Portishead unsafe cladding: flat owners call for Government reform

Gary Lake said the value of the flats he owns has dropped because the cladding has not being replaced

Flat owners have called for a change in the law to give them more control over replacing unsafe cladding.

A leaseholders' group at Ninety4 on the Estuary, in Portishead near Bristol, said many residents are unable to sell as buyers cannot get a mortgage due to uncertainty over the cladding issues.

They said Crest Nicholson had been "too slow" to resolve problems identified after the Grenfell fire in 2017.

The developer said it was "trying to commence remedial works this year".

Alex Bowering has been struggling to sell his late father's two-bedroom flat

Alex Bowering's late father, Ian, bought a two-bedroom flat in the development to retire in, shortly before the Grenfell disaster.

During the subsequent government inquiry, he was told the cladding on the external walls of the building was expanded polystyrene (EPS), which was deemed unsafe and needed to be replaced, with the cost falling on Mr Bowering and the 93 other leaseholders.

The news came at around the time he was diagnosed with bowel cancer.

"The stress and the worry with what was going on with these flats definitely didn't help his condition and he passed away 18 months ago," said Alex Bowering.

"Since then we've still been trying to deal with the issues regarding the flat," he added.

Struggling to sell

Mr Bowering and his three siblings now own the flat and welcomed the Government's decision to put the responsibility for covering the cost of safety remediation work on the developer.

Crest Nicholson was among the companies to sign the Developer Remediation Contract earlier this year

However, work to replace the cladding on the external walls is yet to start and as a result, Mr Bowering has been struggling to sell the flat.

Crest Nicholson said it had been working with pensions company, Aviva Investors, which owns the building, "to agree a robust and rigorously-considered scope of remedial works for the external walls".

"We remain committed to carrying out remediation works on all of our affected developments at no cost to leaseholders," a spokesperson added.

The leaseholder's association for the development want more control over decisions about the building

Mr Bowering also blames FirstPort, the company which manages the property, for not providing paperwork to prove their father paid for the waking watch patrols - regular surveillance of multi-property buildings to assess fire risks - that were temporarily introduced in the building.

He said: "All the buyers have really liked the flat but their conveyancers aren't prepared to sign off on it without seeing the statement of accounts.

"All we want them to say is they've paid their share of the money, they don't owe anything and that would let the new buyer move in knowing that they had a clean slate," he added.

FirstPort, which has been managing the development since February 2022, has promised "the outstanding accounts will be issued to the leaseholders shortly" but their priority has been "to distribute the service charge accounts for all outstanding years".

A spokesperson added: "The developer has advised us that it will issue a letter on request to leaseholders confirming it will remediate, at no cost to homeowners, the necessary works to the building, as identified by the relevant building safety surveys.

"This should ensure leaseholders are not restricted from selling their homes during the remediation process."

'Crazy situation'

Gary Lake, who owns six flats at Ninety4 on the Estuary and helps run the leaseholder's association, said many people are in the same situation.

"Realistically only cash buyers can purchase them because it's very hard to get a mortgage company to finance when there is so much uncertainty," he said.

"Prices are now not far off where they were nine years ago which, when you consider house inflation over the last nine years, is a crazy situation," added Mr Lake.

The group is hoping for further government reforms to leasehold laws to be announced in the King's Speech on 7 November.

Conservative MP for North Somerset, Liam Fox said: "This would give leaseholders a greater chance of choosing who their management companies are.

"I think that would give a bit of a kick to those management companies who are not performing properly."

Follow BBC West on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: [e-mail]