council home

[vanessacm94]

Hi i was looking for some advice if anyone can help i moved into my council flat in 2013 so been here nearly 9 years in my contract it never said that there maybe asbestos and we couldn't drill in walls and hang pictures. a few years a go the council fitted new doors and windows and when doing so took big chunks of wall out cracked windows seels ect they have also drilled into my walls for general plug socket repairs and other things. A big piece of my artex was cracked and some fell off also my kitchen ceiling has been doing the same. So i started to remove the cracked artex wall and asked a friend if they could re plaster he then made me aware that it could be asbestos. so i stopped and phoned the council they confirmed that a survey has never been done on my home but lots of other flats in the area had surveys and there was all cover in artex asbestos. so after 5 days waiting for asbestos people to come and check and survey my flat . its now confirmed over 70% of my artex walls and ceilings contain asbestos and quite alot of it has to be removed as its exposed or is high risk of being exposed. i am so cross that us the council and other workers have been exposing me and my family for 9 years becuse the council never surveyed my home. if i am right is this breach of tenancy on there behalf. Just not sure where i stand and all this could have been avoided if my home was surveyed. thanks

Most houses of a certain age have asbestos and it is standard advice not to drill into artex ceilings as they often contain asbestos.

I assume the LA/HA are paying for the work to be done so what are you hoping to get from them?

i did not drill into the ceilings. its on my walls they have artex on them.... and its the council that have caused most of the asbestos exposure. like i stated they have disturbed the asbestos when doing work to the property. I am not saying i am expecting anything but if things where done like a survey then maybe me and my family or other people like their own workers would not have been exposed. also most house that have asbestos has surveys and is removed if easily disturbed or has been. or the tenants are told.

It makes sense you should have been told as not everybody would be aware but I'm not sure what you could do about it. The workers almost certainly would have been aware. If it puts your mind at rest a little, the type of asbestos that was used in artex is nowhere near as hazardous as the blue/brown (?) asbestos that was used back in the day.

cellophaneflower thanks for your reply yes i think its the white asbestos. i just dont know what happens next as the report says it has to be removed and googling this i read that we have to temporarily move out and all our belongings i dont know if thats true as i have never been in this situation before and the thought of emptying our home with 5 of us including a newborn seems so stressful but if it has to be done to be safe than thats fine but the council haven't said that yet so just waiting to hear from them.

Did the council order the survey? I assume that if they did and follow the guidelines then they'd obviously cover all expenses. Totally not ideal though and I can't imagine the stress of that upheaval.

Safety wise, skimming the artex should be sufficient and actually better as particles are not being released like they would be if it's removed. However I've no idea of the council's stance on this. A massive amount of their housing stock must contain asbestos and it would cost them a fortune to temporarily rehouse people to remove it all... but would they be allowed to go against the report? If the people conducting the survey, however, are also involved with removal I guess it's in their interests to say it must be removed. I guess it boils down to whether it's a legal requirement for councils to remove all asbestos... which I doubt it is.