Cladding - what can home owners or potential buyers do?

There are some really good initiatives being carried out to keep the pressure on the government and support home owners so they don’t go through this on their own.

The key one is the UK Cladding Action Group (UKCAG) are doing a great job and have MPs, celebrities etc on side and a lot of very motivated people who, in Kate’s view, are being unfairly affected. The group End Our Cladding Scandal, supported by UKCAG, are also campaigning.

Here are UK Cladding Action Group ten-point plan to solve the cladding crisis:-

1. Leaseholders must be given up-front government funding, which they shouldn’t have to repay. Wherever possible this should be offset by future clawback from the parties deemed to have been at fault. Such liability must be determined properly through due legal process.
2. The fund isn’t enough to cover all the remediation required. It’s estimated at £15bn. It should be available for all dangerous buildings, regardless of height.
3. The government should give freeholders a statutory right to install, maintain and charge for new systems that will help make properties safe. This includes whole-building sprinkler systems and fire alarms. We agree that these costs should be paid for by leaseholders. However, installation will reduce the need for Waking Watches and their associated costs, which typically fall on leaseholders.
4. Planning and building regulations must have greater cohesion and work in tandem with digital and regular on the ground oversight. These must be easily reviewed and checked. Regulations should cover safety and not just aesthetics. Online details of all at-risk buildings, relevant defects, safety features and evacuation procedures should be available to all, including potential homebuyers.
5. The privatisation of building control has proved dangerous. It needs a complete overhaul with clear, integrated lines of responsibility and best use of the technology that’s currently available. Total independence and wide powers to review and intervene where necessary are required.
6. Certification of safe building materials and methods must be similarly and radically overhauled, so that the failings exposed by the Grenfell Tower inquiry can never be repeated. Sub-contractors must not be allowed to substitute materials. Risk should not be watered down through the contractual chain to the point of no responsibility.
7. Special provision must be made for disabled occupants of high-risk buildings as quickly as possible. This would include easily available relevant information for fire and rescue services and tailored escape plans.
8. We must learn from what others are doing. The Building Information Modelling (BIM) standards that were developed in the UK have been adopted across the world. But other countries, such as Ireland, have a much more rigorous approach to regulation and enforcement. Digitised record keeping and Modern Methods of Construction must continue to be standardised.
9. We need to accelerate the provision for surveyors able to issue EWS1 certificates. The Fire Safety industry needs similar support. Relative costs are minor and well worth investing in. Many are trapped awaiting administrative assistance that’s keeping their lives on hold.
10. We must be able to look back in years to come at the Grenfell Tower disaster as a watershed moment for the industry and its regulators. It should mark the start of a new era for building standards and the safety of people in high-rise properties.

Source:
Two million people are mortgage prisoners due to cladding issues

Neighbours locked in cladding nightmare

What else can be done?

Kate’s thoughts are:-

1. A fund to take on the existing costs leaseholders are having to pay for and reimburse them for costs to date, they need that ‘yesterday’!
2. Another meeting to confirm, with experts, including insurers, that buildings below 18m should be fine and taken out of the cladding issue altogether
3. A deadline for when the government will have an answer on finances for leaseholders

For more information, also read:

• Need to know more about cladding? Here are the essentials
• External cladding - why is this an issue?
• What's the problem with the current government support for home owners with the cladding crisis?

Buying at auction - Auction Trade	Choosing a surveyor and type of survey - RPSA	Passing on your property wealth - Chase de Vere