Tenants hired asbestos inspector. I want to let them out

[Mike Franco]

TL;DR tenant found asbestos, and won't feel safe until I go to extraordinary lengths and expense to prove the house is safe. I am not going to play this ridiculous game. Asbestos abatement for things that don't lawfully need to be removed is going to be ridiculously expensive. I was told it might cost $20k 

House was built in 1966, so a bunch of things were made with asbestos. There was vinyl asbestos tile that was loosely bonded to the concrete, which came up easily in one piece. There was also that black mastic cutback that has asbestos, but the mastic was untouched and not chipping, nor was it sanded or removed.

Nothing was done to reasonably create airborne asbestos.

Tenants ordered their own asbestos test; inspector came out and sampled a bunch of stuff that contained asbestos, which are intact and not illegal to have. Most of the asbestos objects are in the attic. Such as...

-Furnace vent to the roof.

-A few abandoned air ducts left in the attic, not attached to anything.

-central air register to the room- on the attic side, the sheet metal is wrapped in some kind of joint compound white stuff. On the room side, it's sheet metal. So I don't see how asbestos can leak through there.

-They even sampled undisturbed popcorn ceiling. They wasted their money testing something which most likely would have a little asbestos.

Just because something is made of asbestos doesn't mean you have to remove it, particularly if it's still intact, like a vent that blows outward.

According to the inspector, all these things have a fraction of a fraction of a percent of releasing an asbestos fiber and somehow getting into the interior of the house.

After looking at the report, tenants freaked out, and do not feel safe living in the house. They are temporarily staying elsewhere.

They won't feel safe until I spend thousands of dollars to come up with some official report that the house is clean enough to live in.

July 1 is when rent is due, and I told them they don't have to pay it.

But I want them out, and I don't know on what grounds I can terminate the lease.

There's nothing in the contract that says an asbestos home is uninhabitable, otherwise I'd kick the tenants out on those grounds.

[Geordy Rostad]

@Mike Franco

Wait a minute... Your tenants did an asbestos test on your property?

An asbestos test is destructive. The inspector had to cut out and remove pieces of your property and mutilate pieces of your building materials to take them to a lab. Surely you have something in the lease about destruction of property.

The inspector never should have done that job without verifying that they owned the property and had the authority to order it.

Did they give you the report? Make sure that no holes were cut in the roof that will cause leaks.

Please keep up posted on how this turns out.