Ews1

Tommckinlay1991

hoping someone can advise. please.

I am in the process of buying a house and selling my flat. 12 weeks in my buyers bank has said they need an esw1.

The block of flats is 6 stories (ground floor and pent house included) and less than 18 metres. It is brick built with steel frame and no cladding. In England north west.

The only thing I can see it maybe being is the 4 balconies stacked one above the other as they have timber floors (but a glass balustrade and metal handrail). Based on rics guidelines this is therefore OK.

The bank sent a rics surveyor and by the sounds of it it's due to balconies .

To add insult to injury, 2 flats in the same block have sold this year with natwest and leeds with no issues I am told. So I am confused why me selling a month later its now a requirement. I also bought this flat 2 years ago and had no issues at all..

The management company refuse to do an ews1 as they deem its not needed based on rics guidance.

The banks that declined were principality and bank of Ireland.. both used connells surveyors.

Does anyone else have a similar experience ?

Are those banks particularly harsh ? Is it worth trying others ?

Why wasn't it an issue for me 2 years ago or even mentioned?

Hopefully I can get a bit of clarity or similar comparisons . The house I am buying has accepted to give me 2 months to find a buyer.. and my partner is due to give birth in 2 months ! So it's stressful !

Many thanks all !

lis1320

I can only answer a little bit from an experience I had earlier this year - the Building Safety Act 2022 came into force on 1st April this year, which is why this wasn't an issue for you 2 years ago. I think there's also a chance some lenders are quicker to update their requirements based on this than others.

We were trying to buy a flat and the lender required confirmation on the size of the building, but the management company was flooded with requests so the vendor had to order a height survey to speed things up. It ended up being less than 11m which meant the vendor didn't need any of the other paperwork you might have to provide.

newdriver101

Tommckinlay1991 said:

hoping someone can advise. please.

I am in the process of buying a house and selling my flat. 12 weeks in my buyers bank has said they need an esw1.

The block of flats is 6 stories (ground floor and pent house included) and less than 18 metres. It is brick built with steel frame and no cladding. In England north west.

The only thing I can see it maybe being is the 4 balconies stacked one above the other as they have timber floors (but a glass balustrade and metal handrail). Based on rics guidelines this is therefore OK.

The bank sent a rics surveyor and by the sounds of it it's due to balconies .

To add insult to injury, 2 flats in the same block have sold this year with natwest and leeds with no issues I am told. So I am confused why me selling a month later its now a requirement. I also bought this flat 2 years ago and had no issues at all..

The management company refuse to do an ews1 as they deem its not needed based on rics guidance.

The banks that declined were principality and bank of Ireland.. both used connells surveyors.

Does anyone else have a similar experience ?

Are those banks particularly harsh ? Is it worth trying others ?

Why wasn't it an issue for me 2 years ago or even mentioned?

Hopefully I can get a bit of clarity or similar comparisons . The house I am buying has accepted to give me 2 months to find a buyer.. and my partner is due to give birth in 2 months ! So it's stressful !

Many thanks all !

OP: I had this dilemma last year - I was trying to remortgage and surveyor requested an EWS1 form and my freeholder refused to provide this as by law they are not required to if the building is under 18m.  It is a bit of a catch-22...  Lender insisted on the EWS1 form but freeholder would not budge...

You can try to get try to mobilise all the leaseholders in your block to challenge the freeholder/MC if that's feasible.  But if the management company/freeholder are not willing to get the EWS1 form then you will need to try a new bank.  From the anecdotal research I did, Santandar seemed to be recommended for leaseholders that had this issue but do not have direct experience...

Stacked balconies is probably the issue - RICS had a decision tree (which helps figure out the exact issue) but cannot locate it on their website anymore so not sure if that means the RICS guidance has changed or is changing...  Good luck!

Tommckinlay1991

Thanks. I found the tree and mine doesn't fall within the requirement! The balconies are stacked with timber floor.
But the requirement is BOTH timber floor and wooden balustrade..