Can we negotiate?

pennywise

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Hi

We have gone sale agreed on our ideal house. The survey came back good, bar minor repairs / improvments. It suggested to do an asbestos survey considering the age of the house (60s). Which we had done, and which came back with findings around an old pipe (no longer used which goes from bottom to the top of the house), behind the esb box, and some void in the loft. All low to very low risks, but which will need to be either removed or encapsulated and certainly monitored.

We don't want to pull out from the sale, we hope the costs of removing / treating the concerned areas will be lower than paying extra rent and further surveys on another house (which could very well have the same problems). Not sure whether we are completely deluded about the removal costs, we are waiting on a quote.
The question is whether we could negociate the price of the house due to the costs we will incur? The owners knew about asbestos, above all that previous buyers pulled out for the same reason (I only found out because our surveyor was the one they had used. The estate agent said it was because they hadn't got their mortgage). And how do we do this, through our solicitor?

Last but not least... Are we crazy to buy a house with asbestos? I read that it is not necessarily dangerous if managed properly. But could we end up with a house no one will want to drill a hole in or fix pipes due to this?

Thanks
 
Get a price for removing it first.... that will decide whether you buy or not or whether it's worth negotiating or not.
 
Can you get a reduction in price due to minor repairs? You might be playing buy-the-ideal-house-roulette which could have you win a few bob or lose the house. You're paying rent elsewhere at the moment and you want a quick purchase to defray costs (wise decision). I don't think it a big deal to remove an asbestos pipe; most can remove these without calling in professionals. You have to take precautions though.

Asbestos is not dangerous in its "pipe" state, but when fragmented the asbestos dust is dangerous.
 
Low to very low risk of anything. Do you even need to touch go near the point, sounds to me like something that one can live with. And it seems a rather ridiculous thing to try getting out of a sale over. And if you hadn't done this special asbestos survey you'd never have known about it.
 
Low to very low risk of anything. Do you even need to touch go near the point, sounds to me like something that one can live with. And it seems a rather ridiculous thing to try getting out of a sale over. And if you hadn't done this special asbestos survey you'd never have known about it.
The thing is, we will have to rewire the house at some point, and also plan to convert the attic, so the issue would have come up eventually. I'm happier to know before I buy so I know where to stand
 
Thanks for the answers. We've asked for quotes to remove the asbestos that could cause issues. We'll likely ask to reduce the price, at worse they will just say no and we will pay for remedial works. If you don't ask, you don't get.
 
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