HOPES AND DREAMS IN RUINS
Victims face bankruptcy – and losing roofs over their heads
£310K FLAT NOW WORTHLESS
A PREGNANT mother says her family’s life has been put on hold after they discovered their home was a fire trap.
Laura Bell, 32, pictured, is expecting her second child in March and had been hoping to move to a bigger property with her husband James and their one-year- old daughter.
But in October she was told their twobed flat in Penge, south London, was covered in dangerous cladding.
It means the family cannot sell or remortgage their property, which is now effectively worthless. They bought it for £310,000 in May 2016.
Their building, Austen Apartments, which has 36 flats, now has a fire marshal permanently stationed in the entrance hall and a new temporary alarm system will be installed this month.
Commodities trader Mrs Bell said: ‘The emotional and potential financial burden is horrible. It’s really scary putting your children to bed at night in a block of flats you know is a fire risk.’
The new alarm system is set to cost around £81,000 for the block – £2,250 per flat – while the family may have to pay £30,000 to remove the cladding.
The owners of the flats do not qualify for the Government’s Building Safety Fund to cover the costs because the building is below 18 metres tall.
Mrs Bell said: ‘ Some residents here have indicated that even an optimistic bill of £10,000 would be ruinous.
‘We did not design or build these buildings with cheap, shoddy materials. We do not own them and we were not the ones who falsely certified them as safe. We are the only party without blame here – the ones who acted in good faith, adhering to Government pressure to get on the property ladder. But we are the ones whose livelihoods are being sacrificed.’
WEDDING PLANS RUINED
AN ACCOUNTANT has put her wedding plans on hold after she found out she faces a £43,000 bill for work on her building.
Lilli Houghton, 26, pictured, bought her flat in Magellan House, Leeds, with her boyfriend for £145,000 in July 2018. She said it was a ‘huge achievement’ for her to be able to buy her first property without help from her parents.
But a safety investigation later discovered flammable cladding, forcing her to pay an initial extra £960 in service charges.
She now faces a bill for almost £3,000 this month – and has been told the total cost of works for each flat could be as much as £43,000.
She said: ‘I’ve been saving since I was 18 and I was able to buy my first property two years ago.
‘People are taught from a young age to save their money and get a foot on the property ladder. Now this is just a complete slap in the face. I am engaged and was looking forward to getting married, but now it seems silly spending money on a wedding knowing the costs coming my way.’
Miss Houghton also faces ‘crippling’ insurance bills. She had been due to marry her fiance Jon in March 2020 but the couple decided to postpone the wedding because of Covid. She said: ‘It’s a real shame – I’d been looking forward to a big wedding but now it doesn’t seem to make sense if we’ve got these big bills to pay.’
HOMELESSNESS LOOMS
A TEACHER faces being made bankrupt and homeless after she was told she could have to pay up to £90,000 to fix serious safety issues in her flat.
Bronte Bailey, 25, pictured, says she cannot sleep at night for fear of a fire ripping through her eight-storey building in Southampton. She bought her flat at Sapphire Court for £220,000 last year and had been hoping to move out this year to start the ‘next stage’ of her life.
But in October a survey found the block, which has 110 flats, was wrapped in flammable cladding.
She faces having to pay up to £300 for a 24-hour fire patrol, known as a ‘waking watch’, until the building can be made safe. Miss Bailey also could face a bill of £90,000 to remove the cladding, while she says her insurance premium could rise by as much as 800 per cent.
Unless the Government steps in, she is currently liable for 100 per cent of the costs of correcting the problem, despite only owning 40 per cent of the flat through its shared ownership scheme.
She said she faces bankruptcy because the potential bills would eclipse her income.
She added: ‘It’s terrifying to live like this. I can’t sleep. I keep my keys next to my bed in case anything happens and I have to rush out in the middle of the night. I am stuck in an unsafe flat and unable to sell and move on with the property ladder for the foreseeable future. It is impossible to sell my flat until the enormous remediation work has completed which I cannot afford to pay on a teacher’s wage. I am now left to only declare
bankruptcy and become homeless in the near future.’
’ALLO, ’ALLO! STAR’S FEARS
ACTOR Arthur Bostrom says the cost of fixing fire defects in his flat would wipe out a third of his retirement savings. Mr Bostrom, 65, who played Officer Crabtree in 1980s
BBC comedy ’ Allo ’Allo!, bought his apartment at Royal Quay in Liverpool for £260,000 last year.
But since March around 200 leaseholders at the seven-block development have been paying £32,000 a month for a 24/7 ‘waking watch’ after it was found to have dangerous cladding.
They will also have to pay £250,000 for a new alarm system, while their buildings insurance has been hiked from £86,000 to £300,000 a year. But the biggest cost will be removing the cladding, which could run to £50,000 each.
To make matters worse, five of the seven blocks do not qualify for Government funding because they are too small.
Mr Bostrom, pictured, lives in one of the ineligible blocks. He said: ‘It’s ridiculous. They all have the same cladding – they are just a slightly different height.
‘It’s the difference between having the work done for free and paying £50,000. I am an actor, mostly in theatre, so during the pandemic I have been unable to work.
‘I do have a private pension but, if forced to pay for this remediation, I would lose a third of my pension fund.
‘I paid off my mortgage years ago so I wasn’t expecting to have to put out for what is almost like another miniature mortgage. I am slowing down, but this means I will have to keep working.’
Mr Bostrom said the freeholder, Liverpool City Council, rejected residents’ requests for funding and said they should pursue the building company. But the original company went out of business after completing three of the blocks, while the rest were finished by another firm. A council spokesman said: ‘Although the council owns the freehold, there is a long leasehold interest in place.
‘The terms place responsibility for the repair and overall condition of the blocks with the management companies. ‘
He stressed: ‘We have offered to support an application by the management companies for a Government grant to pay for the replacement cladding.’