday.

Unless you are planning to do work on the garage it is fine unless disturbed.

If there is no survey, who would know the exact condition of the ceiling? It’s a specialist job to remove it and I would get a ball park figure from such a company. If you agree to buy it, why cannot you have a survey? Is it an auction? Most houses are sold subject to survey. No one has to buy without one!

I'm guessing you may be in Scotland from the mention of a closing date.

Bottom line surely has to be: if you can't get the survey done before the offer becomes legally binding, then don't buy the house. There will be others.

(Under the English system I wouldn't be too worried. You'd be able to offer, get a quote for the work, then withdraw if it was too expensive to fix. Though as others have said, it's not a problem if it's intact and you don't intend to disturb it.)

Yes, should maybe have clarified, we are in Scotland. All houses are sold with a Home Report, part of which is a basic survey paid for by the seller. You can of course get your own survey carried out, but it doesn't seem to be the norm now. For a popular property like this, I think that making an offer conditional on a survey would likely be bypassed in favour of another offer. To be honest I think we will probably be outbid as the Home Report valuation is a bit of a stretch for us and so we are only offering mid way between the offers over and home report prices. Worth a shot though.

I had heard you can leave it if undisturbed, but I think I would worry too much. Also it didn't look quite perfect and untouched - there was a pipe or something passing through it, which had had a section slightly roughly cut out to accommodate it.

It’s fine, asbestos in the garage ceiling is neither unusual nor anything to worry about.

we have asbestos in our garage ceiling it is fine unless friable ( by this I mean breaking down not that it historically had a hole cut in it)
obviously if you want to remove it, it will cost and has to be done properly
I would just leave well alone

Scotland here too, and nearly bought a house with an asbestos-roofed garage (that wasn't what put us off in the end!)
Spoke to a pal who knows about these things through his work who told us it would be fine if we left it alone, and if we wanted it removed in the future it would be a case of keeping it damp, it being put in hessian sacks, etc. rather than the E.T.-style exclusion zone I was imagining!

Thanks for the reassuring replies!

We had an asbestos garage roof replaced for 5k, but it was done as part of a conversion to living space so we had insulation, heavier beams, more wood, really nice slate tiles etc. If we didn't have to remove and replace the rotten wood frame and had just replaced the asbestos with a cheaper roofing material then it would have been under 2k. From start to finish it took 8 days.

Ours was falling apart though and was a health hazard, so the removers did the whole CSI white suits and face masks (and wrapping it all in plastic) thing. They only had an asbestos removal and handling license so they had to take it to an approved disposer and the council checked that it had. We didn't use a big company, we went with a recommended roofer and then checked they had the right license.