Image: Cypress Place and Vallea Court
A row over an estimated £3m bill to replace ‘Grenfell style’ cladding on two Manchester residential blocks will go to a tribunal.
Lendlease was the original developer for Cypress Place and Vallea Court in the Green Quarter, which comprise 345 flats and were completed in 2013, before selling the freehold to investment firm Pemberstone in 2015.
But a 2017 test revealed aluminium composite cladding (ACM) with unmodified polyethylene filler (category 3) on the buildings. Work to replace the panels is due to start in spring 2019.
Now the residents are locked in tribunal proceedings with Pemberstone, which wants an independent determination of who should pay to replace the ACM panels, the same type as was used on the Grenfell Tower.
The residents claim they had to crowdfund £11,000 to get their own legal advice to provide a response at the tribunal, which took place on 13 June. An outcome is expected at the end of July.
Regardless of the result, leaseholders said they would like to see either Pemberstone or Lendlease foot the bill.
They highlighted the recent example of Barratt Developments, which decided to pay the estimated £2m cost of recladding the Citiscape development in Croydon, despite a ruling that residents should pay.
Vallea Court
A spokesman for Pemberstone said: "As a landlord, we have made an application to the first tier tribunal for an independent determination on several issues including the responsibility for the costs of replacing some of the cladding following government and fire service guidance.
"As a well-established forum for landlords or leaseholders, the tribunal is used to establish clarity on issues that affect the management of a residential building and its service charge. They are particularly appropriate for large schemes like this where there are 345 apartment owners, some of whom are investors located overseas.
"We believe that an independent decision from a tribunal is in the best interests for all concerned and should allow us to establish a clear way forward. In the meantime, considerable work is being undertaken by our team on the design and scoping out of the work that will be required.
"We became the landlord of the buildings in 2015. This was after the blocks had been fully constructed and all of the flats had been sold by the developer."
Lendlease declined to comment and directed CM’s enquiries to Pemberstone.
Katie Kelly, owner of one of the Green Quarter apartments, said: "The way the whole situation has been handled from taking us to a tribunal which we will likely have to pay for, to taking over a year to even begin work to make our homes safe is crazy."
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I’m not quite sure why there is an argument here. We now know that the cladding and refurbishment works carried out at Grenfell didn’t comply with building regulations which is the reason for the devastation and loss of life. The contraventions included a combination of the type of cladding and lack of fire breaks, compounded by not having a linked fire alarm.
Either Cyprus Place didn’t comply with building regulations when built and Lendlease need to rectify this, or it did comply with building regulations and the cladding doesn’t need changing. ACM panels are not illegal and do not contravene building regulation if they are installed correctly.
If the leaseholders don’t like the cladding then this is completely their responsibility to pay for its replacement. They cannot expect either the original construction company or freeholder to foot the bill based on retrospectively applied building regulations, or in this case change in sentiment.
We have a number of live projects with Trespa rain screen cladding and the building inspectors are overly cautious about what changes to the building regulations might be implemented that they are second guessing every eventuality to the point where we are installing fire breaks on each floor on a three storey Victorian school where the existing substrate is a two-brick thick solid wall. If there is such a risk from rain screen cladding, the building regulations needs to be updated quickly. Otherwise, if the existing regulations are adequate but haven’t been applied properly in the past, guidance on their proper implementation needs to be issued.
Well said Stuart. You summed it brilliantly. What we urgently need now is guidance / instruction from Government on what the changes to Building regs will be. I can’t help thinking the building control process also needs to change. How can work be signed off by building control and then fail fire tests a few years down the line!!
Lendlease was the original developer for Cypress Place and Vallea Court in the Green Quarter, which comprise 345 flats and were completed in 2013, before selling the freehold to investment firm Pemberstone in 2015.
The leaseholders had nothing to do with the installation, they are lumbered with the problem.