Owners face a new trap in their offer to sell homes hit by the Grenfell cladding crisis | casing

Thousands of people are stuck in homes they can’t sell or reschedule despite the government trying to convince banks to ditch the fire protection panel inspection on low-rise buildings.

The government announced in July that buildings no more than 18 meters high would no longer require external wall measurements or EWS1 certificates, which have been common since the Grenfell disaster. However, banks and building societies still insist on controls which, due to the lack of qualified and insured firefighters, can take months or even years to complete.

It is not known how many are affected by the facade crisis, but there are tens of thousands of low to medium height buildings that house hundreds of thousands of people. London’s largest housing associations have said it has affected more than 1,200 potential sales of apartments in their blocks.

Mortgage lenders have become more and more nervous about lending to people buying some homes as post-fire checks in Grenfell uncovered many costly security flaws. Even surveyors are on the safe side.

UK Finance, which represents the financial sector, said some lenders were still calling for surveys on low block of flats as the government had not yet withdrawn previous advice calling for inspections of buildings of all heights.

“Lenders’ policies reflect their respective business and risk appetites in lending to paneled homes and recognize that both the government recommendation and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors guidelines in this area remain in effect,” said one Speaker.

Hayley Myers and her young family have not been able to leave their London apartment since February. Their last sale failed because the buyer’s mortgage lender requested an EWS1 rating for their low-rise building.

The family has been advised by their real estate agent to wait before remarketing the home as recent government assurances have not changed the lender’s requirements.

“After we became pregnant with our second child, my husband and I had to come to terms with the fact that we could no longer afford life in London. We quickly outgrew our little two bedroom apartment in Zone 3, and buying a larger property was way beyond our means, ”she said.

“That, along with Childcare costs are the highest in the UK, cemented our decision to return to Coventry, my hometown, where we could buy a modest three bedroom house with a garden and live closer to the family. ”

The insecurity puts a strain on the couple’s health and keeps them up at night. “Our mental health has deteriorated and we feel claustrophobic in our own homes,” she said. “I really want our young children to be as close to their grandparents as I was when I was a kid. To know that we will never get this precious time back is heartbreaking. “

L&Q, who owns their building, said occupant safety is a priority. It said it would start inspecting blocks less than 18 meters high, which include more than 1,500 buildings, next month.

“Building inspections are prioritized according to risk, with the buildings with the highest risk planned first. We appreciate the fact that this has caused some to wait longer than others, and we are very sorry that their lives have been disrupted, ”the message reads. The company said it will inspect the Myers building later this year. While L&Q was able to inform 10,000 households that inspections are not required, many of the housing association’s other low-rise buildings still need to be inspected because they have potentially dangerous cladding or balconies.

It is clear that the credit market makes its own decisions. Barclays, one of the UK’s largest mortgage lenders, is still calling for EWS1 ratings for buildings under 18 million on the advice of appraisers. NatWest also relies on its appraisers’ judgments. According to the Yorkshire Building Society, in some cases, reviewers recommended EWS1 surveys for low-rise buildings.

Giles Grover, co-head of the End our Cladding Scandal campaign, said hundreds of thousands of residents were trapped in homes they couldn’t sell and some were grappling with huge repair bills. “This crisis is never ending because we now know too much about the security deficiencies in buildings of all heights,” he said.

“The government needs to take control of the situation from assessment to resolution rather than leaving it to the market and placing prohibitive bills on people for problems they did not cause.”

The Department for Leveling Up, Housing and Communities, renamed by the new Foreign Secretary Michael Gove, said: “We have made it clear that EWS1 forms should not be requested for buildings under 18 meters.”