Hello, my partner and I are in the middle of purchasing a new house. The survey mentioned the third bedroom has a swirly artex finish and recommended testing for asbestos. The other ceilings have a smooth finish but the surveyor said that these may have been skimmed over.
Other things need doing to the house such as rendering, new kitchen and bathroom, new floors and we want to add an en-suite as the bathroom is downstairs. We can just about stretch do this but hadn’t thought about the possibility of asbestos being present before the survey.
A couple of questions... Do you think it will be suffice to just get the bedroom with the artex ceiling checked and go by this result regarding the likelihood of asbestos in the other ceilings? The vendors have agreed to an asbestos test but may not to a fully intrusive one. Also, it will cost us a lot for the survey.
Secondly, if it’s positive for asbestos, what would you do? We want to do works so I’m guessing there’s a possibility of releasing dangerous fibres. Would it be fair to ask vendors to contribute towards removal or think about walking away? We’re quite far along and wouldn’t want to do that to the vendors.
Thank you, hope this makes sense.