Will buildmark insurance cover cladding costs?

NinjaD

Hi,

I live in a new build home (shared ownership).  I own 40% and a housing association owns the other 60% which I pay rent on.
We were recently notified that our building is unsafe (faulty cladding) and we must implement immediate Waking Watch.  (Which we will be charged for).  Us leaseholders do not feel that we need them, as our building is 12 meters tall and only has 7 flats inside (2 of which are leaseholders). There's no lift and every flat has very loud fire alarms and so does the hallway.   The stairwell is very wide and no one in the building is in need of assistance to leave the building. 

1)  Do we by law need to have waking watch?  As we will be charged for their time and have seen other cladding victims receive massive bills (between £20/£30 an hour. 24/7).

We have been told that our building hasn't been tested, but as the adjoining building has been tested and found to have faulty cladding, our building will also be faulty and need fixing. This will also be the leaseholders responsbility to pay.  They told us we are at high risk and must have 24/7 waking watch on the 9th September 2020, but they did the testing and removed the external cladding from the adjoining building in 2018. (I found this out by checking google street view's historical pictures as I remembered seeing scaffolding around their building a few years ago.  You can clearly see, cladding in 2017, the next year(2018) there was scaffolding around the building and the year after (2019) the building with its cladding removed.  I've asked them about this & they refuse to give us any information).  

2) If we hired a solicitor, could they be held responsible for knowingly leaving us living in a dangerous building for over 2 years?   

3) Is it the leaseholders responsibility to pay to fix the cladding? Even though when I bought the property over 8 years ago we were told it was safe by the surveyors.

4) I have a buildmark warranty that expires at the beginning of 2021.  Will that cover external cladding costs?  Our freeholder is dragging their feet, and it could take them years to get around to repairing our building, so even if the warranty is good, it will have long expired by the time they fix/bill us for the work.  

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My wife (girlfriend at the time) moved in a few years ago, and now we are planning to move out of London to have more space & start a family.  I asked them(freeholder) if we needed an EWS1 form & the very next day, instead of responding, we get an email stating waking watch will be implemented immediately as our building is unsafe.  A couple of weeks later they finally responded saying we will need an EWS1 form even though our building is under 18 meters (12 meters to be precise).   So essentially we can be trapped here (as our home currently has no value) for who knows how long. As there are currently many flats across the country in the same situation and as we are a small building we will be very low priority.  So let's say it will take up to 10/15 years until they remove the cladding.  Then once they charge us for the cladding removal & waking watch costs, (which I've heard the cost could be up to £70,000 for each leaseholder).  Our share of the flat's profits would not cover this. So we will either bankrupt or stuck in a 1 bed flat & debt for a very long time.  

rachel230

7 flats and 12 metres high. A waking watch? Sounds ridiculous.
Have a read of this
https://www.rics.org/uk/news-insight/latest-news/fire-safety/cladding-qa/
Also you may want to join these facebook groups for sharing and information -

https://www.facebook.com/groups/252779735676850/?ref=share  
https://www.facebook.com/groups/938972799857521/?ref=share
Who is the Freeholder?

GDB2222

You are certainly not alone in this position! According to the NHBC website, the insurance does cover cladding, but only against not being built to NHBC technical requirements, whatever that means. I think you should contact them immediately, and regardless of what they say I suggest you put in a claim straight away. Don’t wait for the freeholders to act before doing so.

Presumably, the HA's tenants are quite happy to have the waking watch, as they won’t be paying for it? It does seem a sledgehammer, etc.   

I don’t think you have a claim because they didn’t act sooner and thereby put you at risk, as you have not suffered any damage (fortunately).

You may just possibly have a claim against your surveyor, but it’s rather unlikely I’m afraid. The standard is what an ordinary competent surveyor would have done, and cladding was not an issue at the time.

AdrianC

NinjaD said:

1)  Do we by law need to have waking watch?
...
2) If we hired a solicitor, could they be held responsible for knowingly leaving us living in a dangerous building for over 2 years?   

Umm, isn't there a bit of a disconnect between these two?

The building is so lethal that you should have been evacuated two years ago... but you don't need to pay for firewardens because it's not a high risk.

NinjaD

rachel230 said:

Who is the Freeholder?

Thanks Rachel, The freeholder is Notting Hill Genesis.
We have had lots of problems with them,  since the day I moved in over 8 years ago, our door system has not worked properly,  i've been locked out at night on numerous occasions.  (At first it was terrible as I knew no-one in the building & the broken system meant I couldn't buzz anyone's door to let me in.   But now I have neighbours phone numbers to call if there's an issue.)
Anyway, after 8 years of always stressing when i'm out, if i will be able to get into my flat or have to phone & disturb a neighbour to let me in, they have finally decided to fix the system and have forced us to go with the most expensive system, even though all the leaseholders said we would prefer the cheaper option & now we are all about to be hit with a big bill to fix the door that has never been fit for purpose. 
 

rachel230

Not the dreaded Notting Hill Genesis..
Multiple issues with this HA. Join the National Leasehold Campaign Facebook group as lots there with NHG and can hopefully advise.
https://nationalleaseholdcampaign.org