When you’re buying a home there is so much to think about, so you could be forgiven for overlooking the risk of asbestos. One of the most popular services we offer is our home buyer asbestos survey. This is a survey that we carry out before you purchase a property to check for asbestos. Here is why you need one.
Almost any home could contain asbestos
You might assume that asbestos is fairly rare in the UK. Unfortunately, while we now know the asbestos is a very dangerous material that can have serious health implications, the extent of the risk was not understood until recently. That means that any home in the UK that was built before 2000 could potentially contain asbestos. And it’s not just asbestos in obvious places that you need to worry about. You should never take for granted the fact that the property you are buying doesn’t contain the material.
Standard home surveys aren’t enough
We always recommend that when you come to buy a property you should have a full home-buyer asbestos survey. Some people believe that if they just have a standard home survey it will be enough, but this isn’t the case. Standard home buyer surveys do often identify common asbestos materials, but this is as far as the report goes. Our asbestos surveys provide you with a detailed analysis of the condition of the asbestos as well as the likely costs that it would take to deal with the material.
Asbestos can be expensive to remove
You should not assume that you will simply pay for any asbestos removal that needs to be carried out. Asbestos can be found in all sorts of materials, and dealing with it can be become very expensive. That means you really need to know what these costs are likely to be before you commit to the home purchase.