Do you own an apartment? EWS1 forms – what are they and what do the recent changes mean?

Following the devastating Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, regulations on high rise buildings that contain flammable cladding have been put in place, including the introduction of the EWS1 form in December 2019.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) described “The EWS process, and resulting form, is a set way for a building owner to confirm that an external wall system on residential buildings has been assessed for safety by a suitable expert, in line with government guidance. The EWS1 process delivers assurance for lenders, valuers, residents, buyers and sellers. The process was developed through extensive consultation with a wide range of stakeholders including fire engineers, lenders, insurers, valuers, and other cross industry representatives.” The introduction of the EWS process means that apartment owners looking to sell or re-mortgage their properties, found that lenders were requiring an EWS1 form to be produced before they would even consider underwriting the application.

The initial guidance stated that only buildings above the 18 metres would be required to partake in the process, but changes in Government advice from January 2020 meant that all blocks of any height could be included. Over the last year this has been a grey area and many experts within the industry found that there was a variety of contradictory guidance and was mainly down to the discretion of the lender.

There were also issues such as shortages of qualified professionals to be able to carry out these assessments. The government has since invested £700,000 worth of funding into training more assessors for the sector, to assist with speeding up the process of valuations.

On the 21st July 2021, Robert Jenrick, the Housing Secretary announced that EWS1 forms should no longer be requested for buildings below 18metres. Robert commented “Today’s announcement is a significant step forward for leaseholders in medium and lower-rise buildings who have faced difficulty in selling, anxiety at the potential cost of remediation and concern at the safety of their homes”. This change hopes to reduce needless and costly remediation in those lower-rise buildings and aims to restore balance to the flat and apartment market, overall helping owners to sell or re-mortgage their homes and purchasers to buy.

Although this guidance has been announced, many large mortgage providers have stated that they will not immediately change their policies so although this is a positive step for the industry, it will be some time before we see a real change within the market.

If you need to sell your home quickly, UK Homebuyers Ltd can give you an offer, no matter what the condition or location. Our customer service line is open 24/7, just call 0800 051 7645 for a quick offer or fill in our online form to obtain your free no obligation cash offer.