THREAD: The housing and cladding crisis you probably haven't heard off.
Emma lives in a Walthamstow tower block. She wants to move and buy a house. But she's just found out her flat is worth 'zero.'
And people like Emma have been told it could be 10 years before they can sell.
Emma lives in a Walthamstow tower block. She wants to move and buy a house. But she's just found out her flat is worth 'zero.'
And people like Emma have been told it could be 10 years before they can sell.
/2 It's got its origins in the Grenfell tragedy. Last year the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors brought out an EWS 1 form, a survey on all >18m tower blocks with cladding would need. The form confirms the cladding is safe, and so lenders will offer mortgages on the flats.
/3 The problem is that after regulations changed at the start of the year, lenders are now requesting the form for buildings BELOW 18m as well. This has created an almighty backlog.
There could be 3m people affected, but only 300 inspectors in the country who can do the tests.
There could be 3m people affected, but only 300 inspectors in the country who can do the tests.
/4 Housing Associations with large portfolios have to prioritise their taller, more at risk buildings.
Take Peabody, a huge housing association. They've told residents it could be up to ten years before they complete the job. That's a decade before people can sell their homes.
Take Peabody, a huge housing association. They've told residents it could be up to ten years before they complete the job. That's a decade before people can sell their homes.
/5 This point is crucial 👇
Getting the form done (which could take years) is only the first part. If the building fails, leaseholders might find themselves trapped into paying thousands for waking watches and new fire alarms.
Getting the form done (which could take years) is only the first part. If the building fails, leaseholders might find themselves trapped into paying thousands for waking watches and new fire alarms.
/6 And let's go back to Emma, at the start of the thread. Her building has cladding, and they're in the costly phase of removing it now. She says her building owner won't pay for the survey as the building is below 18m and it's not mandatory: "We are trapped"
/7 Here’s what housing association Peabody says about the problem.
/8 Just listen to Kate. She gave birth to her daughter during lockdown. They’re desperate to move out of the small flat - but found out on Thursday that without an EWS1 their home is ‘worthless.’
/9 Adding to all this, is the undeniable fact that some of these buildings ARE unsafe. We demonstrated that yesterday with my story about Zenith House in Colindale. The cladding was OK but there were loads of other faults which the EWS1 survey picked up... lbc.co.uk/news/tower-blo…
/10 And it’s not just sellers who are affected. This would-be first time buyer is desperate to get on the housing ladder (they want to take advantage of @RishiSunak’s stamp duty holiday) but they can’t:
/11 Here’s a link to the petition. It looks like it’s had more than 1,000 new signatures in the past 24 hours petition.parliament.uk/petitions/3282…
