Owning your own home

EWS1 Update:
On the 20th July Chris Pincher released the Buildings Safety Bill which enshrines into law the fact remediation costs for buildings will be borne by leaseholders under a new term called building safety charge. The demand for building safety charges must be paid by leaseholders within 28 days and is enforceable in county court. It's estimated that the average cost for remediation works for buildings with cladding will be £68k per leaseholder.

This really is becoming a big scandal.

Finding 68k within 28 days is a non-trivial task, I'm assuming that for most it would mean adding that to the mortgage, but whether that's possible is going to depend on level of equity, and whether the bank thinks the property has any value given the current situation. What a shit show.

It'll not be possible for almost all residents of these blocks.

Apparently the draft bill was written in consultation with freeholders. Which is interesting, as before the bill was released they were solely responsible for the costs. There was talk of many housing associations (who are also the freeholders of 000's of buildings) becoming insolvent if they had to pay for the repairs, so rightly they should be protected as they provide an invaluable service to many, often lower income tenants/leaseholders.

However, the majority of freeholders are privately owned asset classes, these freeholders have no skin-in-the-game other than employing intermediaries to 'manage' their freehold assets to x% yield.

Le Zoopla

What a shower of shit.

Sorry to hear about all this drama, looks like a real shit show. No real words of advice to add but hope it all works out somehow.

I actually think it'll be ok for me as the critical measure for any of this will be if your building is deemed unsafe. The guidance for which buildings are unsafe is yet to be released but it'll be predominantly high rise blocks or blocks with highly combustible materials of which my block is neither. So, I think I'll be ok but massively delayed in any deal I need/want to do.

I would imagine that what will happen will be repossessions on a grand scale, with the fee paid out of the sale.

If any of this happens I will eat my hat.

This is madness.

Do you have a source for the £68k figure? I've seen on gov.uk they're saying "But, to make sure that these costs are affordable, we have deliberately included powers to limit the costs that can be re-charged to leaseholders" but am interested to know what they're deeming as 'affordable'.

I'm lucky enough to have been able to get an EWS1 form for my flat, after going around the housing association and directly to the property developer, but am still following the issue. My step-brother has been told by his HA that it could be up to 10 years before they're able to complete the required work on his building, and until then he's stuck unable to sell or remortgage.

They’re going in strong with the draft bill knowing it’ll get watered down to something more reasonable during passage - I hope.

The grenfell disaster and cladding fiasco is a scandal of our time.

The housing Assoc who are free holders of the block my flat is in have gone a step further. They have a maintenance fund that we have been paying into since the building was constructed. So far they have painted the block once and we along with all of the other leaseholders have been paying into it for about 15 years. We have just been told that none of the works to sort out and sign off the ews1 form will be paid for from this fund. Before they even tender for the works to start on the survey that will (hopefully establish compliance). They are going to renew all the service risers and and most of the fire stopping in the building the cost of this is again expected to be met directly by the leaseholders.

Apparently the draft bill was written in consultation with freeholders.

Oh well that's OK then

written in consultation with freeholders.

You've misspelled Major Tory Donors

I've read several articles about the issue with Manchester tower blocks and some of those residents have quoted costs of £100k+, in some cases as much as the value of the flat

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2020/jul/17/leaseholders-billed-up-to-115000-each-to-remove-grenfell-style-cladding

Artisan, a north-west property firm, owns the freehold to Connect House, which it converted into flats and commercial space in 2003. Leaseholders said the firm had failed to install fire insulation and used cheaper combustible timber stud to attach the cladding when carrying out the work.

Artisan said the work had been completed “in accordance with all planning laws and building regulations in force at that time”.

A comprehensive fire risk assessment in March found the building unsafe, with the total cost of fixing the defects of £5.2m. Leaseholders were liable for 70% of the cost, with those in bigger flats billed £115,000. The average charge was £78,000 per flat. Residents have been told that two-thirds of the charge had to be paid by the end of 2021, a bill of £75,900 for those facing the maximum levy.

Treadway said the stress of the charges had been “extremely debilitating”, especially with a new baby, and that he had sought help from his GP. “Boris Johnson has got a new son – surely he wouldn’t want to be in this position. The government fund is our best hope.”

In a letter to Powell, the leaseholders wrote that most of them faced “the devastating prospects of losing our apartments or having to file for bankruptcy as we are simply unable to repay such staggering amounts”.

We have just been told that none of the works to sort out and sign off the ews1 form will be paid for from this fund.

That's ridiculous. It's effectively leaseholders money so how can they refuse to use it for the benefit of leaseholders?

This guy is an interesting read on the draft bill.
https://twitter.com/nearlylegal

Basically, leaseholders gonna get fucked

Sounds like extraordinarily bad legislation.

Not if you're the freeholder. Or a vulture capitalist. i.e. a Tory.

Sounds lovely, hope it all goes smoothly.

In a way that is totally unsurprising, the following is happening:
EWS1 forms are being completed at a rate of about 100 per month. However they are primarily being completed on the behalf of builders/housing associations for new developments where the freeholder has a vested interest in being able to sell their remaining properties. I guess at the point they sell them all the new draft bill then moves any responsibility for future repairs to the leaseholders. Den. Of. Cunts.

I was looking at some newly built flats around our way today and wondering how they could be sold in the current climate.

But ah, of course. Any potential liabilities due to signing the EWS < bankruptcy

Our purchase has stalled and with each day my sense of existential dread rises.

Mine too. It's been horrific. Offer was accepted in November and still not done - 9 months of limbo and i'm starting to crack. No chain and I'm FTB. Was supposed to finally complete last Friday, sellers stalled and we eventually found out the bathroom ceiling had fallen through due to a leak upstairs. Couldn't make it up. Though in some ways guess I'm lucky it didn't happen after.

It's also a flat so the chat above is also filling me with dread.

I'm gonna be honest with you all.

DO NOT BUY A FLAT UNTIL THSI SHIT IS RESOLVED