Govt makes haphazard attempt to alleviate some of the blockages in flat sales mess caused by EWS1

annetheman

Crashy_Time said:

They will probably go the "loans" route, the PTB seem to like lending money to the average punters for all sorts of reasons, fixing your flat to make it safe is probably not a bad reason?

Excuse my ignorance - what does 'PTB' stand for?

Consensus is that since the building belongs to the freeholder, loans will be for them to use to fix their building's defects, not for the leaseholder. Leaseholder cannot legally instruct any repairs/work on the buildings which they don't own.

Interesting too that legal twitter is split on whether disputing loan repayments if added to the service charge is likely to be successful. They may not fall within the statutory controls of most leases, though individual lease variations would still cause problems for some. It seems likely in the event of the first dispute, a judicial decision would set precedent.

Ah, the joys of leasehold.

Many MPs across parties are officially endorsing EOCS and A13 on Twitter and even the Spectator has noted the shift amongst the Tories recently

Edit to add link: https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/another-tory-revolt-looms-this-time-on-cladding

The failings that led us here are from successive govts but the 80 seat Commons majority the Tories have make this an important shift if amendments successful in the Lords are to become law.

Still no closer to finding out how much different stakeholders will contribute to a central remediation fund (fairly certain it will come from a mix of sources). Still no notable shift from lenders after the "announcement" from Jenrick.

Crashy_Time

Powers That Be - Biblical origin really but in the modern world the PTB are the banks and the government basically, people can decide for themselves which is the tail and which is the dog.

Crashy_Time

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-55046465

annetheman

UPDATE: yesterday's article from the Times, explaining how having never admitted regulations were too lax previously hence this mess, govt in fact exacerbated the EWS1 problem in Jan 2020. Govt action still pending (unsurprising, given no responsibility of any part of this has been claimed, despite evidence that officials were aware flammable insulation should not be but was being used on high rises prior to Grenfell), slow and unfortunately - where they have waded in - has only succeeded to make things worse. 

"The whole chain of property sales can collapse if one part of the chain can't get its form"

Crashy_Time

Yep it is a big mess, I`m sure B.J will have some big slogans to fix the problem though?

annetheman

UPDATE: article in the Sunday Times about the loans solution for leaseholders - forcing innocent victims of failed regulations and building malpractice to take 30-year loans to fix buildings that don't belong to them is not a viable "solution". They tried this in Australia and it didn't work, hence the developer levy.

Increasingly, the link to developer donations - and the fact that they will be absolved of any financial responsibility if the govt goes for this approach - is finally being made a regular feature in coverage of the scandal.

Crashy_Time

Yep get a loan, that is the answer to everything according to the bubblenomics thinking of modern finance.

annetheman

UPDATE

The cladding scandal is in tomorrow's Daily Mail - front page news on the first day back to work for millions in 2021. Will this be the year leaseholders finally get justice? Will developers who have built these firetraps finally be forced to pay by the govt they bribe with donations?

My personal feelings aside about this 'newspaper', it has a huge reach and I'm so pleased to see them kick-starting this campaign. Sunday Times behind it too, but not nearly as many readers amongst the general populace.

Article link

Crashy_Time

It is just one mess after another with this government?

annetheman

UPDATE:

Make the building giants pay! Ministers consider £2bn levy on developers as families face a £15bn bill for safe homes after Grenfell disaster

• Big building firms face multi-billion-pound levy to help families pay to repair homes with dangerous cladding
• The levy could raise up to £200million a year - a total of £2billion over ten years
• It could mean a levy on all high rise flats and separate charge on major builds

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9157869/Ministers-consider-2bn-levy-developers-families-face-15bn-bill-safe-homes-Grenfell.html

Wow. Slow clap for the "brightest minds in Westminster" (Building Safety Minister Greenhalgh's words, not mine) for finally considering this as a potential maybe possible could be option for perhaps funding contribution.