Updating post from Reddit.
I rent a garage privately to store a car in. I think someone tried to kick in the outer wall to see what's inside and a piece came away. The letting agent sent a contractor out to quote, and I met them to grant access. The contractor said it was almost certainly asbestos, not to touch it, and they'd report it as such. Next day I got this message from ny letting agent. Just FYI, I pay £60pcm...
Absolute pisstakery. I would make a counter offer of 'how about you fix it and reimburse me 12 months rent?"
I'd get a quote, Asbestos removal probably more than £720
Definitely, also depends on the asbestos and how much, but I will tell you for free that I would be more worried about the legality of it if it's licensed material.
Is there asbestos in there? If there is and the containing materials are loose, it's the landlord's responsibility to have it removed under the Control of Asbestos Regulation Act 2012 by a qualified professional, and you are not meant to touch it.
Please fact check everything above before you do anything. I'm just some random guy off Reddit with a quick Google search.
Also it’s likely contaminated everything
Im absolutely loving this disclaimer. Spot on advice with both halves there
Have a poor person medal 🏅
DO NOT TOUCH LOOSE ASBESTOS.
The landlord needs to do this, or you report this. To the local council's environmental health department I suspect.
Hi
This is work that needs doing under control of asbestos act. I can help you get a quote for it, but I'm not in a position to pre pay them and recoup the money from rent (which I expect to cost far more than one month).
This work has to be done by a professional, as an attempt to DIY would be a health hazard to anyone at the location during or after the works.
Regards
I would reread the post. It’s a garage that costs £60 pm to rent. Removal is obviously going to cost more and the council definitely isn’t moving the OPs car into a travel lodge 🤣
Oh, right.
They could force the contract to end, but that's massively low priority for them.
In this case, inform landlord it's unusable, and say unless it's fixed in a month your reminding the contract, and find another garage
Yeh absolutely, they should just find somewhere else assuming the car is drivable.
Even if it's not. The risks here massively pest getting it towed somewhere.
Yeah, nagh.
They need to rip it all out at their cost and tou need to make them aware that they are now liable for any potential cancers that might come from this.
Is the house asbestos free?
I'd re read the post. It's a garage.
Sometimes the rented garage may be an extension (not physically just financially)of their own rented property. So valid question. It doesn't state that it is completely separated financial rental. Now, it could be an independent garage fully separated from their property... but IF it is part of their rental agreement... is the house safe?
Edit, grammar and all that jazz.
This would be a commercial tenancy no doubt. Very different rules than to residential. I would imagine you are required to have insurance and fix pretty much everything. Was certainly the case when I rented a garage from the council.
Typically its only the corrugated roof on concrete section garages that contains asbestos and its not very frayable. However its not your problem its his.
If it's kicked in it will fray. No two ways about it, that needs replacement.
Without a doubt, but its not like AIB.
It's a danger to life that you can legally force someone else to fix as an urgent matter, obviously you escalate this.
The sealer to pre-treat the asbestos before touching it will cost more than that!
Firstly, you can't tell by looking at it whether it contains asbestos. I've tested three garage roofs now, all from the 70's and only one contained asbestos, but they all looked the same.
But none of this is your problem - just tell the agency no, you're not prepared to deal with it and leave it at that.
If you're worried, for your own peace of mind you could order a test kit yourself to see if it does contain asbestos.
For the hassle I would ask them to terminate the lease voluntarily and move the car elsewhere. Guarantee if they have to spend £1000’s on asbestos removal they’ll be putting the rent up.
For £60 a month the landlord ain’t doing shit. If it was a house you might stand a chance. Best to get them to terminate any contract you have with them and move on.
£60 would probably cover the asbestos test and thats it.
It will be cheaper for the landlord to just give you the garage than fix it if he charges £60pcm.
It would be several hundred pounds just to get an asbestos removal company out at the minute, they are very busy ATM.
You are right that it is hectic at the moment, both on the removal and analytical side. Something about a plan for public and education buildings free of asbestos by around either 2030 or 2035 which is crazy to me.
yeah one month rent. for that price id just buy a decent face mask and let him deal with it
this is a google AI response
"Asbestos removal costs in the UK typically range from £950 to £3,750, with prices per square meter around £150 to £250 for removal and £8 to £33 for encapsulation, but can vary significantly based on factors like job size, complexity, and asbestos type"
the point is with it being that dangerous - do you want to risk your health/disposal costs for 1 months rent ?
If you can get an asbestos specialist for less than one month's rent, go for it. My guess is you won't be able to though.
You don't really want to be handling that yourself.
The comments are all over the place, as they are dealing with different situations.
The HSE has alot of guidance on handling asbestos cement, what is non licensable and notifiable, etc
https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/guidance/a14.pdf
https://www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos/licensing/non-licensed-work.htm
From what i remember, you can dispose of it yourself, following the precautions, and requirements and discussing with your local tip.
Should have added for context that I'm absolutely not doing anything to it. I've already said "nope, sorry, I was told it was asbestos, so I'm not in a position to deal with it". Will probably seek out an alternative garage as on a rolling 1 month contract now, but from what I've been told as long as I'm not disturbing it in any way it's not particularly dangerous. Normally I'm in and out of there in a few minutes. Photo of the damage for reference:
it's already been disturbed, thats the point.
Broken asbestos needs to be removed by a licensed professional. It's criminal for anyone else to do it. Also just for your info I've just had two quotes in to remove an asbestos ceiling from my garage and they are both around £7.5k
That's far too expensive just for removal... where do you live jesus, and how big is the garage ? Like a double ?
Double garage, 45m2 of AIB with an asbestos coated door to also be removed. Requires the full tent and negative pressure system and about 4 days to complete. £7.5k is where several companies are coming in at. Don't get AIB confused with asbestos containing cement, the two are totally different for removal.
I had 2 rooms in my house with negative pressure system and the cost was as per image. This was only a year or so ago.
Mine was just textured coating but still that price seems a bit high
Is that including any reassurance/ re-occupation monitoring? That is a decent price for removal of tex coating.
Also prices have jumped recently with the amount of work that removals are getting. Cannot really blame them given the danger of asbestos.
The quote included the following as well
Now that is really good! I am mainly on the analytical side of asbestos (until I finish my P402, then it's out surveying for me!), so this is good to learn! Thank you very much! :)
AIB is different to a textured coating.
Got another quote back to me today for £12k. It's wild how much difference there is in the quotes for the same job.
Depends what flavour it is, surely? my understanding was that even broken cement board was notifiable non-licenced work? Obviously anything especially spicy like AIB or spray lagging needs a license.
Not saying OP should do this though.......whoever does the work should still be suitably trained/experienced.
Nope
Cost me 6k to fix my asbestos issue, so counter with 12 months off for the hassle and, you know, early death.
Lol, so £60 a month, ask for it for free for life.
Jesus the landlord is cheeky as fuck. Asbestos removal is around £2000!
Right, the fully responsible thing to do would be to get in touch with agent and landlord and ask what insurance your landlord has covering the building and contents with regards to asbestos exposure and get on to your own car insurance company. I assume you won’t have taken out insurance to cover the belongings you have stored in the garage. Then you need to push them to take action immediately on getting someone out to test for asbestos ( easy and quick, will only take a couple of days for test results). If it’s not asbestos, no harm no foul. Your landlord takes a £200 hit, you get the spot repaired. Everyone moves on.
If it is asbestos, the contents of the garage might have to be thrown away. It’s highly unlikely but I know someone whose workshop had an issue with asbestos ceiling tiles caving in and everything in the building had to be disposed of.
Unethically. I’d put on a mask and empty the garage entirely of everything you own and get the car out of there. It’s quicker and easier to break the lease and find somewhere else to store the car than get sucked in to months of back and forth.
The fact that he’s willing to reimburse a month’s rent means that professionals doing the job would be more expensive, and he doesn’t want to deal with that, so he’s trying to con the tennant into getting involved with the task so he can pin any potential damages on the tennant if it turns out that something was seriously wrong.
"Dear letting agent, I'm really sorry, but as the wall contains asbestos I'm neither suitable nor equipped to do this kind of work and it should be done by a qualified professional. Kind regards."
They asked and made an offer, you politely decline. Done.
I'm gonna assume you'll try..... keep us updated with how you get on
I work for a licensed asbestos contractor in Cornwall, that would typically cost in the region of £225 - £285 +vat to remove and undertake a localised clean for asbestos cement to the damaged piece between the doors. You can then fix a piece of ply on the hole between straight after.
That is an absolutely wild thing to consider for a property management agency to even think about passing on to a tenant, like wtf?
Like how would that conversation even go? "Hi can you message my tenant this?"
"Yeah okay"
???
Regardless of the landlords legal obligation in said situation and renumeration aside, what the fuck is a property management agency even for if they can't even be arsed to say "hey, erm nah you tit because you'll drag us down with you, get it sorted ASAP before HSE get involved"
You should ring Loof Lirpa Asbestos Removal. They come and remove it for free if you ring before midday.
It’s his garage, he can fix it. If you’re going to continue renting it you’ll want to see proof the work was done by asbestos removal specialists.
The mantra is “don’t fuck with asbestos, yours or anyone else’s”
what is pcm?
Per calendar month
Your rent is 60 pound a month?
The thgouths are really gladly recieved but it's a fuck you from me.
For sure, where mask and wrap up well and bottom of bin £££ saved
Is that Thornley Groves? 😂
We found asbestos in our living room wall, which upon testing turned out to be the worst type (usually found only in boilers), and professional removal cost in excess of £4000. So yeah, a £60 waiver is taking the Mickey somewhat...
Fucking slumlords man, they have zero shame, not an ounce of honour, nor a lick of willingness to put effort in
For 1 month rent I'd make it disappear 🤣
before you answer, go on youtube and wach tutorials :)) see if you can get it down cheaper, belive me i did soo much stuff with youtube tutorials
Landlord’s problem, whatever you’re storing in there is probably contaminated depending on what happened. I’ve seen the whole content of offices removed and replaced due to asbestos issues .
If the material does contain asbestos the landlord needs to have a register of asbestos containing materials. He needs to monitor it, have it inspected regularly and record any damage etc. Tell him his obligations and ask him what he intends to do.
I took an asbestos awareness course a few weeks ago and had no idea how bad the stuff is.
I don't know ho much damage there is and how much hassle it would be to sort, but would there be a price you'd be happy to get it repaired for? Being reimbursed for the costs, and £60 for the hassle of getting someone out and being on site at the time doesn't seem terrible. I know that's not what the landlord means, but you can haggle to something you do want and then refuse if not met.
I think you underestimate asbestos removal
No, I've said I have no idea how bad it is. But £60 for organising it, with the landlord paying all costs too isn't necessarily bad. Landlord is lazy, see if you can haggle for something you consider worthwhile.
Realistically for a garage repair could fairly easily involve demolition and rebuilding depending on how much asbestos is present
On assumption that it is one of the sectional prefabs common around 1950/60s developments the entire structure will have asbestos components. Relatively cheap (in terms of safe removal) till things start to break & secondary containment of the site becomes necessary. Best for OP's LL to plan a full rebuild & OP find a new lockup.
I've not seen the state of it, and wouldn't commit to seeing through a repair until I knew the scale of what was required. And obviously would insist on costs and labour to be covered by the landlord as well as reimbursing me for being present.
