HOME TRUTHS
I want to sell my home for £120,000 profit but I’m being stopped because of major problem – and council won’t fix it
Several homeowners have been left in limbo
A WOMAN who wants to sell her home due to her worsening health issues says she'd be lucky to break even because of a major issue.
Mandy Sandhu, 48, bought her £130,000 flat in Salford, Greater Manchester, in 2005 - believing she would live there for a maximum of 15 years.
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But nearly 20 years later, she's still at Transport House, on Chapel Street, and thinks she would be "lucky" to break even when selling up.
Homes nearby can fetch more than £250,000, but Mandy's property, which has walls made from foam, has been declared unsafe, the reports.
An estate agent's valuation said her home could be worth up to £200,000 — but only if she had an EWS1 form declaring it safe, which she does not yet have.
Mandy, who has multiple sclerosis, says she is "not getting any better" and she cannot go up and down stairs.
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She says she would like to move to a bungalow, but these can cost up to £300,000, meaning she would need a new mortgage.
The combustible cladding was found five years ago on the 360 building in Castlefield, Manchester, where flat owner Tom Brothwell lives, but it has still not been removed.
Tom, 43, said: "It's completely insane to be stuck in a building for five years knowing that there are defects.
"Every time the fire alarm goes off, probably from a false alarm from a shower, people start to panic."
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He has been trying to get government funds to fix the issue, and the Building Safety Fund (BSF) stumped up before the block’s original developer stepped in to cover the cost eighteen months ago, the MEN reports.
Tom, who did not much fancy paying £60,000 to fix it himself, was relieved, but still remains in limbo.
Valencia fire: Four dead & 20 missing after fire rips through Grenfell-style cladding
He said residents and the developer are ready to start, but work has not yet begun because the building's freeholders have not yet given their final green light on the project.
Elsewhere, Lawyer Steph Pike discovered unsafe cladding four years ago in Bristol, but work on it only began this year.
As a leaseholder of a flat in the building, Steph, 33, was initially looking at a bill of over £70,000 to replace the cladding.
She said: "I was distraught at the news, I was like, I don't know how I'm going to pay for this… I was seriously having to consider bankruptcy."
She is now a campaigner with the group End Our Cladding Scandal.
The discovery of unsafe cladding has left homes like Tom and Steph's nigh unsellable.
In 2022, the last Conservative government announced that developers would be required to contribute more to the cost of the removal, with residents in high-rise buildings not having to pay at all.
As of July, over 4,500 high-rise buildings across the country have been identified as having unsafe cladding.
Half of those have not yet had remediation work begin.
Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary Angela Rayner said on Thursday that she would bring in a plan to speed up this work.
A final public inquiry report into the Grenfell disaster, published on Wednesday, found that successive central and local governments and building regulatory bodies had for decades ignored warning signs about fire safety.
It also accused the firms providing cladding of "systematic dishonesty", selling materials that they knew to be dangerous.
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"Even now I don't know if they're going to be putting the right materials on the building. How can I trust them?" said Pike.
"Some progress is being made, but it's just painfully slow."
What can you do if your home has unsafe cladding
Recent figures published by the Government show there are 11,000 buildings it expects to need remediation works to ensure their cladding is safe.
However, the latest official statistics reveal only 4,630 buildings are being actively monitored with cladding having been removed from 1,350 buildings - around 12% of the estimated total.
The Government said it will commit £9.2billion worth of funding to the remediation works as part of an overall package worth £18billion.
If you are one of the hundreds of thousands stuck in a property with unsafe cladding, there are steps you can take to improve your situation, Giles said.
As a leaseholder or resident, you should first contact your property managing agent to ask for information about the safety of the building you are in.
Giles said if you are a leaseholder, your building is covered by the developer's self-remediation contract.
The legally binding contract, which was signed in March 2023, commits 55 large developers to remediate cladding on buildings over 11 metres high that were developed in the 30 years up to 2022.
If the developer who constructed your building is signed up, you should have received a "comfort letter" confirming the developer is funding all remediation works.
You can also check the full list of developers who signed the contract via //www.gov.uk/government/publications/developer-remediation-contract.
If, as a leaseholder, you have contacted your property managing agent and communication is poor, you can speak to the building safety team at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
More information on how to contact the department can be found via //www.gov.uk/guidance/cladding-and-other-fire-safety-works-information-for-residents.
If you are struggling to get the information or support you need, you can contact the End Our Cladding Scandal campaign.
It is led by volunteers who are all personally affected by the building safety scandal and may be able to signpost you to the support you need.
You can find more details about the campaign group on its website - //endourcladdingscandal.org.
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