Apartment blocks more than six storeys high will need to pass new fire safety checks before the flats can be bought and sold, in an initiative aimed at tackling post-Grenfell fire concerns, which resulted in thousands of homes being valued at zero. Surveyors and banks on Monday set out plans for a new fire safety certificate for external walls, aiming to enable sales of high-rise flats to resume after many were made unsaleable by valuers’ fire safety worries. The safety of tall buildings, especially those covered with cladding, became an issue after the Grenfell Tower fire of 2017, which killed 72 people after the blaze spread rapidly on the building’s facade. However, industry figures said the new process, which will not be a legal requirement, left a number of questions unanswered, including whether insurers would be prepared to provide personal indemnity cover for experts carrying out the checks.
The process is also likely to uncover genuine fire safety flaws in some apartments: for example, an academic study recently found high levels of flammability in a popular type of cladding that is not covered by the government’s programme for replacing dangerous materials. It has put aside £600m for the removal of aluminium composite cladding — the type used on Grenfell Tower — from buildings.
Thousands of home sales have been stopped since the government put out new fire safety advice a year ago, with surveyors unwilling to attach value to high-rise apartments without expert certification that they comply with the latest advice. Instead, the homes have been valued at zero, preventing owners from selling or borrowing more money against their properties.
