Seller liability for asbestos: your rights

Questioner

Last week I bought an apartment. Now it turns out during the renovation that my drain is made of asbestos. In the broker's appendix to the purchase agreement, the seller indicated that he was not aware of the presence of asbestos in his home. My new neighbor tells me that 2 years ago there was a remediation of part of the asbestos in adjacent apartments. Every resident received a message about this. It was also discussed several times in the meeting of the VvE. Now the purchase agreement mentions the inspection obligation of the buyer, as well as the reporting obligation of the seller. To what extent can I hold the seller liable for the extra costs that I have to make to remove the asbestos?

Lawyer

In this state of affairs it is plausible that the seller knew about the asbestos and should have warned you. The seller can be held responsible for his failure to do so in my opinion. Furthermore, you may wonder whether the home is suitable for normal use if you encounter asbestos during a reasonably obvious renovation with all the consequences that entails. (When using the standard NVM purchase agreement, the seller guarantees that the home is suitable for normal use.) This may be different if your purchase agreement includes a so-called asbestos clause, stating that due to the age of the home, the presence of asbestos cannot be ruled out and that this therefore does not give the buyer any claims against the seller. Apart from that, however, it remains the case that the seller should have informed you if he knew about the asbestos problem.