The misery of the leaseholders at New Capital Quay featured on the BBCR4 You and Yours programme after the APPG on April 6.
It emerges that Galliard estimates the cost removing the cladding at the 1,00 flat site at £7-10 million (plus the fire marshals).
The warranty provider the NHBC, which employed celebrity libel lawyers Schilling to warn off You and Yours on an earlier item, was reported to be “working to establish whether the building [New Capital Quay] complied with the regulations in place when it was built”.
The BBC reported that an independent expert will be visiting the site to “try to make an assessment of what they describe as a complex claim as quickly as possible”.
The BBC reported that Galliard questions the valuation of the flat of leaseholder Cecile Langevin, whose £475,000 flat has been valued at £50,000. As a result, it appears to have been accepted by Homes England that she can pay back just £10,000 of a £95,000 Help To Buy loan.
Unfair Credit Scores, Ferry Disruption, Prescriptions, You and Yours – BBC Radio 4
Unfair credit scores, Ferry disruption, Confusion over prescriptions.
Nigel Pickford, another leaseholder who made a powerful speech to the APPG, said that there were at least 100 leaseholders in the same position as Mrs Langevin and that the government faced losses of at least £10 million on Help To Buy loans.
“That is £10 million of taxpayers’ money straight down the drain,” Mr Pickford told the programme.
Mrs Langevin, who has just had her second child and wants to move out, said that persuading Homes England to accept the valuation of her flat at £50,000 is “not a success”.
“It is a mitigation of the terrible situation that we are in. It just makes the loss of the flat [in value] less important.
“The value of the flat is almost zero. We are not able to sell.
“I do not believe there is an easy solution is going to be found and that it will need a legal decision to get the cladding replaced and get the developer or the insurance provider to pay for it.
“So we are talking of years of law suits to get the situation sorted.”
Related posts:
Taxpayers face £85,000 loss as Homes England accepts leaseholder can pay back loan on flat blighted by Grenfell cladding 
Could paying off Help To Buy loans on blighted homes force government to act over Grenfell cladding … and doubling ground rents? 
NHBC accepts Grenfell cladding bill at Galliard’s New Capital Quay Leaseholders face £19m to £40m Grenfell cladding bills at Galliard Homes’ New Capital Quay (Galliard v NHBC v the Government v Cladding suppliers) v the Leaseholders
Message to Galliard,
Think on?
It may be the responsibility of the NHBC to pay to install safe cladding? It may be you as freeholder and developer who must pay? You could argue that point at your leisure. What you can’t do is leave your customers at risk of loss of life, fearful of sleeping at night and living in properties that have no value and are totally unsaleable?
Barratt realised this and acted in a most honourable fashion. They took responsibility for the cost of the replacement cladding.
So it is going to cost £7-10m to make the development safe? Presumably that cost would be tax deductible, so the actual cost will be much less?
So Galliard moving on, faced with a choice of developers when making a purchase, who is more likely to achieve a sale? A company such as Barratt who has stood by their customers or Galliard who have not?
The Government should tell Galliards to claim against their business insurance. and also serve Notice to disqualify the Directors from being Company Directors for next 10 years..
Dear hypocritical LKP, aren’t Urban owners part of warwick estates who are funded by big business and aren’t HML “big because they have got business from developers or large-scale freehold owing companies”????????
Dear Unamusing Person,
We reported Warwick Estates’s criminal conviction; fine of £120,000; resignation of ARMA regulator Sally Keeble, who was blocked from holding a disciplinary panel against Warwick Estates over the issue; and the RICS hearing and fine of £20,000 against Warwick Estates earlier this year.
Further, it was discussed on Wednesday at the Professionals in Property conference by Sebastian O’Kelly, on a panel with ARMA CEO Nigel Glen.
Urban Owners remains accredited with LKP until August, when its accreditation is due to be renewed.
HML Holdings plc is a middle-size managing agent with c60,000 flats under management. It is a portfolio grown over many years, the bulk of it being RMCs, RTMs and enfranchised blocks. Its CEO Rob Plumb is the most senior figure in the sector to endorse the general views of LKP and repeatedly call for reform.
Goodbye. Admin
Nothing hypocritical at all as far as I can see? Urban Owners were one of the original companies to be “accredited” by LKP. They have in the past been responsible for undertaking some very good work on behalf of leaseholders.. Yes it is true that Urban Owners have now been taken over by Warwick Estates..Provided Urban Owners continue to provide current service levels, why should they not continue to be accredited to LKP?
I agree many managing agents have grown too big as a result of developer/freeholder appointments.. Especially those that have not only been appointed by the developer/freeholder., but have got themselves enmeshed into the lease?
Given the significant progress in the fight for leasehold reform made by LKP(which fundamentally threaten the continuance of some of the worst of the managing agents) it has to be expected that defenders of the vestige interests would come out of the woodwork to undermine LKP.
That said, given the name you have used I did expect such a person to be a little less puerile.
Michael/LKP – you may wish to revise urgently your view of Urban Owners accreditation, now that all the original directors have resigned, and the UO website now re-directs to Warwick Estates with a welcome to “Your New ‘Superhero’ Property Company”. To my reading, the UO entity does not exist any more?
I was going to post this information on the UO takeover story but comments on that one appear to be locked now?
So I presume come August either Urban Owners (under Warwick Estates) will not re-apply for LKP accreditation or they may be found to be non-compliant by LKP.
What’s the problem?
Poor service, very poor value and total absence of customer care. That is my opinion after having to suffer Warwick Estates for the last 3 years!