Does anyone know about friable asbestos and home fires?
My daughter is tenant in a house. Due to a wiring fault, one kitchen wall burnt down. The Firemen put it out quickly but said it was friable asbestos and had floated through the whole house on the smoke, and they put up a "Contaminated - Do Not Enter" barrier on the front fence.
Thankfully she had contents insurance and the landlord had landlord insurance, so one would think it is easy, but not quite so simple .....
I called an asbestos removal agency and they said it could cost up to $40 k to have the house cleaned. Will landlord insurance cover this?
It will also cost up to 4k for my daughters contents to be cleaned and or removed safely. Is my daughter liable for this removal. Solicitor and tenants advice-line say she is not, as the landlord owns the asbestos and has contaminated her belongings, and the landlord has failed to provide a safe clean place for her to live.(Section 12:1 & 2 of Tenancy Act). He is not charging her rent while it is uninhabitable. I have heard that he should provide alternative accomodation for her too. Is this true ... if so I guess she would continue to pay normal rent? At the moment she and her flatmate are camped at our house. Someone said I should charge them board and claim it back from ? someone?
However, as a landlord myself, I really don't want to make things any harder for the landlord. But I want daughter to be able to receive compensation for value of her belongings (value is about $30k, insurance cover was for $25k, so she is already short, without having to cough up 4k to have belongings removed).
I do not want her to go on TICA register as a bad tenant for leaving contents in house. Tenants Advice line said this should not happen due to exceptional circumstances, and she can leave her stuff there for landlord to remove (poor guy, I really sympathize and hope his insurance covers it, though from experience they are usually looking for ways to screw you).
At least we can let him take the Dept of Housing bond to help towards the cleaning of property, and daughter is probably looking for somewhere else to live. Insurance Ombudsman said it can take up to 30 days to get an assessment done, meanwhile all daughters clothes and worldly belongings are sitting under an invisible layer of asbestos in an abandoned house.
There is also a slight risk that landlord will just hire a normal unsuspecting cleaner and rent a house full of asbestos out to new unsuspecting tenants. I am hoping he would not do this, but the asbestos cleaning company said it does happen. Thankfully the Firemen made a record of the event should we need proof that asbestos is involved.
Needless to say I am about to undertake a thorough review of our landlords insurance policies and smoke detectors etc, and see if asbestos has to be declared, as one or two of our houses may contain it.
Apparently, sometimes it is cheaper to demolish a house than clean asbestos out .... and it was just one little wall!
Any thoughts or advice is welcome.
Cheers
Seaview
My daughter is tenant in a house. Due to a wiring fault, one kitchen wall burnt down. The Firemen put it out quickly but said it was friable asbestos and had floated through the whole house on the smoke, and they put up a "Contaminated - Do Not Enter" barrier on the front fence.
Thankfully she had contents insurance and the landlord had landlord insurance, so one would think it is easy, but not quite so simple .....
I called an asbestos removal agency and they said it could cost up to $40 k to have the house cleaned. Will landlord insurance cover this?
It will also cost up to 4k for my daughters contents to be cleaned and or removed safely. Is my daughter liable for this removal. Solicitor and tenants advice-line say she is not, as the landlord owns the asbestos and has contaminated her belongings, and the landlord has failed to provide a safe clean place for her to live.(Section 12:1 & 2 of Tenancy Act). He is not charging her rent while it is uninhabitable. I have heard that he should provide alternative accomodation for her too. Is this true ... if so I guess she would continue to pay normal rent? At the moment she and her flatmate are camped at our house. Someone said I should charge them board and claim it back from ? someone?
However, as a landlord myself, I really don't want to make things any harder for the landlord. But I want daughter to be able to receive compensation for value of her belongings (value is about $30k, insurance cover was for $25k, so she is already short, without having to cough up 4k to have belongings removed).
I do not want her to go on TICA register as a bad tenant for leaving contents in house. Tenants Advice line said this should not happen due to exceptional circumstances, and she can leave her stuff there for landlord to remove (poor guy, I really sympathize and hope his insurance covers it, though from experience they are usually looking for ways to screw you).
At least we can let him take the Dept of Housing bond to help towards the cleaning of property, and daughter is probably looking for somewhere else to live. Insurance Ombudsman said it can take up to 30 days to get an assessment done, meanwhile all daughters clothes and worldly belongings are sitting under an invisible layer of asbestos in an abandoned house.
There is also a slight risk that landlord will just hire a normal unsuspecting cleaner and rent a house full of asbestos out to new unsuspecting tenants. I am hoping he would not do this, but the asbestos cleaning company said it does happen. Thankfully the Firemen made a record of the event should we need proof that asbestos is involved.
Needless to say I am about to undertake a thorough review of our landlords insurance policies and smoke detectors etc, and see if asbestos has to be declared, as one or two of our houses may contain it.
Apparently, sometimes it is cheaper to demolish a house than clean asbestos out .... and it was just one little wall!
Any thoughts or advice is welcome.
Cheers
Seaview