My story today on the extortionate bill leaseholders living in @MpmtSalford are facing.

It is the perfect example of why the cladding scandal is not just about cladding. My thread https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/leaseholders-facing-100000-remediation-bills-despite-compliant-cladding-68765

Leaseholders in the building are facing estimated bills of between £50k and £100k. This was revealed to them in a letter a few weeks ago and has caused major anxiety for those that own homes in both blocks.

The bills for remediation we are seeing are eyewatering no matter the price you bought your house for. But when you consider that these bills are nearly half the value of their homes, it gets absolutely ridiculous. There is no way residents can pay this.

If the CBRE report is anything to go by, there is clearly a very high risk of fire. Imagine going to bed every night, knowing a qualified professional thinks this about your building in terms of fire safety

And the thing is, the cladding materials are compliant. A survey on the block confirmed this. It’s what is underneath the cladding that is the problem….

Like so many buildings up and down the country, the @MpmtSalford has widespread firestopping issues. Poor workmanship, lack of understanding of cavity barriers, potential material substitution all present. This sort of description we see all too often.

Anecdotally, the majority of leaseholders I speak to have fire stopping or compartmentation problems. The nearest we have to quantative data on the scale of the issue is a small survey on ACM blocks we did last year

I had some absolutely heartbreaking phone conversations while researching this story. Not least, Ammar and Kitty. They bought their home in May 2019. Yes, that’s 2019. The victims of ever-changing guidance.

And they also show the human impact of the cladding crisis. A young couple with plans of marriage and kids. Have now had to put those plans fully on hold.

And like the thousands of other leaseholders caught up in the cladding scandal, they are also dealing with the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But maybe they’ll be able to recoup costs from their developer? Wrong, the developer is no longer trading, it went into receivership more than ten years ago. Something we are seeing more and more of, particularly in Manchester.

And the person who owns the building, what role are they taking in helping leaseholders. Here is their response

And in the midst of all of this anguish and turmoil. There are still those investors that are looking at the cladding scandal as an opportunity to make a quick buck.