Have you had mortgage issues due to an EWS1 form?

We live in a flat within a grade 2 listed mill built late 1800. The mill is 4 floors high with 8 flats in total. The exterior is wooden cladding which has just been renewed within the grade 2 listed requirements. We now cannot sell our flat. Help

Im currently selling, the block has an EWS1 form A1, but the mortgage lender will not accept this without a letter from the freeholder confirming an inspection was carried out and no works are required. They will not provide this (I suspect due to liability worries), so it seems even with a valid EWS certificate some mortgage lenders will not lend.

My flat in on the 6th floor of a 10 floor tower block and their is no cladding hence the LA are not required to do a EWS1 form. However I wanted to remortgage my property and it has been refused because this EWS1 form has not been completed. All fire safety checks and risk assessments have been provided. If EWS1 form is not required for my property as has no cladding (concrete building) then why is this form required. If someone can help would really appreciate it.

Thank you

This entire cladding review / form EWS1 requirement is nothing more than extortion. We already have comprehensive Building Regulations which are reviewed on a regular basis and quite rightly, stricter measures are brought in all the time.

The EWS1 form is NOT REQUIRED by legislation – it is something that RICS, Building Societies Association and UK Finance have come up with to better protect their own interests. The form itself is hardly worth the paper it’s written on, since it provides such little clarity that an accompanying report is required from the professional who conducts the survey – begs the question why we need such a form, just a survey from a competent person would suffice. The EWS1 form is not to be relied upon by third parties, it is for the instructing client only – so again, banks should not be asking for, or relying on, this form.

The requirement for the EWS1 form to be updated every 5 years is also simply nonsense. It should be updated when there is renovation/change to the external wall structure or cladding. There could be an onus on the maintenance companies to ensure that regular inspections are carried out to check the status of the existing cladding without requiring a new EWS1 form and survey to be completed.

In the modern age, the approach is one of a risk-based approach and this is how the cladding risk should be addressed. Every building which is 3 floors or more should have a comprehensive fire safety programme – that’s just common sense. It is right that buildings assess their fire risk again after the terrible tragedy at Grenfell. But one size fits all is not correct and looking at cladding in isolation is not the answer.

It is inconceivable that private organisations have conspired to trap leaseholders in a costly insurance exercise. It is a huge overstep of their remit. The government should be stepping in to assist leaseholders if this additional insurance and rectification to the cladding is in fact required. Or alternatively, an insurance levy could be added on to household insurance policies to cover the cladding risk (in the same way that the Flood Re Scheme works).

I find it amazing that we allow home owners to do their own electrical wiring, which is extremely dangerous, and we do not require home owners to update their electrics to existing standards if they met the Building Regs at the time of installation. Double standards, much?

No-one should be facing increased service charges to cover unreasonable insurance premiums due to a new, draconian requirement that applies retrospectively.

I encourage you all to sign the petitions below and share them:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/328201
http://chng.it/QvZLctvPH6

Write to your local MP – demand change.

Where possible, move your financial products away from the organisations that support the EWS1 form and tell them that you have left for this reason. RICS like to think that they are the only surveying organisation in the UK but you could use the Residential Property Surveyors Association or the SAVA School of Surveying, and frankly the quality of your survey (as with everything) will be down to the individual rather than which membership body will protect them in the event of liability.

If you’re struggling, seek help from mental health professionals and debt charities – don’t suffer in silence and know that you are not alone in dealing with this.

I’m in a shared ownership 1 bedroom flat with Hyde New Homes with 14 flats in total. There is some wooden panelling on the building but its mostly brick. The flat is under 18m and 3 floors therefore Hyde wont provide a EWS1 form even though lenders are asking for it. We have had one person lucky enough to sell and slip through without their buyers lender asking, but someone else I know has now been held up 2 months as their buyers lender is requesting it and Hyde are refusing to do anything. A Fire Risk Assessment form has been completed in 2020, although it flags up that management should “confirm that the external wall cladding meets Building Regulations requirements with regards to limited combustibility and surface fire spread properties.” When I have approached Hyde about this, they have said thats just ‘standard’ stuff they say, and they are still not required to follow up as the buildings below 18m. I feel that unless I’m totally lucky, I wont be able to provide this FRA form even as a back up because of this comment. I feel that those of us are really stuck with buildings under 18m. Theres no help for us, and we are being trapped! Its taking a toll on my mental health and I’m exhausted by trying to speak to people about it and getting absolutely nowhere. I’ve written a letter to my MP, but in his response he seems to flag up all the help for blocks above 18m and it wasn’t helpful.