Government seeking new powers over defective cladding

By insulatedwalls – February 21

Developers and product manufacturers that do not help fix the cladding scandal could be blocked from the housing market under new proposed measures, set out by The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and The Rt Hon Michael Gove MP.

The proposed new powers would include:

• Developers and product manufacturers that do not help fix the cladding scandal could be blocked from the housing market.
• The Government to put into law, its guarantee that no leaseholder living in medium or high-rise building will have to pay a penny for the removal of cladding.
• New powers will allow cladding companies to be sued and subject to fines for defective products.
• Protection for leaseholders extended to cover other fire safety defects.

Under the proposed new laws, leaseholders would have up to 30 years to sue developers and product manufacturers for defects in England, but there are plans to extend it across the United Kingdom. Currently leaseholders only have up to 6 years to sue.

The practice of using “shell companies” for developments, whereby it is difficult to trace or identify who they are run by, could come to an end with the courts having new powers to prevent this.

Building owners who are not linked to the developer but can afford to pay in full will also be required to fund the replacement of the defective material.

In the small number of cases where building owners do not have the resources to pay, leaseholders will be protected by a cap. The cap will be set at similar levels to ‘Florrie’s Law’ which applies to some repairs to social housing: £10,000 for homes outside London and £15,000 for homes within London. This will limit how much leaseholders in this scenario can be asked to pay for non-cladding costs, including waking watch charges.

ny costs paid out by leaseholders over the past 5 years will count towards the cap, meaning some leaseholders may well pay nothing more.

The Government will continue to carry out further consultation with parliamentarians and stakeholders before finalising the amendments to the Building Safety Bill.