The Guardian has covered our clients’ cladding case success. In a Bermondsey development of five large multistorey buildings, works have been completed to make homes safe, at no cost to residents, and constructors have paid residents £550,000 for damages and costs. The residents hope their success will inspire residents of other badly-constructed buildings to stand up to constructors.
The Exchange development was constructed for Notting Hill Genesis (NHG) by United Living. It consists of five multistorey residential and mixed-use buildings and was found to have widespread fire safety defects, including aluminium composite material (ACM), combustible insulation and inadequate cavity barriers.
The residents began a legal case in 2020 to ensure that work was carried out to make the buildings safe, and that the leaseholders would not have to pay for the cost of the remedial works.
NHG and United Living have now carried out large-scale works at their own cost to make the five buildings compliant with the fire safety requirements of the building regulations, and have paid residents £550,000 in damages and costs. Terms of the settlement mean that none of the works costs or legal costs can be passed onto any other leaseholders or residents.
Bindmans were instructed by the residents together with Michael Wheater KC of Gatehouse Chambers.
Christian Hansen, partner in our Housing and Property Litigation team, says:
What we’ve seen is that a lot of constructors are basically dragging their feet, they’re not keen to do as many works as they should and they’re fighting these cases. I can only hope that settlements like this will be a bit of a wake-up call to them that actually they should be settling these things sooner than they are.
Kyle Taylor, a resident in the Exchange since its completion in 2014, says:
It has been stressful. We’re a mixed community so we have social tenants, private tenants, and first-time buyers through shared ownership. We’re a building of teachers and nurses, key workers and young professionals. I know for myself and for a number of people those bills would not have been payable.
We are pleased that NHG and United Living have at last done the right thing, but disappointed it took so long. We bought our homes in good faith and were devastated to discover they were not safe because of cost-cutting construction.
We have had to live in unsafe homes for many years and are relieved that we can now start putting this behind us.
It was really important for me, from the perspective of public interest, that we could be an example for people that it is possible to win on the basis of truth and reality and what’s correct and just, but also to inspire some [other] people to go for it.
Read the full article in The Guardian here.
This story was also covered by Inside Housing here.
Find out more about our Cladding and Building Fire Safety services here.