Dangerous cladding

zoeblackman

Hello,
I have lived in my flat for 5 years. Recently we have been told that we have unsafe cladding on parts of the building that need to be removed. Last week, everyone in the building was sent a bill for £3,200 to be paid by the end of this month. A second bill of the same amount will also need to be paid in April. When we moved it, it was safe but not it is not. I really need some advice on whether it is our responsibility to pay this money and if we can't afford to, what happens? I have emailed our local MP with no response and have contacted the managing agent who are no help at all. Is anyone able to give some advice? My husband and myself were planning on selling our flat but due to this, we are able to legally sell and if we have to pay this large amount of money, we won't be able to afford it in the future. Help! 
Thank you. 

Slithery

zoeblackman said:

Hello,
I have lived in my flat for 5 years. Recently we have been told that we have unsafe cladding on parts of the building that need to be removed. Last week, everyone in the building was sent a bill for £3,200 to be paid by the end of this month. A second bill of the same amount will also need to be paid in April. When we moved it in, it was safe but not now it is not. I really need some advice on whether it is our responsibility to pay this money and if we can't afford to, what happens? I have emailed our local MP with no response and have contacted the managing agent who are no help at all. Is anyone able to give some advice? My husband and myself were planning on selling our flat but due to this, we are aren't able to legally sell and if we have to pay this large amount of money, we won't be able to afford it in the future. Help! 
Thank you. 

Is that what you meant?

But yes, the freeholder will recover costs from all of the leaseholders to bring the property up to the new regulations.

zoeblackman

Slithery said:

zoeblackman said:

Hello,
I have lived in my flat for 5 years. Recently we have been told that we have unsafe cladding on parts of the building that need to be removed. Last week, everyone in the building was sent a bill for £3,200 to be paid by the end of this month. A second bill of the same amount will also need to be paid in April. When we moved it in, it was safe but not now it is not. I really need some advice on whether it is our responsibility to pay this money and if we can't afford to, what happens? I have emailed our local MP with no response and have contacted the managing agent who are no help at all. Is anyone able to give some advice? My husband and myself were planning on selling our flat but due to this, we are aren't able to legally sell and if we have to pay this large amount of money, we won't be able to afford it in the future. Help! 
Thank you. 

Is that what you meant?

But yes, the freeholder will recover costs from all of the leaseholders to bring the property up to the new regulations.

Hello,
Yes. Thank you. 
So they are allowed to ask for this amount of money upfront? We have been turned down for government funding twice but have applied again now the regulations have changed. If we pay, would there still be a possibility of getting the money back? 

AdrianC

zoeblackman said:

When we moved in, it was safe but now it is not.

I don't know if you watch much news, but there was a bit of an incident in June 2017 that got people looking a bit more closely at cladding...


Yes, you need to pay. It's part of the service charges for your block, same as the lift etc. Who else would be paying? I'm sure you agree it's better than the alternative...

BTW, £6k is relatively cheap.

numbercruncher8

You can sell your flat. The problem would be that whoever is buying it may not get a mortgage on it due to the flat not having the requisite paperwork.

At the moment it is very much the case that they can bill people for these works. I can't see the work being held up if someone doesn't pay.

I know someone in dispute with the freeholder on a different matter (general repairs), the works still went ahead and their account shows that they owe the money. Technically speaking the freeholder could simply block a leaseholder selling until the debt was cleared.

They probably wouldn't do it because of the poor publicity but they could go down the means of recovering money that most companies do, ie debt collector, selling the debt off, or threatening court.

IMO c.£6k doesn't sound like an exploitative charge. In the end the flat probably will go up by the same value.

NameUnavailable

There are other threads on here about the EWS1 'scandal' and I posted a link to a campaign currently being raised by the Sunday Times.

I would find out if your building has been checked propertly i.e. if needed could an EWS1 form be completed by your freeholders? Presumably they have but you don't want to be in a position of paying out for the works only to find out later that they're still not to standard (could happen!).

If you intend selling and if EWS1 can be provided and if the new cladding will bring the property up to a mortgageable standard then personally I would go ahead asap and then put the place up for sale.

Alternatively you can contest the charges at a property tribunal but it could be costly (you could be liable for your freeholders legal costs regardless of the outcome) and the tribunal can only determine if the works are necessary (which they will be) and if the costs are reasonable (which I think they would be).

rachel230

You are far from alone. It is a dreadful situation to be in.
Join the facebook group UKCAG (Cladding Action Group) for support and advice. There is an official twitter group also at @EOCS_Official.
Also there is a petition 
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/328201

eve824

I have no advice but I just wanted to say how awful this whole scenario is and I personally don't think it should be the responsibility of the leaseholders to pay these costs. I hope you find help in one of the groups Rachel230 has kindly linked above.

AdrianC

eve824 said:

and I personally don't think it should be the responsibility of the leaseholders to pay these costs.

So who should?

There's three basic choices:
1. Leaseholders. They pay all the other costs of maintaining and upgrading the fabric of the building.
2. Freeholders. All the other costs they incur in managing the blocks go back to leaseholders.
3. Taxpayers. Local authorities are freeholders of many blocks, so 2 and 3 are the same thing - and, of course, local authorities are utterly skint after a decade of austerity cost-cutting - or were you thinking of national government?
4. Somebody else. But who? The Tooth Fairy?

If you owned a freehold house and there was a similar issue, who would you expect to cover the bill?

bouicca21

There’s a block a few miles from me that has unsafe cladding.  The bill for that is way, way higher than OP’s - according to the residents by a factor of 10. The flats are now unsaleable as no one can get a mortgage.  It’s a stark choice - invest in removing the cladding and have a saleable property or don’t invest In it and be stuck living in a firetrap.

foxy-stoat

zoeblackman said:

Slithery said:

zoeblackman said:

Hello,
I have lived in my flat for 5 years. Recently we have been told that we have unsafe cladding on parts of the building that need to be removed. Last week, everyone in the building was sent a bill for £3,200 to be paid by the end of this month. A second bill of the same amount will also need to be paid in April. When we moved it in, it was safe but not now it is not. I really need some advice on whether it is our responsibility to pay this money and if we can't afford to, what happens? I have emailed our local MP with no response and have contacted the managing agent who are no help at all. Is anyone able to give some advice? My husband and myself were planning on selling our flat but due to this, we are aren't able to legally sell and if we have to pay this large amount of money, we won't be able to afford it in the future. Help! 
Thank you. 

Is that what you meant?

But yes, the freeholder will recover costs from all of the leaseholders to bring the property up to the new regulations.

Hello,
Yes. Thank you. 
So they are allowed to ask for this amount of money upfront? We have been turned down for government funding twice but have applied again now the regulations have changed. If we pay, would there still be a possibility of getting the money back? 

You will get your money back when you sell.  Right now the mortgageable value of your is £0.00.  I hope that the roof is 100%, windows wont need replacing soon and anything else to do with the building is all ok.

I would look into current Money Transfer/Balance transfer deals on your credit cards and shuffle the £7,000 on the lowest interest rate possible until you can clear it, if you have no savings.