So I am new to this and am not quite sure what to do. The tenants moved in 8 days ago and have just written to me (via the Agency) to report a number of low level issues (all very reasonable and things I will get resolved ASAP)

However, they have reported concerns that some of the high level “sheet cement asbestos type of facia board” may contain asbestos “if it was installed pre 1982”. The house has been in the family since about 2004 and the garage was there when it was purchased so I have no idea of it’s age (but I suspect it is pre 1982).

Can anyone point me in the direction of what I should do? for example do I ban the tenants from using the garage until further notice? Or do I do an ‘eyeball check’ to make sure it is ‘solid’ and, if so, tell then to they can use the garage, but must not drill/saw/file any of the suspect material.

I am in England if that makes any difference.

Any help/advice would be appreciated.

My work is full of asbestos, like most buildings of a certain age, it’s all logged and on a database, and only ever a problem if it’s gonna be disturbed, ie drilled etc. I’m not sure you really need to do anything tbh.

Sheet asbestos is not an issue as long as it stays in a sheet, so instruct them not to drill, hammer or damage it and confirm that if they do then cleanup is their responsibility.

As per thepurist, most properties built pre 90s probably will have had some asbestos somewhere. Only an issue if it’s damaged.

If the house has 1980s artex ceilings, your tenants are going to properly freak out!

Can you not ask the agent for advice, is this not what you pay them for?

If they disturb it then the commercial cleanup operation is on them. But, IANA lawyer. You may need one for advice.

How much deposit did you take?

BTW sheet materials are a DIY removal. I removed a load of corrugated cement sheets from our outbuilding a year ago. Danger levels are non-existent.

Frankly the danger levels to the tenant are also non-existent unless they start cramming it up their nose (which the tenant could also easily discover with under thirty seconds research using alexa) so my completely inexperienced take is that you have a worrier or a chancer / problem tenant and it might be worth figuring out which quite quickly.

my completely inexperienced take is that you have a worrier or a chancer / problem tenant and it might be worth figuring out which quite quickly.

Plus one. I don’t want to be alarmist, but that is a really weird thing for a tenant to flag. Fingers crossed they’re not an arse!

It’s precisely the sort of thing someone I know would go mental about. “ASBESTOS??! In our house! Won’t someone think of the children.” Without actually doing any proper research or using any perspective.

I don’t think it marks them out as ‘problem tenants’, but I’d ask to inspect (so they can show what they’re concerned about) and, assuming it’s solid, reply firmly that it’s no risk unless they disturb it. If they want to take it further they’ll soon realise no-one is interested.

Thanks for the advise so far. TBH I think there is a bit of newness about this for both parties. They have never rented before and it was ‘Dad’ who spotted and raised the issue. They have raised a few other minor things and have offered to fix them FOC (think door not latching properly and electrical cables in the garage that are not ‘secure’). I hope this is just first time nerves (on both sides)

I have left a message for the Agent, but wanted to sanity check my thinking first to make sure I did not rush into an expensive solution if there was a cheaper and lawful/morally acceptable solution.

some of the high level “sheet cement asbestos type of facia board” may contain asbestos “if it was installed pre 1982”.

It may, it may not. As long as they don’t start crumbling and inhaling it, it makes no difference.

In a sheet, it is safe. I’m fairly wary with asbestos but cement sheets wouldn’t worry me.

The hard sell might be being like Johnny Vegas in Black Books and telling your tenant that “there’s bad asbestos and there’s nice asbestos”.

for some amusing context on our shed roof

our neighbours (they are “the one” from “there’s always one”) attempted to dob us in to building control (of all places) about “our” asbestos shed roof, how it was a danger to the public and would ruin their health and was on their property and we should be made to pay for its removal or their cancer op or a new haircut or tv or a new shed for them or something

of course that was also the time that their old, tiny, rotten, shed had literally collapsed, sideways, into ‘our’ shed roof

when I rang the council, (a) the council didn’t care, and (b) were highly amused to find out the roof in question was not ours and actually belonged to the one person in the hamlet they were still (at that point) on speaking terms with, and (c) the collapsing shed could only have contacted the roof it did, if it had been built on land they had encroached on and was quite likely legally the property of the same one person they were still (at that point) on speaking terms with

lovely people

me removing our shed roof was unrelated and happened two years later – we just decided to replace the entire portion of the outbuilding that belong to us with a timber effort

In a sheet, it is safe.

That’s not really true. In good condition undesturbed sheets it is relatively low likelihood of exposure. But the risk to health if exposed is still serious.

Not saying it would worry me but to safe it’s safe is just not giving it the care and consideration it should have.

Asbestosis is a nasty way to go.

Danger levels are non-existent.

…except in this sentence. I’ve met way too many men who thought that, right up until they were diagnosed with mesothelioma.

Danger levels are impossible to determine if you don’t know what the product is.

Get it sampled and tested. It’s not expensive. About £30 – £50.

Then , when an expert has determined if it is actually asbestos and if so, which type and condition it’s in you can determine a strategy to manage it.

Asbestosis is a nasty way to go

It is, but it’s primarily an occupational disease resulting from extended exposure. Mesothelioma is also caused by exposure to asbestos but can result from trivial or occasional contact, that’s the one that’s more of a concern to your average punter.

If its not degrading or leaking at all then no dramas to the tenants really.

I’d maybe consider setting aside some of your profits to go towards replacing it with a rubber roof. You can then add that as a cost for the following tax assessment.

If it was me, I would contact an Asbestos specialist and ask them to do a site inspection and prepare a report. With that, you can make an informed decision as to what to do. My gut instinct would be to have it professionally removed and replaced with corrugated steel. It will not cost a fortune and will give you and your renter peace of mind.

I had artex professionally removed from my father in law’s old house when it was being sold. It was only a few hundred quid but it gave real peace of mind.

perchypanther has summed it up more eloquently than I. It is a potential risk, the report will give you a clear steer as to how to best mitigate or eliminate it.

I suspect telling your renter that the hive mind on Singletrack said it was probably ok won’t really reassure them though! Ha! Ha! It’s the modern day version of someone down the pub telling you something!

Cheers

Sanny

It’s all about levels of risk rather than absolutes when it comes to asbestos. Walking in and out of an enclosed space with unbroken asbestos sheets maybe once a week would be at the lower end of the scale but there’s still a (small) risk. The “sheet cement asbestos type of facia board” seems to suggest that they aren’t sure what it is – a lot of products with very similar appearance.

You could go along the line of:

“Oh? This wasn’t raised at the time we bought it but I’m getting an asbestos specialist to do a site inspection.”

Then if it’s OK let them have a copy of the report, if it’s not the specialist will advise on how to deal with it.

It’s the modern day version of someone down the pub telling you something!

It’s nowhere near as reliable as that…

I stand corrected, apologies.

They have raised a few other minor things and have offered to fix them FOC (think door not latching properly and electrical cables in the garage that are not ‘secure’).

They’ve offered to fix them, or you’ve offered to fix them?

If the former, do you want your tenants doing DIY on the electricals of your house?

It’s precisely the sort of thing someone I know would go mental about. “ASBESTOS??! In our house! Won’t someone think of the children.” Without actually doing any proper research or using any perspective.

First off, nobody is denying asbestos is a dangerous mineral.
BUT
Those who died from asbestosis nearly always worked in that industry. There was no dust extraction in these factories, and workers breathed it in all day long. They went home with it in their clothes and in their hair, so they introduced it into the soft fabrics of their homes and breathed it in there too.
I’ve worked in a cabinet shop without big air cleaners, small individual dust extractors attached to two of the main machines(The spindle moulder and the thicknesser) but at the end of each day you needed to brush yourself off as your clothes were covered in dust. It got everywhere, clothes, hair, even eyebrows.
This is similar to the asbestos factories.
Should you want to remove some from your kitchen or shed, the chances of developing asbestosis are minuscule. The workers who did develop the disease worked in that industry for years if not decades.
Of course there will be cases of people who developed the disease not being factory workers, but you’ll find they did work with it to some degree, but again the chances are small and the actual events of their working environments clouded.
Asbestos is or was in everything. Schools,hospitals workplaces, but the disease wasnt so rife that people in hospital got it, or went to school got it, or even worked around it got it. The majority of the cases were in people who worked with it on a daily basis.

Put it this way, the older buildings of my high school (which I ended up working at in IT for a few years) are built out of asbestos type/filled walls. Very thin walled multi story blocks. It hasn’t been a problem legally etc. And this is literally walls (if you can call them that) that we were leaning against for 7 hours a day! And remain the same today

While I can’t say for sure, some parts of the hospital opposite I’ve been in have the exact same looking/feeling walls (I assume they were built around the same time) so wouldn’t be surprised if it was the same materials/construction company

Asbestos threads on here truly boil my piss.

Regardless of any opinions expressed above, the OP, as a landlord, has a duty of care to his tenants to manage any potential asbestos present in the property.

Here’s a handy guide from the HSE which outlines exactly how to do that.

https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg223.pdf

In summary, get it tested.

If it’s not asbestos….happy days.

If it is, then manage it depending on the type, location and condition.
That management might be leave it alone, sticking a sticker on it, encapsulating it or having it removed.

electrical cables in the garage that are not ‘secure’

Much as its likely to be no actual problem, isn’t this exactly the sort of thing that should have been picked up on the EICR?

Re the asbestos absolutely as per Perchy. Get it tested, manage it accordingly. It’ll probably cost you nothing more than the testing but even in the worst case, any remediation now will cost you a lot less in terms of remorse or recompense after the fact.

Looking forward to seeing you on “Nightmare tenants slum landlord program soon !!

I call dodgy tenant 🙁

they have reported concerns that some of the high level “sheet cement asbestos type of facia board” may contain asbestos “if it was installed pre 1982”

I would avoid getting drawn in, personally (unless there is a duty on private landlords to have an asbestos register, which I don’t *think* there is for single occupancy properties).

Something along the lines of: “we note your concerns regarding the fascia boards and will take appropriate precautions should they require replacement. In the meantime, we recommend that you don’t drill, cut or otherwise disturb them.”

It does sound to me like they’re shaping up to be awkward. Let’s hope not 🙂

What Perchy said.

Asbestos cement sheet looks very similar to asbestos insulation board sheet. The latter is awful stuff and definitely not DIY removal.

And we had a very good friend die last year from asbestos related lung cancer. Biker. Climber. Fit and healthy. Never worked in industry (PhD in computing) or done any building or known exposure – so there is a lot of garbage spouted about what exposure can or can’t kill you. You certainly don’t need a lifetime in a factory.

Thanks all. Testing company have replied and will visit/test/advise accordingly for £150.00 (i.e. a bit more than shown above, but well worth it in my opinion). I will then take it from there.

Something I maybe should have mentioned when starting as Asbestos thread on STW… My dad died from Asbestosis aged 57, so I may be a little more cautious than others.