Brill News 
I had Council garage back in 1986 [Romford, Essex] and my current Housing Association one [2019] here in Newcastle-under-Lyme…still no issues with it protection wise
However, these two were both in a Block with no Electric…that’s the down side. Plus a distance from the property. This didn’t bother me in 1986 but now I find it quite a puff being older with health issues
But the upside is Council/Housing Association is ‘rent controlled’ [if that’s the correct term?]
So just been advised new rent of £42.04 pcm [if I’ve got the maths right]
I was never concerned about keeping a vehicle garaged until I got Bullit MX-5 NB and then not until she started to have corrosion issues
Crumbs …when I think about the properties I’ve owned/jointly owned that came with garages adjacent and with electric and hosepipes et al
I’d sometimes put the vehicle in the garage and sometimes not [e.g. Mark IV Escort, Ford Mondeo, Renault Clio]
It wasn’t an issue
So…go figure my addiction to Bullit and my need to protect her above and beyond now 
‘It Must Be Love, Love, Love’ 
To quote Edmund Blackadder “I think it rhymes with clucking bell!” 
Disappointed is one way of putting it, but i can think of many other words. There are loads of other pics which have all been fired off to the relevant council department.
Sufficient to say, if i put my lovely ND2 in there it will be rusty inside six months.
Watch this space!
By the way, i like Labi Siffre too.
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Hmm, the usual porous roof.
It needs replacing with something a lot better, but will they cough-up the necessary?
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It’s asbestos sheets so removing them will be a huge cost, but perhaps there is a way of simply covering over the top without disturbing it? I am thinking that it might be failed guttering, but as the garage backs onto somebody’s garden it may be difficult to fix. I am going to knock on a couple of doors over the weekend to see if i can “oil the wheels”. 
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Hmm, I’d try playing the Health and Safety card.
But there is a big snag to this; the risk is they might simply knock down all the garages and sell off the land for houses.
A temporary solution is to paint the top surface with a heavy-duty flexible sealant, and do this on a nice hot sunny day when it can soak into the dry porous sheet. Crawl boards will be essential so the painter doesn’t fall through it!
The reason it’s leaking is because of continual expansion (ice forming inside the sheet) and contraction (sun baking it dry) breaking the cement bonds and an unsealed roof spalls and sheds fibres.
While undisturbed asbestos might be considered safe enough, the continual frost and sun cycling is disturbing it on a daily basis. Not good.
When I bought this house (1971) the first thing I did was replace the garage’s dripping asbestos roof with a plastic/fibreglass composite as a temporary safe substitute. It was a bit easier back then!
I hope you manage to reach a decent solution to the problem.
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Hi Brother
Feel your rage 
Ditto ‘Roof Asbestos Sheets’
Ditto ‘Garage backs on to someones garden’ [yep…dunno what they are growing but have to get the secateurs out in the summer months to cut back what’s growing through the air vents]
Similar ‘Put my lovely ND in there and it will be rusty inside six months’
Me: ‘I’m renting the garage to protect my NB soft-top…with that leaky garage roof the soft top will get even worse than it being parked outside’
From your pics…similar [mine is all brick walls…not one wall with concrete blocks] and the floor was in better state
But my garage is smaller and couldn’t house an ND
I concur with RichardFX
‘Play the H&S Card’ but you run the risk of them ‘selling the land and replacing the garages with housing’ [Indeed a ‘For Sale Notice’ appeared on a nearby block of garages in my locale but when I checked my block wasn’t the one the Housing Association was trying to sell. The notice has disappeared…perhaps they have had to do this due to Govn instruction ‘use Brown Field Sites’ for new housings ??]
I disagree with RichardFX that you should come up with the costs to get the garage up to scratch [but he is talking about a garage he owned which is a different matter…been there Richard ]
OK …apologies…reliving the stress when I got my rented garage in 2019 !!
This is my experience
They don’t want to touch the asbestos for H&S/Cost
My Housing Association contracted out a job to Seal the Roof from the inside in Double Layered Thick Plastic Sheets
First attempt FAILED [water collating in the plastic so when I pushed it with a brush the water cascaded out] I complained. A different contractor came out and no leaks since then
Once the Roof is leak proof then you can think about floor paint [mine just needed a good sweep]
Also had to get new doors…again had to complain as current ones were rotting
Haven’t thought about whether the guttering causing issues yet my end ?
But Barnetfair…YOU’VE FINALLY GOT A GARAGE …YAY
I’ve assumed you actually live in Barnet, NE London…in which case…no mean feat 
So onwards and upwards my friend 
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I didn’t realise that renting a garage would be so complicated! Reading your’s and Richard’s experiences with them has led me to believe that we may have a national crisis on our hands, we may have to call in the army or something to sort these garages out! 
As you said, “YOU’VE FINALLY GOT A GARAGE” and yes i’m optimistic that it will turn out ok in the end, and my plan is to call the council tomorrow as a follow up to my email with pictures, but as i got a Mail Delivery Failed message it might be a good idea to go to the office with pictures in hand. I will keep you all posted.
I actually live in St Albans, but i was born in the East End of london and Barnet Fair is cockney rhyming slang for hair…something which i seem to have less and less of these days. 
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‘Didn’t realise that renting a garage would be so complicated!’
It didn’t seem to be back in the olden days [1986 Romford…my Council garage]
Cash deprived Councils ? Social Housing/Garages neglected ?
I recall near to me Stoke-on-Trent were selling old Council Houses for a £1 a few years back…they were so run down
Dunno…my heart sank when I saw the state of my Housing Association garage in 2019
But I think that these days one seems to have to fight for nearly everything 
Remember …you are paying them RENT of XX pcm but the garage has obviously been neglected
And my Housing Association were more forthcoming with fixing the garage as my rent payments to them increased
Also…every time they write to advise of my Rent Increase each year they include a ‘Option’
‘If you wish to relinquish your garage please complete the enclosed form’
[Yeah…right…after all the aggro to get you to get it up to scratch…I don’t think so !]
Don’t stop paying your rent…just keep battling to win your 'argy bargy ’
Meanwhile…keep hold of your sense of humour in these times
St. Albans…not been there but heard it’s a great area
Kindest
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A bit of good news already.
I just went to the garage with intention of trying to identify the problem. There is a garden on the other side of the right hand wall, so with some trepidation, i knocked on the door of the house concerned. I need not have worried, the owner is a really nice bloke, he told me that the downpipe for the guttering goes down into his garden, and guess what? it’s been broken for over a year and water has been cascading out of the guttering all over the wall, and that, at least a year ago he reported it to the council who told him they would fix it. So, problem identified, ammunition gained, early call to the council tomorrow. Watch this space.
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UPDATE. St Albans Council proving difficult to contact. Two emails, a phone call and a voice message with a request for a call back…nothing yet! Still, only about six weeks to go before Easter.
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Probably cost £15 in bits from diy shop ,
I’d just replace it myself,
Be quicker and less stressful
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Good Moaning ['Allo 'Allo]…trying to be witty here
Result re ‘nice bloke with the garden’ 
Great minds think alike…I too thought of speaking to ‘person who had the garden that backed onto rear of my garage’ but didn’t as wall was not damp…just huge amount of tendrils growing through the air vents. Cut them back in 2019 and very little regrowth
‘With some trepidation’…yep me too…you could get your head bitten off or find them very vulnerable …[just hoping it’s not honeysuckle tendrils as bloke who has garage next door but two advised he’d got a bees/wasps nest recently ]
Bottom Line is our garages were neglected or previous tenant wasn’t able to maintain
[Don’t get me started on the bungalow I’ve rented since Sept 2014…shot up the housing list and very grateful to get it…but the previous tenant went into a home…getting there slowly…it’s not easy to motivate yourself when you don’t own the property and have only one pair of hands…but beggars can’t be choosers as they say !]
I hear you Bally3
But firstly it’s a ‘matter of principal’ as one is paying rent
Secondly it’s probably in the Tenancy Agreement’ about tenants doing DIY …because as a non-expert if you fail to make a proper repair as you are not a trained qualified person etc then you can set yourself up for liability
It’s a bit of a minefield !!
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PS
Having said that…
Sometimes it’s better to seek forgiveness than ask for permission 
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Yes that was my first instinct, but, we are not talking about cheap plastic guttering here. If you look at the picture above, it shows what appears to be a black lintel above the brickwork. It is in fact a cast iron trough style guttering system measuring roughly nine inches square, made in the 40s and not exactly diy domestic stuff. Having said that, i am very confident that, with the permission of the council i can sort it myself.
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Having built my own extention, i am reasonably qualified to fix some guttering and fix the water ingress…the asbestos roof however, is another story.
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Snap!
When I bought this 1927 house the semi-circular cast iron gutters had numerous splits along the valley and the previous owner had paid for “repairs.” These were simply slapped-on mastic sealant which came off in the first frost.
At first, utterly skint because of the crippling mortgage, I patched it a few more times with left-over “Holt’s Rubberised Underseal,” but that was equally useless.
Eventually I put up plastic guttering and downpipes all round, replacing the useless French drains with a proper system, all at the same time as the extension groundworks in 1980, and it has lasted well ever since.
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Replacing the cast iron stuff would be the ideal solution, but as it runs the complete length of the garage block i don’t think it’s an option. Actually, apart from the downpipe, the guttering itself is in reasonably good condition and a bit of re-pointing on the brickwork underneath will stop rain from running down the outside and into the garage.
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and RichardFX 
[There’s me thinking I’d done pretty well from Kango’ing up patios and paths to taking out stud walls and removing an old lead back boiler…one brick at a time !]
But clearly there is diy and DIY ! 
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That’s pretty heavy duty stuff! Definitely NOT your average DIY job…Well Done! 
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