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Building safety: Petition to protect leaseholders gathers momentum

Around 50,000 people have signed a petition calling for all leaseholders to be protected against building safety defects via an amendment to the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill.

The Earl of Lytton’s amendment – which is returning to the House of Lords this September – offers consumer protection for those living in blocks of flats and rescues the 1.7 million excluded leaseholders who are currently exposed to non-cladding fire safety remediation costs and often left unable to sell their property.

Signatories to the petition recently doubled within a matter of days to the point that it now has around 50,000 names.

It was launched by Jake Fisher, a leaseholder who says he is trapped in his flat with unsafe, high-fire risk cladding. He said:

“Despite their clear responsibility for causing this issue, there is no requirement for the property developer, Countryside, to pay a single penny towards remediation, solely because our building is under 11 metres tall.”

He pointed out that his building actually is over 11 metres tall, but because the top floor is for roof access only it is excluded from the provisions, something he says is “another example of how the Bill in its present form is unfit for purpose”.

He describes this as a “baffling loophole” and calls on potential signatories to join him in “letting parliament know that this situation is not okay”.

Sign the petition here if you wish.

2 responses

  1. Find out more about the Earl of Lytton’s amendment to end the chaos in the conveyancing industry here:

    buildingsafetyscheme.org

  2. Even worse: a tenant (leaseholder) whom the 2022 Act protects LOSES that protection if a Deed of Surrender and Regrant extends the existing lease (s.42 of Leasehold Reform Housing and Urban Development Act 1993).

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