Cladding and mortgages

The rules and regulations, as well as the proposed solutions and remedies around cladding on buildings is a mess. It seems to change every few months as successive Housing Ministers try to tackle the issue, mostly with little or no input from stakeholders. We therefore end up in a situation where any building with cladding, whether above or below 18m, is seen as an issue by lenders - requiring an acceptable EWS1 certificate to be seen as suitable security for a loan. This causes all sorts of issues as there are not enough Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) professionals available to perform EWS1 surveys, they are costly and due to conflicting reports and views from government many don't believe they require one, which in some cases you don't, unless of course you want to get a mortgage, in which case you do. The whole thing is in chaos and boils down to who will, or will not, take the financial hit of sorting all these properties out - with local authorities, central government, developers and home owners all fighting with each other to not be the one to pick up the bill. The word 'omnishambles' springs to mind.

Cladding is still a huge issue for many homeowners. Even where government guidance says an EWS1 form isn't needed many lenders will stipulate they get one.