UPDATE JULY 11: The Times reports that the NHBC caved in days after 220 leaseholders began legal proceedings to force the controversial warranty insurer to pay out.
Leaseholder Nigel Pickford, 71, who spoke at our APPG in April and who lives in a £1 million apartment on the top floor of one of the blocks, said: “This is a good first step but there is still a lot of unanswered questions about what works will be carried out. There is also a big question of who is going to make sure the work is done properly this time. Are we going to rely on NHBC as they did the building control on this last time and they don’t seem to have done a good job.”
Matthew Pennycook, Labour MP for Greenwich and Woolwich, said it was “fantastic news” but said questions about how the cladding system was approved in the first place still needed to be answered.
Sebastian O’kelly, of LKP, is quoted saying: “Acceptance of the claim by NHBC is an unanswerable precedent. You cannot build with faults and then dump the cost of rectifying them on to your customers assuming regulators have no responsibility in the issue.”
This may be noted by Australian builder Lendlease at its Manchester sites Cypress Place and Vallea Court.
He added: “Both Galliard and NHBC have waited until the last moment, hoping to dump this cost on the leaseholders. They have shown the cloven hoof of residential property insiders to ministers, MPs, civil servants and the wider public. And we don’t like what we see.”
Insurer to foot £40m bill for Grenfell-style cladding
Owners of flats covered in Grenfell-style cladding could be spared hefty costs to make their homes safe after an insurer agreed to cover a multimillion-pound repair bill. Tenants and leaseholders in the New Capital Quay complex in Greenwich, east London, have been told the cost of replacing the fl
The Guardian’s Lisa O’Carroll report is here:
Grenfell-type cladding on London flats to be replaced at insurer’s cost
Residents in London apartment blocks who faced bills of up to £40,000 each for Grenfell-type cladding to be removed have spoken of their relief after their insurer stepped in to foot the bill.
The warranty provider NHBC has accepted the claim to remove Grenfell cladding at New Capital Quay in a press statement this afternoon.
The brief statement lacks detail, and we have asked whether this claim will cover the entire cost of removing the cladding and replacing it.
In addition, we have asked whether the bill for the fire marshals at the 1,000 flat site will also be paid for by the insurer.
The break-through ends years of uncertainty for leaseholders at the site as NHBC and Galliard disputed liability, with every possibility that the bill would fall on them.
The decision also increases pressure on developers such as Lendlease to pay up to remove cladding on sites where the freehold has been sold on to speculators in ground rents.
The full NHBC statement is here:
“As the warranty insurance provider at New Capital Quay, NHBC has investigated a claim under our policy and we can confirm that we have accepted this claim.
“This has been a highly complex process and residents have understandably been concerned. We have made every effort to ensure they have been kept informed throughout the process and residents can now be assured that they will not have to bear the costs of the work.
“We are working closely with the managing agents PMML (Property Management Matters Ltd.) and Galliard Homes and we will all keep residents updated with progress.”
LKP asked: How does it affect the waking watch bill?
NHBC: Liability for the cost of fire wardens (the so called waking watch) is a matter for the freeholder and the leaseholders under their leases but NHBC is discussing this matter with the freeholder. To date we understand this cost has been paid by the freeholder.
Does it cover the total cost to remove the cladding?
A: The freeholders and managing agents are responsible for carrying out the works which will be subject to oversight by independent building control by the local authority or an Approved Inspector. This will include the replacement of the ACM cladding.
NHBC is the leading warranty and insurance provider for new homes in the UK. NHBC’s ten-year Buildmark warranty covers around 80 per cent of new homes built in the UK, having covered nearly eight million homes since it began and currently protecting around 1.5 million homes. NHBC is a non-profit distributing organisation with no shareholders.
Chris
Does anybody think that a conflict of interest is in question within the government advisory committee? Note the following;
Mark Allen, technical director for Saint Gobain UK, sits on the Building Regulations Advisory Committee, a non-departmental public body that advises the Communities and Local Government Secretary, on making Building Regulations and setting standards for the design and construction of buildings.
The lethal insulation that burned so rapidly (Celotex RS5000) was fitted to Grenfell Tower and manufactured by Saint Gobain UK.
Following the fire, Saint Gobain confirmed that they had supplied Celotex RS5000 for use at Grenfell Tower, and not Celotex FR5000 (FR indicating fire resistant) as had been specified in the August 2012 Sustainability and Energy Statement that was published as part of the Planning Application by the engineering consultants for the refurbishment.
How can industry insiders be advising government on fire safety which ultimately benefits the manufacturer? Nothing to see here.
Chris
Furthermore,
In 2016, narrowly after the Grenfell refurbishment finished, the NHBC listed several common combinations of cladding and insulation which it believed could be signed off without the need for even a desktop study. This included Celotex RS5000 insulation and ‘Class 0’ aluminium composite material cladding: the exact combination used on Grenfell.
So yes, pay up NHBC!