Martina Lees Profile picture
Sep 27, 2020 12 tweets 16 min read Read on X
4/12 Not only do 20,000 flats still have Grenfell cladding, but 186,000 in 2,957 towers are still wrapped in other flammable materials & up to 1.5m modern flats could be unmortgageable for years because they can't prove they're safe (my p1 story last week) thetimes.co.uk/article/thousa…
5/12 Now 1st stats show how this is hitting the market. The difference in rate at which flat sales fall through vs houses has more than doubled since govt tightened safety guidance in Jan in response to Grenfell. This is @TwentyCi data of 3m sales (they supply Bank of England) Image
6/12 Estate agents are turning away as many as a third of flat owners who want to sell. This crisis threatens to reverse the stamp duty boost to the housing market #EndOurCladdingScandal thetimes.co.uk/article/carey-…
7/12 It's affecting other property sales too. @UKFtweets Eric Leenders (bank trade body UK Finance boss) saw his own property’s sale chain collapse: "It was a flat further up the chain in a building that didn’t comply with fire-safety rules” thetimes.co.uk/article/carey-…
8/12 Here is what we are asking for to #EndOurCladdingScandal – Britain’s #hiddenhousingscandal @thesundaytimes @insidehousing @ukcag @GrenfellUnited Image
9/12 And here are a few reasons why. The Crowley family can't sell their flat in a three-storey block in south London because the building has no #EWS1 Image
10/12 Abi Tubis had saved “every single penny” since she was 14 to buy her first home in 2017. Now she and her husband face a bill of £35,000 to strip flammable high-pressure laminate cladding from their Leeds block @LeedsCladding Image
11/12 Vickie Pargetter and David Garner's Birmingham building lacks cavity barriers. The govt's £1.6bn cladding fund won't cover that. By the time it's resolved, Vicki, 39, says she will be too old for them to try for a sibling for Blake Image

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More from @Lees_Martina

Jun 11, 2022
The hardest and most important article I have written in 20 years of journalism: Five years ago on Tuesday, 72 people died at #Grenfell. Over 10 pages, this is the definitive account of the disaster - and the lies, cover-ups and mistakes that led to it thetimes.co.uk/article/corner…
This is also the untold story of the 5-year-old girl from the Belkadi family on #Grenfell Tower's 20th floor: her mum, dad, big sister, 8, and baby sister all died. She alone survived. Her aunt Samira and I both cried talking about that terrible night thetimes.co.uk/article/corner…
And it is the shocking story of how the government failed to tighten flawed rules despite warnings, and how the three manufacturers of the panels that fuelled the fire practiced a "fraud... on the market". The details are devastating thetimes.co.uk/article/corner…
Read 14 tweets
Jan 9, 2022
This is a partial victory for @EOCS_Official leaseholders (and @thesundaytimes campaign to help them) but comes with a big caveat: good luck with making the companies pay unless the government forces them thetimes.co.uk/article/why-di…
Operation Apex will trace corporate webs of SPVs that obscure #buildingsafetyscandal liability and also identify "egregious behaviour where freeholders have sought to aggressively pass on costs to innocent leaseholders", leaked papers show
Read 21 tweets
Apr 4, 2021
New court claims alleging that Zurich signed off dangerous flats as safe without proper inspections raise questions about why the giant offloaded new home warranties onto off-shore owned East West, which collapsed & left liability with statutory safety net thetimes.co.uk/article/zurich…
The cases also shine a light on why 700,000 live in flats that passed inspections but were found to have fire risks post Grenfell thetimes.co.uk/article/zurich…
Two new claims by owners of dangerous flats in Bradford & Swansea (incl at the tallest tower in Wales) allege Zurich fraudulently signed warranty cover notes claiming that final inspections were done. Zurich denies this thetimes.co.uk/article/zurich…
Read 11 tweets
Jan 24, 2021
1/6 Fire-risk bills of £100,000 per flat - much bigger than government policy has factored in - are landing on doormats as ministers plan loans for leaseholders #EndOurCladdingScandal thetimes.co.uk/article/hidden…
2/6 New @ARMAleasehold figures show average remediation bill is £50k per flat, of which flat owners must pay more than HALF for defects that breached building rules at the time but fall outside govt funds. This will add fuel to calls for developer levies thetimes.co.uk/article/hidden…
3/6 @thesundaytimes p4: 'Useless' fire wardens doubled in a year to 766 waking watches, costing leaseholders £174m a year, yet officials behind guidance that brought the patrols in admit they had no evidence it works - FOI @Labour4Housing @petermengerink thetimes.co.uk/article/flat-o…
Read 6 tweets
Sep 20, 2020
For the past 2 weeks I spoke to >60 people to find out the true scale of the cladding crisis. It could leave 6% of homes unmortgageable for years and hit the whole housing market thetimes.co.uk/article/thousa…
So far, 92% of blocks have failed detailed new safety checks. Then lenders won't lend and leaseholders must wait 5-10yrs (and pay £££££) before they get the sign-off they need to sell/get a new mortgage
Lenders are asking almost any modern flat for this proof. I found examples in 3-storey brick buildings where sales fell through and caused chains to collapse
Read 11 tweets
Feb 16, 2020
The lives on hold inside the cladding scandal: "I no longer buy little things like contact lenses. That’s £25 a month — two days of waking-watch payments."
Abigail Tubis, 29, Leeds (1/5) @LeedsCladding @McrCladiators @LKPleasehold @ukcag @NLC_2019
thetimes.co.uk/article/proper…
@LeedsCladding @McrCladiators @LKPleasehold @ukcag @NLC_2019 The lives on hold inside the cladding scandal: "I’m not only facing losing my home. Solicitors cannot be bankrupt, that would also mean losing my career." Rebecca Fairclough, 37, Manchester (2/5) thetimes.co.uk/article/proper…
@LeedsCladding @McrCladiators @LKPleasehold @ukcag @NLC_2019 The lives on hold inside the cladding scandal: "My partner has had to return to supply teaching, aged 67, to help cover the mortgage." Carolyn Lovatt, 64, London (3/5) thetimes.co.uk/article/proper…
Read 5 tweets

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