Homeowners' Association and Liability for Asbestos: Receive Free Advice

Questioner

The homeowners' association of our apartment building has commissioned a company to install new locks on the exterior and interior doors of our storage boxes. During the work, asbestos was released through drilling and they had to cordon off everything and incur research costs to determine how much and where the asbestos was located. The conclusion is that everything needs to be cleaned both outside and inside the boxes. I don't have home contents insurance myself and my question is who should pay those costs?

Lawyer

The VvE is the client. Normally, the contractor (contractor) must make a risk inventory before starting the work to determine whether they could possibly encounter asbestos during drilling work. The question is whether this was done properly here. The fact remains that this concerns work on the building (the complex) and that the VvE must have building insurance. It seems to me impossible that a home contents insurer of an individual owner will pay the costs. The VvE will be presented with the bill that must be paid from the general resources (reserves). I wonder whether insurance would even provide cover for this. Advice: the VvE must hold the contractor/contractor liable. They should have warned in advance before they started the job and advised against it, or at least should have known better before they started drilling.