On 10 January 2022, the UK Government set out plans to protect leaseholders and make developers and companies pay to fix the cladding crisis. As part of the plans, the residential property developer industry has been given two months to agree to a plan of action to fund remediation costs, currently estimated at £4 billion.
Buy-to-let
Concerns were flagged when the announcement only referred to ensuring that leaseholders living in their own flats will not face any costs to fix dangerous cladding, with no reference to support for buy-to-let landlords. Propertymark’s letting agent members work closely with landlords who are extremely concerned that they face huge financial hardship if they are forced to pay for a scandal, they had no part in causing. Additionally, without the same level of support, we are concerned about the creation of a two-tier approach to remediation and additional levels of complexity to the process.
On 20 January 2022, Daisy Cooper MP, Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Leasehold and Commonhold Reform asked the Secretary of State if he will provide a working definition of who will count as landlords in the context of excluding landlords from the scheme to protect leaseholders from bearing the cost of external wall system remediation. The response from Housing Minister, Christopher Pincher MP outlined that the UK Government will explore whether this support should extend to other leaseholders such as buy-to-let landlords.
The issue has also been raised with Sir Peter Bottomley, Chair of the Leasehold and Commonhold Reform APPG and the Group’s Co-Chairs Daisy Cooper MP and Justin Madders MP.
The principle that leaseholders must not be expected to pay to fix a cladding crisis that they did not cause lies at the heart of the UK Government’s plans to address the issue, but there is no logical basis on which buy-to-let landlords should be excluded from this.
Buy-to-let landlords are no more to blame and deserve justice just as much as any other leaseholder to ensure they are not penalised for simply being landlords.
The ball has been put firmly and very publicly in the court of those responsible, but there are still more details that need to be clarified to restore full confidence in this area of the market.
Propertymark welcomes efforts by the UK Government to bring an end to this issue that has left many people unable to re-mortgage, sell or rent out these homes, so it’s vital that private rented sector landlords are included in the support.
