Home Household insurance - asbestos liability cover.

[DirectDevil]

We have a garage from the 1970s which has asbestos panels in it's structure. The garage is in a sound state of repair.

About 2 years ago our household insurers applied a blanket ban on any liability insurance cover relating to asbestos claims. This did not relate to us alone but seems to have been a policy decision by the insurer across the particular class of business.

The garage is covered for the other insured perils such as storm, tempest and so on. It was declared to the insurers.

What options do we have to get liability cover for the garage ?

Option 1 - change insurers. We don't want to do that as the present product is good and economically priced. It would be perfect for our requirements but for the asbestos liability exclusion.

Option 2 - can we get separate liability insurance on the garage ? Who would offer that ?

BTW we considered having the garage removed but this is not really a practical idea for several reasons.

 

[newirishman]

If I understand correctly, the insurer has only removed the liability cover for Asbestos-related claims. AFAIK, this isn't an unusual move these days - Asbestos claims costs Insurers a lot of money so they are no longer covering for it.
Apart from the Asbestos exclusion, you should be OK with liability cover though or do they not cover the garage at all?

The dangers of Asbestos are well know, and in general people are advised to get rid of it.
Some say "as long as you don't touch it you'll be grant", but everyone to his own. Given it is the garage only (and in sound state of repair), I probably wouldn't fix either it as a priority. Just be aware though next time you drill a hole and put a nail in - Asbestos fibers are nasty business.

 

[DirectDevil]

If I understand correctly, the insurer has only removed the liability cover for Asbestos-related claims. AFAIK, this isn't an unusual move these days - Asbestos claims costs Insurers a lot of money so they are no longer covering for it.
Apart from the Asbestos exclusion, you should be OK with liability cover though or do they not cover the garage at all?

The dangers of Asbestos are well know, and in general people are advised to get rid of it.
Some say "as long as you don't touch it you'll be grant", but everyone to his own. Given it is the garage only (and in sound state of repair), I probably wouldn't fix either it as a priority. Just be aware though next time you drill a hole and put a nail in - Asbestos fibers are nasty business.

Yes that is right. The insurers are RSA Ireland. Curiously I cannot find a specimen wording on their site to which to link.

They have written out all liability cover in respect of anything to do with asbestos. All the other liability covers remain in place. Also, the material damage element of cover still applies to the asbestos garage i.e. if it was hit by lightning and destroyed that would be covered.

Curiously enough we did ask some other household insurers and their attitude was that they were content to cover it without additional or special terms.

Our "whinge" - to borrow a phrase - is that this liability risk was always covered and we feel that we have been somewhat ditched in a disproportionate way given that this was a domestic risk as distinct from a commercial one. That said I fully understand the points you make about asbestos.