Angry leaseholders, caught in a dispute over responsibility between L&Q and Brent Council, call for action on cladding trap

The Evening Standard hails the development in November 2012

There have been many social media posts over this issue over a long period but no action has resulted so leaseholders of the new build Bourne Place, in South Kilburn, have issued an open letter to Cllr Muhammed Butt, leader of Brent Council, who are the freeholder of the development.  Cllr Butt has his personal imprint on the development as his name is on a commemorative plaque on the wall of this beacon of regeneration.


 


Dear Mr Butt, 

We, the leaseholders with the housing association L&Q in Bourne Place NW6, a development delivered by partnership of Brent Council and L&Q as part of South Kilburn Regeneration in 2013, are appealing to you, as the leader of the council who are the freeholder of our development, to urgently intervene in the cladding scandal we leaseholders are entrapped in.



Due to the revised Advice Note 14 issued by the Government and the agreed EWS1 certification for fire safety of buildings by RICS and mortgage lenders, our development consisting of 3 under 18-metre blocks has also become affected by the cladding crisis.



The 59 leaseholders and shared ownership tenants of Bourne Place are now unable to sell their homes or remortgage without the EWS1 certificate. Depending on lender, we may also face expensive variable rates on our mortgages. We are trapped in nil-valued homes and we do not know whether our homes are safe because our landlord, the superior lease holder, housing association L&Q, refuses to conduct testing of our external walls. They give no indication whatsoever how long it will be before our blocks are examined and how long before they are remediated, should fire safety concerns be confirmed. Our lives are on hold; we cannot move, whether for jobs in these turbulent times or to start a family, and we face many financial consequences. 

Additionally, safety concerns affect all residents, including additional 75 social tenants homes at Bourne Place. In the wake of another Grenfell anniversary, we live in fear as we see more and more fires in blocks with combustible non-ACM materials such as in Barking or Worcester Park - all blocks under 18 metres just like ours. We grow angry as it becomes clear so many of us were sold or rented poorly-built homes but somehow the developers are not being made to act fast and answer our concerns. We are being brushed aside, saying our homes are not a priority to address for the housing association L&Q.


 

One of the excuses we have been given by L&Q, in writing, is that they are not able to provide us with EWS1 certification because they are not the freeholder of our site. Brent Council is. Us, leaseholders, find ourselves here in the middle of a squabble who is in fact the building owner and responsible for acting. We ask you, Brent Council, as the freeholder and superior landlord to housing association L&Q, to clarify with immediate effect the ownership structure for our estate and agree on accountability.





The Secretary of State, Robert Jenrick, has said that all building owners should act, without exception, to test and remediate new build blocks. Unfortunately, as leaseholders, we are largely powerless to force our landlord, L&Q, to act. We are homeowners without any rights of homeowners. Brent Council, on the other hand, as freeholder of the land and superior landlord to L&Q, have the power by lease to make L&Q act due to their apparent negligence to act in line with government guidelines. 

We look to you and Brent Council for help, in your capacity and legal powers of the freeholder, and as the responsible partner in constructing and delivering our homes as part of the South Kilburn regeneration program - homes that were meant to be constructed with safety and quality in mind from the beginning.


 

We look forward to hearing from you soon.
 


 

This letter is written as an open letter, copy of which we will provide to the Greater London Authority and the leader of councils, Mr Navin Shah, as well as enable publicising on social media and/or press. 

Representative of Bourne Place development, South Kilburn
 

 


Supported by UK Cladding Action Group, Homeowners of L&Q and National Leasehold Campaign 

Residents would like to see backing from the Council. They could well take a leaf out of Hackney Council's book:

Network Homes warns leaseholders they may face £100,000 cladding bills

Inside Housing reports LINK that Network Homes, which has an office (due to be redeveloped) in Fulton Road Wembley and owns and manages homes in Brent has warned leaseholders that they may face bills of up to £100,000 for the removal of non-aluminium composite cladding material (non-ACM).

Network say that this is the higher end of their estimates but their charitable status limits how much they can pay towards the work.  The article does not state how many, if any, Brent properties are affected but out of Network's 20,000 homes 4,000 are owned by leaseholders.

Inside Housing reports Helen Evans, CEO of Network Homes as stating:

This is a challenging situation and we are working on solutions that remediate affected buildings as quickly as possible. 

We are pursuing all alternatives to passing costs onto leaseholders and treating this possibility as a last resort. However, as registered charities, housing associations cannot make a blanket commitment to pay costs that are legally leaseholders’ liability.

If we cannot recover costs from others and the government does not fund the work in the way that it has with ACM cladding removal, we have no alternative but to put our leaseholders on notice that they could be liable for some of these costs.

A week before Christmas Network Homes put this notice on their website:

The government has released a document called Advice Note 14, which tells owners of tall buildings to do a new investigation to ensure the ‘external wall system’ has been properly installed and maintained. The external wall system means cladding, insulation or any other material on the outside wall of your building.

The government advice notes are not clear and confusing even to experts, so we, alongside other large housing associations, are asking the government to clarify their advice. In the meantime, we’ve already started these investigations on some of our tall blocks (the advice note directs us to look at ones over 18 metres – around six storeys). This is for buildings with non-ACM cladding – the type on Grenfell Tower – as those buildings have already been investigated. For buildings that we haven’t started yet, we’re getting a schedule in place to do the investigations.

Investigations must be done by trained professionals and in some cases the system will need to be tested in an accredited test centre. Once investigations are complete, we will be issued with a report to confirm compliance or with some work that needs to be done to make the building compliant.

If you live in a tall building over 18m and you’ve not yet received information about the investigations, please bear with us while we confirm our schedule. We hope to write to you with more information in the new year. Please note, your buildings are still safe – where issues are found we will put any necessary interim measures in place and advise you of these at the time.

If you have any questions regarding your tall building, get in touch with our dedicated Building Safety Team who will be able to help. You can email them at buildingsafetyteam@networkhomes.org.uk.

Brent council housing now back in-house

Brent council housing officially came back in house yesterday making the demise of the arms length organisation Brent Housing Partnership.

Brent Council yesterday published the following information for tenants and leaseholders:

The council housing management services, previously provided by Brent Housing Partnership (BHP), have transferred back to Brent Council today.

The move follows a 12 week consultation with tenants and leaseholders earlier this year and a raft of improvements to council housing are planned over the next year including:

• More investment in up-to-date technology, such as a new smartphone app for simple transactions
• More joined up approach between housing and other council services, to provide a better customer experience for tenants and leaseholders
• A more responsive and flexible repairs service
• More and better targeted investment in estates, blocks and houses
• Review of service standards, to ensure we are delivering what residents want
• Better engagement of residents in decision-making about their homes and estates.

Tenancies are already held by the council so residents do not need to do anything differently and will still receive all the services they had access to under BHP. However, council tenants and leaseholders will notice a change of branding back to Brent Council which will appear on all official items including estate signage, website, social media, letters and ID cards of staff and contractors.

Councillor Harbi Farah, Lead Member for Housing at Brent Council said: “Housing is one of our most important services so it’s great that we’ve been able to bring it back in-house. Our tenants and residents can be sure that we’re committed to building on BHP’s good work and will know that we’re determined to deliver an excellent service across the board.”

Anyone who would like to help shape the new housing service can get involved by:

1. Taking part in a survey – to help with the new Customer Strategy. Surveys can be completed via this link: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/HousingCustomerStrategy  
2. Attending a workshop – to ensure that information about Service Standards is clear, useful and complete
3. Taking part in some testing – of designs for a new smartphone app

Please visit the housing website for dates of workshops, app testing and further information.