Thread by @claddingtrapped

1/ I'd have so much more respect for the RMC directors and MA if they just said "oops, we f*&ked up".

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2/ If they said they had a knee jerk reaction to messy government guidelines and pulled off our cladding and insulation without the proper advice because they panicked.

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3/ But instead it's been a sh*tshow ever since.

When we asked about whether they were leaving the building this way they said it was fine.

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4/ When we asked whether it was safe to use our balcony in this condition because we often spent time out there with our children, especially through the warmer weather, we were told (somewhat condescendingly) that...

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5/...if we felt it was unsafe we shouldn't let our children go out there. I mean we're obviously not going to put our children in danger but also, it is their home too and they should be able to use every part of it.

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6/ I questioned in August 2021 as to whether leaving our building unprotected would expose us to damp and mould. They assured us it wouldn't.

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7/ When we started to experience damp and mould in November 2021 they dismissed us. They told us, without coming to even look, that it wasn't to do with the building.

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8/ They said it was a living condition issue. Meanwhile our walls were absolutely caked in mould and soaking wet.

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9/ They eventually sent round people to do a damp report who claimed at the time it was nothing to do with the cladding situation. The MA claimed that they said it wasn't and refused to ever share the reports.

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10/ It then came out that these weren't even damp specialists.. To this day we still have no idea what happened here. Of course MA refuse to let us see the reports.

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11/ As winter trekked on the damp and mould got worse. They refused to engage with us. We spoke to a damp company who said it was absolutely the result of no cladding or insulation.

The MA didn't want hear this.

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12/ Still blamed living condition issues..despite this happening in so so many properties all over the block.

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13/ At the same time it was time for us to remortgage. This checked out fine for affordability etc however we didn't get it because the surveyor noted "degredation to the building".

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14/ Shared this with the MA who said that was odd because sales were going through. They weren't, nobody has sold since the cladding was removed.

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15/ Properties can go up for sale, sell and then fall over at the mortgage stage because lenders won't lend because we have no external walls.

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16/ Our MA denies this is a problem. We were able to secure a deal with our current lender at least but it wasn't ideal.

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17/ So no sales, no remortgages and full of damp and mould.

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18/ Unbeknownst to most of the block the RMC served a s20 for the replacement works. Most people never received this, which seems odd. They therefore lost the right to consult.

MA doesn't think this is an issue.

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19/ Legal advice suggests this would make the s20 unenforceable and we wouldn't be subject to costs of more than £250.

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20/ Finally called AGM in May 2022, 11 months after removing our cladding and insulation because they said that the cladding was a fire hazard. It was pvc-ue cladding.

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21/ We are under 11m and building control have since confirmed that any cladding would have been suitable in terms of fire resistance due to building height and distance to the boundary.

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22/ The AGM was just a place to gaslight us further, avoid most questions and pressure a vote to spend £70k of our reserve fund on the project management for the replacement.

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23/ Based on the fact that leaseholders have to fund the replacement we couldn't work out why we needed to pay for project management if the project couldn't get off the ground.

No answer.

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24/ After the AGM we had more questions than answers and 33 members got together to raise these questions and concerns

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25/ Although their response was mostly inadequate we did find out some key points.

- The original fire report stated that the cladding was potentially flammable and they should employ a competent person to analyse.

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26/ This competent person should analyse the external wall system to see if it needed removal, remediation or nothing at all.

The RMC decided to skip this step and just pulled it off.

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27/ They claim that the fire report was an enforcement notice. But the report is clear that this was the step to be taken.

They also denied us seeing the report so we got it through an FOI request.

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28/ They claim they didn't do this step because employing someone to evaluate the external wall system would have cost £100,000 alone.

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29/ However, building control came to us recently and confirmed that any cladding would have been and will be suitable in terms of fire resistance, based on the building height (under 11m) and distance to the boundary.

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30/ It's winter again. The damp and mould is back. There is still no money to replace the cladding. The MA claim we would have all been evicted if the cladding remained.

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31/ It's 18 months on. Everyone is aware: MP, ward councillors, environmental health, building control etc.

MA determined to spend the money on project management despite there being no further money for the actual project.

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32/ We have reasonably asked that if building control have recommended a product + based on the regulations for our building, do we need to spent the £70k on project management? No response.

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33/ Due to everything we've found out (this thread is just a small snapshot if you can believe it) we asked back in the summer for them to answer our questions and call another meeting.

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34/ They did answer the questions (ish) but didn't call a meeting. We have therefore send our request for them to call an EGM.

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35/ If you got this far, thank you!

I'll leave you with some photos of what we're dealing with.

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