Offer accepted, but just discovered garage en bloc has leaking asbestos roof. Advice please.

[LucasTheSpider]

Had an offer accepted last week on a house with garage en bloc.

However, at time of viewing, we didn't get the opportunity to view the garage because the next viewer arrived. To avoid an awkward situation and the estate agent trying to be in two places at once, we decided to leave her to it. We took a walk around to where the garages were and had a look. From what we could see, they all looked OK and there was no information from the estate agent to say otherwise.

Fast forward to this week. We've arranged to go and view again so we can get a proper look at the garage and also gives us an opportunity to look around the house again, measure up for fixtures/fittings to give us a head start.

Whilst arranging this appt, the estate agent tells us that in the email they'd just received from the vendor confirming they are happy for us to go take a look, they have mentiomed that the garage roof is leaking and has done so for as long as they've owned the house. The estate agent then said that it looks like an asbestos roof.

A leaking asbestos garage roof would render the garage unsafe and therefore completely unusable until the roof was removed and replaced.
Been looking into quotes for this.. estimating around £3,500.

We're FTB... so not experienced with this sort of thing. Where do we stand now? What do we do?

Walk away as quickly as you can to be quite honest.

Meh, that wouldn't bother me too much, if the rest of the house is good. My main concern would be if you are constrained in the replacement of the roof by the neighbouring garages.

Asbestos garage roofs are ten a penny. Yes, the leak is not cool but you regotiate the purchase price and organise to get it sorted as soon as you’re in.

If you really want the house.

You can offer for the price of a new roof to be taken off the asking price. Not unreasonable if you have only just been informed of this.

Why?

You can remove an asbestos cement roof yourself and dispose of it at the top wrapped up. Totally legal, check your councils website. If you don’t want to, then get a Cat B licensed contractor to do it, not a fully licensed one. They are the ones who will charge you stupid money when you don’t have to.

My partner just spoke to a roofing company about this and they explained that it would be a case of cutting through the roof where it joins the neighbouring garage and then sealing up the neighbouring side (it's an end garage, so only one other garage to consider). However, this is based on it being a corrugated concrete roof. If my memory serves me well.. I don't think the roof is corrugated. I think it is flat, solid concrete, in which case, I imagine it will be even more expensive.

We haven't had a survey done yet, but now wondering if we approach the estate now, and ask about renegotiating on asking price or wait until survey is done?

I would say the owners replace the garage roof before your buy the house.

It wouldn’t bother me. You could negotiate reducing the price if you plan to replace it.

Whatever you do don't cut an asbestos roof!!

Assuming it's concrete asbestos panels, as pp said, just have your garage empty, take the roof sheets off, wrap them as per instructions on local tip that accepts them (only small ones don't). Replace with new sheets.

A reasonable general builder could do the job unless it has some particular complexities. DIY would even be an option if you have some practical skills

Just negotiate on price for the cost. Though if it's a seller's market they might not do that.

Depending on the extent of the leak, you could put a bucket under it and ignore it for a while. 😉

I wouldn't back out completely based on this. We bought a house with a garage where the roof was of corrugated asbestos cement sheets, and leaked. It didn't make the garage unsafe - the asbestos fibres were still bonded into the cement and weren't flying about for people to breathe in - it just meant the garage wasn't any good for storing things that needed to be kept dry.

I'd be even less worried about any safety issues in your case, as the garage is in a block away from the house. Just stay away from it until the roof is replaced if you're concerned!

When we got round to replacing the roof the cost for an approved contractor to remove the sheets was not astronomical - maybe £500-£600 or so (this was a couple of years back). The whole job of replacing the roof wasn't much more than maybe £1000-£1200.

The biggest complication you'll have is as others have pointed out - cutting the sheets is generally to be avoided, but the sheets won't stop neatly at the edge of your garage. The ideal solution would be for all the owners of the garages to agree to replace the roof on the whole block, but this is probably unrealistic if there are more than a couple of owners involved.

I'd get quotes from at least 2-3 suitable builders for a replacement roof, taking their advice on the best way to tie into neighbouring garages, and use them to negotiate (or even buy without any reduction if the cost is trivial and there are other potential buyers interested).

Has the leak caused any further damage?

We brought a house with asbestos. We have the owner a quote for removal and new roof and they agreed to pay half towards it.

Just ask for the money off. You're really early stages of buying, don't stress. Good luck op!

I'd pull out.

Bizarre that anyone would pull out over a garage roof issue that can be fixed. They're not living in the garage, it's not even attached to the house!

You could ask them to fix it or negotiate a reduction but it wouldn't be a make or brake issue for me, especially if you like the house and it's a good deal otherwise.

If the garages are en bloc they would probably all need replacing. Is there a management company or freeholder who collects maintenance charges for such works. Have they got them already scheduled? Doing them together would be cheaper than a random internet quote.

We're not sure as we didn't get to see inside the garage when we viewed. Hoping to be able to establish this on Thursday when we view again. However, the vendor said in his email to the estate agent that it's "full of crap" ..so who knows how much we'll be able to see on the day.

Request that you are allowed to take a sample to have it analysed. It might not be asbestos. If it is asbestos, you could request vendor to remove it or negotiate a price reduction that covers the removal/basic replacement.

Yeah exactly this , I did the same knocked down an old asbestos garage myself and took it to the tip 👍

We put in an offer for our house then discovered asbestos in the cupboard under the stairs. It cost £4k to remove 20 years ago! We just took it off the original offer price. Seller was annoyed but not much they could do as once it was discovered, all buyers would need to deal with it.

I'd get quotes from asbestos removal specialists and then lower your offer by that amount.

Take a torch and have a good look. Take pictures. If you buy it, make sure the garage is emptied, either by withholding money and/or in the contract.
Getting the roof fixed may be as easy as just replacing one sheet. It wouldn’t put me off as long as the house is what you want.

Hi, did you go through with the purchase? I am in a similar situation. Garage en bloc is terraced and has leaking asbestos roof. Nothing wrong with the property but the garage seems very problematic. Also, did you manage to get liability and risk insurance for he garage?