Property cladding: thousands of homeowners stuck in worthless and potentially unsafe flats more than two years on from Grenfell

The first inkling James Rollings and his girlfriend Rachel Priest had that there was a problem with their flat was when they put it on the market last summer.

At first their plan to move to a bigger home seemed to be going well. They found both a buyer and a property they wanted to buy.

Things began to unravel, though, when their buyer applied for a mortgage and they began to realise that they were among the thousands of homeowners in London and beyond caught up in the aftermath of the Grenfell tragedy.

More than two-and-a-half years since the tragic North Kensington tower blaze which left 72 people dead and more than 70 injured, action on improving fire safety in other UK high rises has been painfully slow.

Government data on the number of buildings that remain clad in Aluminium Composite Material (ACM), the material used at Grenfell with disastrous consequences, paints a depressing picture.

There were about 450 other buildings clad in ACM at the time of the Grenfell Tower disaster in June 2017 — around two thirds of them in London.

Since then, UK-wide, 127 towers have had cladding removed, assisted by a government funding pledge. The rest are still encased in the potentially unsafe cladding.

But ACM cladding is only a small part of the problem.

It has slowly emerged since 2017 that other forms of cladding, widely used to embellish new buildings, are also potentially dangerous.

These include some types of timber cladding, and a product called High-Pressure Laminate (HPL).

Despite raising the alarm about these potentially combustible products the Government has declined to offer any financial assistance to help remove them.

This has left residents negotiating with developers, housing associations and managing agents to try to get their homes made safe — with very variable outcomes.

Rachel, 25, who works in technology sales, paid just over £400,000 in 2015 for a new two-bedroom flat at The Pavilions, part of Tottenham Hale’s regeneration zone.

The flat was completed and she moved in during August 2016 the following year.

James, 28, a business travel consultant, also joined her there in 2017.

After two years living together in the flat the couple wanted to move for more space and so put their home up for sale. “The first thing we knew was when we heard that our buyers had had their mortgage turned down,” said James.

What he and Rachel needed to reassure their buyers’ lender, was a survey to confirm whether or not the cladding on their building was one of those considered dangerous.

James immediately contacted their managing agent, Pinnacle Group, to request that such a survey be carried out.

Seven months and hundreds of emails and phone calls later, he and Rachel say they remain stuck in limbo.

“At first they said the lenders were just being difficult,” James claimed. “Eventually, in November, they commissioned a survey, which was then cancelled.

"They say another survey has been commissioned but we have not had any results. We have asked who will pay for the survey, and for any work that might need to be done, but they are just very noncommittal.”

In the meantime the couple’s sale fell through — and without a survey the 500-plus householders who live in The Pavilions have no idea if their homes are safe. What they do know is that their homes are unmortgageable, so they cannot sell them and move on.

One thing Pinnacle did do, just before Christmas, was introduce a “waking watch” — hiring staff to walk around looking out for signs of a fire. Whether residents will have to pay for this service is unclear.

Adding to their woes, James and Rachel racked up more than £6,500 in professional fees relating to their failed sale as well as legal letters sent on their behalf to the freeholder.

“I can understand why the Government wants to tighten up the law, but we approached the managing agent seven months ago, and even though we pay a massive service charge, £2,200 a year, they have not really been on our side,” James said.

“It has caused us a lot of frustration and stress, and the managing agent seems either unwilling or unable to deal with it.”

A spokesman for the Pinnacle Group said the building had been under inspection since last summer, with specialists now finalising their work.

“Findings will be shared with residents upon completion of their report,” he said.

“We understand that a conversation is taking place between the freeholder and developer regarding future works to the building.

“Pinnacle Group is committed to supporting residents over the coming months with any work that is required as a result of the inspection.”

Rachel and James’s plight is all too familiar to Rachel Logan, a barrister who works for a charity, who was thrilled when she bought her first home in 2015.

She got on the property ladder with a 25 per cent share in a flat at the award-winning City Wharf scheme in Islington which cost her £232,000.

Rachel wasn’t in a position to buy a home outright so she had turned to shared ownership, emptying out her savings — and those of her generous family — to put together a deposit of about 15 per cent.

“It was incredibly exciting,” she said. “I had been desperate to stay living close to where I grew up, and to escape the renting trap and have some security in my life.”

Alas, last summer, a neighbour attempted to sell their flat. Like James and Rachel in Tottenham Hale, they discovered that the cladding on the building, in this case timber, was a potential fire hazard.

City Wharf is owned by housing association A2Dominion which has confirmed the timber cladding needs to be replaced.

However, there has been no clear information on when that will happen, how much it will cost and who will pay the bill.

There have been examples, at other developments, of residents being sent bills of tens of thousands of pounds to cover the cost of the work.

Rachel’s fear is that at City Wharf the buck will also be passed to the residents.

And though she only owns a quarter of her flat she worries that she might be expected to pay the whole bill for her home.

Everyday life has become extremely stressful for Rachel and her neighbours.

“I am really very frightened,” she said. “I rarely go a day without thinking about it. I am just waiting for the axe to fall.

“A2Dominion has tried to reassure us, but no one has given us concrete answers about whether we are safe in our homes.

“I live on the ninth floor and I have a wooden balcony. I sit here in the evening and wonder how many years I am going to be risking my life just by being at home.”

Rachel believes the Government needs to take control of the cladding scandal, giving “crystal clear” information about what forms of cladding, and also what types of insulation, another potentially combustible material, are safe, and clarifying how repairs will be funded.

“There has clearly been a failure of regulations in allowing these buildings to go up, and the Government has got to take responsibility,” she said. “If they don’t, then the people who are least to blame and least able to pay are going be forced to pick up the tab.”

David Lingeman, director of property services at the A2Dominion Group, confirmed that the wooden cladding at City Wharf will need to be “removed and replaced in the future”.

Architects are assessing how to carry out the repairs, which may need planning consent.

“We will then consult residents about the work, and we will follow the formal process to establish costs and appoint a contractor,” he said. “We expect work to begin this year.”

The group has a £13.5 million fund to help pay for upgrades at a series of developments, including the City Wharf scheme.

“Every effort is being made to recoup the costs of any fire-related defects from third parties, including the builders of the scheme, and we won’t charge for any faults in a property that existed prior to it being sold.

“We are committed to ensuring the safety of our residents and share their frustration in the time this process is taking, but we know this issue is widespread across the whole of the UK.”​

As Homes & Property reported last summer, Rob Leary and fellow residents at Aurora, a One Housing scheme in Stratford, had discovered the building’s cladding was potentially dangerous.

Despite their concerns, the cladding remains in place.

A spokesman for One Housing said that while remediation work is needed at Aurora, the cladding is not considered to be of high risk.

The housing association says it is now planning the works required and when this is completed it will be able to inform residents about the process, timing and costs.