Owners face new trap in their bid to sell flats hit by Grenfell cladding crisis

Mortgage firms still want safety certificates on low-rise buildings, despite new ruling

Thousands of people are stuck in flats they cannot sell or remortgage despite government efforts to persuade banks to drop fire-safety cladding checks on low-rise buildings.

The government announced in July that external wall surveys, or EWS1 certificates, which have become commonplace since the Grenfell disaster, would no longer be required on buildings not higher than 18 metres. But banks and building societies are still insisting on checks which, due to a shortage of qualified and insured fire engineers, can take months or even years to carry out.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3kFrATD