Selling a property with cladding

For some properties across Scotland, wall cladding can raise issues when looking to buy or sell. The tragic fire in Grenfell Tower in London in 2017 highlighted that unsafe cladding was used in some buildings across the UK.  

In Scotland, the Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Bill is being introduced to help give powers to Scottish Ministers to assess and remediate certain types of buildings with unsafe cladding. This has been a detailed and complicated process with fire safety experts, chartered surveyors and building standards officers at the core of the consultation.  

The current cladding situation in Scotland  

If potentially combustible materials are suspected in a property, then a satisfactory report will be required to be prepared from a member of a suitable qualified organisation. 

To allow these properties to be sold and remortgaged, RICS, UK Finance/lenders and other stakeholders have been working on a reporting and certification process, which currently centres on an EWS1 certificate.  Once signed by a suitably qualified surveyor, this may mean that lenders are able to consider lending on the property. 

The future outlook for cladding in Scotland  

The Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Bill will create a new Cladding Assurance Register, which will feature properties with a completed Single Building Assessment. This will look at the whole building incorporating both external wall system as well as internal fire risk assessments as well as other factors.  

If remedial works are identified in the report, they will be required to be carried out before a property can be added to the Register.  

If a property is not on the Register, it is unlikely that it will be accepted to mortgage lending purposes.   

For homebuyers and sellers who have been affected by this issue or are concerned it might affect them, we advise them to get in touch with their solicitor to find out more.