Selling a flat in London/Price drop

[ilovesouthlondon]

If you're selling (or trying to sell) a flat in London (particularly 1 beds with no garden) how low have you had to drop the price? Is it a different experience for new builds vs ex local authority and how long did you have to wait for the sale to complete? Are balconys better than no outside space at all (probably a buyers question)? Experiences please!

Do you need an EWS1 certificate even if the building does not have cladding?

I was wondering that although have not checked. The Financial Times has had quite a few articles about the cladding issue probably because a lot of their male readers bought one bed flats in very modern high blocks which are clad but I cannot remember. I don't think you need the certificate for places like my daughter bought - converted Victorian houses with 5 or 4 flats in them.

www.ft.com/content/913cc2ab-7fd5-4d41-a097-df408b4fa57d England’s cladding crisis creates 2m ‘mortgage prisoners’

@ilovesouthlondon

Do you need an EWS1 certificate even if the building does not have cladding?

Yes, you can do. Other elements like wooden balconies are also being deemed as a fire risk by some lenders, or buildings with stone or metal cladding that has passed safety tests.

We don’t have an EWS1 but lender at remortgage (different lender) was happy to accept a letter from the management company stating they had enough funds to cover any works from the fire report. We don’t have cladding however, but do have wooden elements externally

@TedMullins, I did some research and the law changed last year. You do not need this certificate if the building has no cladding or if its lower than a particular height (I cant remember the measurements).

EWS1 is a poorly thought out scheme that has been over adopted by the mortgage companies.

Even if your building is under 18m it can be hard to get a mortgage so blocks are being forced to do them.

They also only last 5yrs...I really don’t understand why they need to be repeated in the absence of further building work because I didn’t think cladding was in the habit of spontaneously appearing?

The deregulation of building control & the governmental failure to put in place clear regulations after other fires - lakanal house, or respond to those abroad caused this situation. The abject failure of the NHBC & developers to step up and help remedy it is a national disgrace.

I do not understand why the government are standing back and letting ordinary citizens go bankrupt because of the failures of multi billion pound businesses. But hey that’s the Tories for you.

[quote ilovesouthlondon]@TedMullins, I did some research and the law changed last year. You do not need this certificate if the building has no cladding or if its lower than a particular height (I cant remember the measurements).[/quote]
The official height is 18m but as we recently found out, the government plucked that figure out of nowhere. I believe the government advice is all advisory rather than being enshrined in law? I may be wrong on that but I’ve also done extensive research on this and heard of several cases where lenders were requesting EWS1s even when flammable cladding wasn’t present

Certificates needed despite there being no Cadding ...sounds like somebody somewhere is making money off this as usual.