Flat owner hit with £ 65,000 cladding bill as block

Flat owners are being hit with giant bills for fire safety work because their blocks are not enough to qualify for the funds declared after the Grenfel Tower Fire.

The previous government started the Building Protection Act after the 2017 fire in which 72 people were killed. But the rules do not apply to buildings under 11 meters (36 ft) or five -storey high.

Some lawyers claim that the new law was “crowd”, but the government says it covers most leaseholders and will continue to review the law.

Paramedic Tom Derande received a bill of £ 65,000 as his flat is in a three -storey building and says he faces bankruptcy.

“I had to work for a month with stress. There was no day when I did not think about cladding,” he told the BBC.

It is estimated that according to our cladding scandal campaign, England have 1.3 million leasehold flats in 11 meters high, low -rise blocks.

Tom bought his flat in Luton in 2018, in which he saved from serving in the army. He said that when he came home for a bill for £ 65,000, he was “absolutely surprised”.

Their legal part of the costs to make the challan building fireproof from their landlord was their legal share. “I thought it was a typo to be honest,” Tom said.

He then learned that the height of the building meant that he was a “non-useful leaseholder” and would be liable to pay for fire safety work.

“The government asks for buildings under 11 meters, the risk can be reduced to other means, such as using fire alarm and sprinkler system, but in my case, this is not true,” Tom explained.

He said, “I have two fire assessments, both said the cladding is dangerous and needs to be removed, and the price, which he said that will be low for small buildings, forcible recovery. I cannot pay,” he said.

After complaining to the owners of the building, Tom hopes to reduce the bill, but yet it has to find out how much.

Tom planned to sell flats to buy a family house, but cannot. “This is ruining my life and I am facing bankruptcy,” he said.

The department of the housing told the BBC that the owners of buildings less than 11 meters should not pass the cost of fixing historical security defects to the lease holders.

But people like Law Tom are not paid unlimited amounts of money when developers are no longer around or can not afford the landlords.

Liz is an expert on leasehold property at Ramseden Nights and told the BBC that he believes that the Building Safety Act was drafted very quickly.

“The intention was that no leaseholder would have to pay, but in reality we are getting a lot of leaseholders, they have to pay huge amounts.

“There was very little counseling and because of this we have these gaps in the law and people are falling,” he said.

Even in buildings above 11 m, rules fail to protect many lease holders.

Islamic hostages or homeowners with three or more qualities also do not benefit from full security.

This is something that is Martin Batty, who has an Islamic mortgage, only discovered when he flatly flat his one-bedroom for sale.

He said that his lawyer said that the way the Islamic Home Purchase Schemes have been structured – the Sharia law that does not allow to pay interest – this means that it falls out of the purview of the Act.

“It seems really unfair. I think I am being discriminated,” he said.

“To find out that I am a non-useful leaseholder, because I have found an Islamic home purchase plan, a very big kick in the teeth. It is really upset and a very big.”

The government said that safe loans against BBC Islamic interest free loans were very rare.

But Martin said that he cannot sell his flat as the mortgage providers would not lend against it and the soliciter would not advise on non-usual leases.

Suzy Spilling and her husband Colin invested in four fare properties to fund their retirement – including two flats in Sallford “The Molt pledged”.

These two flats are in a building where lots of cladding have been found to be insecure.

The government will fund the removal, but because the couple have more than three properties that they are also non-qualified leasers and they will have to pay the costs of making tower blocks fire-saff.

Soji said, “Whatever we plan, it will be out of the window.” “How we were going to raise the necessary funds? We can be on the hook for each of our two apartments for £ 100,000.”

It is estimated that England have 385,000 flats, which, according to the end of our cladding scam, is owned by leaseholders with non-useless and colin.

He said that the couple have gone back to work to save money “but there is no way we are able to cover the amount we are going to pay,” he said.

“Our life is in grip. We do not know when it is going to end.”

Advocate Smt. Ramseden said: “Lijold transactions have fallen by 40% due to problems with the Act. It needs to be seen immediately so that we can do it better for everyone.”

A government spokesperson told the BBC that he would consider a change in the Building Safety Act and review how it can provide more protection than the cost.