www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/09/is-the-uks-cladding-crisis-about-to-get-even-worse.html
Quote:
^In the next few months the Fire Safety Act will make it a legal requirement to check the external walls of all blocks with two or more flats — even sub-divided period homes. The PAS 9980 is due to replace the government advice that triggered the mortgage crisis later this year. If most assessors choose to use the new PAS, or “publicly available specification”, which the government commissioned from the British Standards Institute (BSI), it could affect almost 12 million people in all 4.9 million flats in England, of which two thirds are private leasehold.
“There will be a huge queue. There will be people who can’t afford the assessments. There will be people who are stuck in limbo. It will jeopardise property sales,” Evans says. He adds that PAS 9980 is “terrible news” for people in smaller blocks, who pinned their hopes on the July announcement by Robert Jenrick, the housing secretary, that buildings under 18m would no longer need an EWS1 form…
Evans believes this code, which is voluntary, will be “a catastrophe for residents and property owners that could lock up the market for flats for years”. On Thursday he will warn MPs and peers in a speech at an all-party parliamentary group that “this document must not come into effect”. ^
I've also already seen a few articles like www.leaseholdknowledge.com/curiouser-and-curiouser-the-building-safety-bill-has-second-reading-in-the-commons/ and www.thetimes.co.uk/article/new-building-safety-form-could-make-all-flats-harder-to-sell-in-england-ts05trvfx.
Do you think this might have an effect on the flat market as it seems like another painful experience for flat owners?
As someone who was thinking of buying a flat now (London area), seems like it's best if I just look into freehold houses in outer London...