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The following guide offers important information on the history of asbestos in residential properties, including advice on the best options for selling a home that contains the material. Understanding the problem of asbestos in your home will make it easier to sell it.
- What is asbestos and why is it dangerous?
- How to identify asbestos in a house
- Most likely place to find asbestos in a house
- Can I sell a house with asbestos?
- How to remove asbestos safely
- Options for selling a property with asbestos
- Questions about selling a home with asbestos
What is asbestos and why is it dangerous?
Asbestos is a collective name for natural fibrous minerals that crystallise to form fibres that can then be used in a number of applications, including the construction of residential properties where it was a good material for insulation, paint, cement and other crucial uses.
If there are large undisturbed sheets of asbestos in a home it is generally not considered harmful, but it’s easy to disturb asbestos either when building a property or when renovating one, and this releases small harmful fibres that are easy for humans to inhale. Research eventually showed that these fibres could cause lung cancer and other serious illnesses, and the UK government outright banned the use of asbestos in construction in 2000.
The complete ban on asbestos came years after the government in 1985 enacted a prohibition on the use of a type of the substance known as amphibole asbestos. The other type, known as serpentine asbestos, continued to be used in home building until the 2000 ban.
Roughly 5000 tradesmen still die every year from exposure to asbestos, which can happen if they are working on a property and disturb asbestos that was used at the home many years ago. And about 20 workers are dying every week as a result of previous exposures to asbestos, according to the Health and Safety Executive which is the national regulator for workplace health and safety.
How to identify asbestos in a house
When you are thinking about selling your house or flat but it was built before 2000, you must check to see whether there is asbestos in the property. Given the health risks of exposure to asbestos, if it’s present in your home then it is a structural problem that you must disclose to potential buyers, otherwise you could face legal liability for not telling them about the asbestos.
You can typically assume that a home constructed prior to 2000 has asbestos in it, and homes built in the 1980s and before then almost certainty have some asbestos. But asbestos can’t be seen as it’s within fixtures and fittings, and the substance also doesn’t emit an odour.
But you can do some research by searching online for various materials, products and other items in your home, which should help you learn about whether they contain asbestos.
Look for any abrasions, water damage or tears in and around your property and make a note of any exposed material – but do not touch it because this could disturb asbestos fibres.
After this initial research you should consider calling a professional company who can send an expert to inspect your home to detect whether asbestos is present. This evaluation should give you a comprehensive understanding about the presence of asbestos in your home.
Most likely place to find asbestos in a house
Unfortunately if you have a home that was built before 2000 you might find asbestos present in one or more rooms. Because the substance could be applied in many ways, including as insulation or in paint, you could find it in the bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and other rooms.
The number of applications of asbestos in products is lengthy, but some of the most common uses of the substance in a residential property include vinyl floor tiles; certain types of glue used to attach flooring tiles to wood or concrete; roofing material including some shingles; duct insulation for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning; plaster; insulation in attics; some types of linoleum; gauzing and caulking used on windows; siding material; some paints and more.
Can I sell a house with asbestos?
Yes, you are able to sell a property that contains asbestos but you will first have to decide whether you’re willing to spend money to remove the substance before trying to find a buyer, or if you would prefer to attempt to sell the home without remediating the problem.
Any homeowner that wants to first get rid of the asbestos should hire a professional to do the work, and then they can list their property for a sale and declare it does not have asbestos.
But if you plan on trying to sell your home without first removing the asbestos, you will have to disclose the presence of the substance to anyone interested in buying your home. Hiding this information from them could open you up to legal action later. However, if a chartered surveyor assesses your home as part of the selling process and finds asbestos, you cannot be sued for not disclosing asbestos that you genuinely did not know was at your property.
How to remove asbestos safely
Unless you are trained in removing asbestos from properties, it is highly recommended that you hire a professional contractor to take the substance out of your home. Trying to do it yourself risks the release of asbestos fibres which would pose a threat to your health.
Before hiring someone to remove asbestos from your home you should ask them for a list of references and other projects that they have worked on. This information will help to inform you about the history and quality of their past asbestos removal efforts.
Hiring a professional is the only safe way to remove asbestos from your home, and they will have the correct equipment for the work. Once the contractor has removed the asbestos you should consider having an expert take air samples to ensure no fibres were released.
The informative website Asbestos Advisor says that the average cost of asbestos removal in the UK is £1600 but the cost can vary significantly depending on the scope of the removal project.
A lower-cost alternative to full removal of asbestos would be repair or containment of the substance, which typically means covering over the material. Although you could save money with this option compared to removal, the asbestos would still be in the property and you’d have to disclose it to anyone interested in potentially buying the home.
Options for selling a property with asbestos
Selling a home that contains asbestos can be more difficult than trying to find a buyer for a property without the substance. The situation is no different if you are selling your own home or selling a tenanted property. Your main options for selling are trying a property auction, using an estate agent, or using a quick home buying company, and each have their own advantages.
Trying a property auction
A property auction offers some certainty about selling your home because the day of the auction will be the day that you sell, if your home receives a bid at the minimum opening reserve price. However, you might not get any bids above that amount and will have to settle for that price even if it’s lower than the amount you actually wanted to get for selling your home.
There might also be a slight delay between the day that you list your property for sale in an auction and when the sale takes place. Further delays of several weeks are possible after a successful auction whilst all of the relevant legal paperwork for the sale is completed.
And auctioneers also charge fees for their work which will reduce the profit you can expect to make from the sale, although you might be able to make the buyer pay these expenses.
You might also need to find an auctioneer that specialises in selling properties with asbestos, because some auctioneers might not know how to correctly market such a property. If they don’t know how to advertise a home with asbestos then it might fail to receive any bids.
Using an estate agent
An estate agent will take care of marketing your home and hosting viewings for people interested in it – although these can take up a lot of your time and be quite inconvenient.
But you will have to find an estate agent who has experience with selling homes containing asbestos, because only they will know how to attract potential buyers. If an estate agent doesn’t have this experience, then they might struggle to sell your house or flat.
Also, estate agents will charge you commission of between 1.15 percent and 1.40 percent for selling your home, which you’ll have to subtract from the total sale proceeds.
And homes sold through an estate agent can take several months, or in worst case scenarios more than a year, before anyone makes a serious offer to purchase them.
Using a quick home buying company
Another option for selling your house or flat that contains asbestos is contacting a quick home buyer such as LDN Properties. We can make competitive and swift offers to buy many different shapes, sizes and types of homes, including those that have asbestos.
And our goal is to complete the purchase of each property in a handful of weeks, and that includes the time it takes to pay you the proceeds and exchange contracts.
A further benefit of selling to us is that we will never charge you any fees and you can sell your house as is, which means you can count on receiving the full proceeds from the sale of your property.
Top queries about selling a property with asbestos
Homeowners looking to sell quickly often ask us questions about selling a house with asbestos. Here are some key questions and answers when selling with asbestos:
Your questions answered when selling property with asbestos
For many years it was not thought to be so harmful and that explains why it was used so prevalently in the construction of residential properties. But scientific studies ultimately found that asbestos can be very harmful to human health, and can cause cancer. That’s why the UK government banned the use of some asbestos in 1985 and then banned all asbestos in 2000.
The answer depends on how quickly you want to sell your property and whether you can afford to pay to remove the asbestos. You will likely get more interest from a greater number of buyers if you can show that there is no longer asbestos in the property, but many homeowners cannot afford the time or the expense of removing the substance before selling their house or flat.
It depends on which method you use to find a buyer for your home, because an estate agent or a property auctioneer will make you pay commission if they successfully sell your flat or house. However, reputable quick home buying companies such as LDN Properties will never charge you any fees and therefore you would keep all of the proceeds from selling your home.
Yes. You are legally required to disclose the presence of any asbestos that you know about in your house or flat, and if you hide this information from a buyer, you could face legal action in the future. But it’s important to note that you will not be liable if you are truly unaware of some asbestos in your home that is later detected by a chartered surveyor or other professional.
If you can afford the time and money involved with removing asbestos from your property then you should do so because this will make your home more attractive to potential buyers. Containment removes the human health risk from potential asbestos exposures but still leaves the substance in your property, which might discourage some people from wanting to buy it.
