Leaseholders Cladding Problems for some
See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil
Are there Winners and Losers In Cladding and Safety Issue Episodes
There are lots of people affected by the cladding and safety issues, some have negative and some have a positive effect and on some, the effect is more than the others as the effect goes from a very little and may be unnoticeable to a life-changing effect as VIMTO has seen it but you might not. Vimto is not a specialist and from hearing to from people reading about it see the effect is divided into groups and if you consider any part of it wrong please correct us. VIMTO has sorted these effects as follows according to the affected groups:
1 - Leaseholders
Leaseholders are the main losers and whether they fully compensated financially for the value of rectifying the buildings or not the damage to their lives as we see it and know it will stay with them and maybe for life, to mention
The mental stress that affects their well being,
Family relationships strain,
Effect on normal daily life and work performance etc
In addition to financial aspects related to rectifying the building, they live in or due to work performance affected by the change to their normal life and mental stress.
Probably they will need help to recover from the Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
2 - Freehold Companies
Freehold companies are out of the problem as we understand and according to what we have read and heard
They do not have to pay for rectifying the building's faults and all the cost will be passed to the leaseholders to pay it probably there are some exceptional cases.
No liability to freehold companies for the effected buildings and the buildings might have changed hands a few times and passed from one company to another, to another as owners since they were built or converted to residential buildings with the faults or substandard construction and materials.
3 - Contractors
From our experience in Manchester, there are very a few contractors in the market specialise in surveying and rectifying the faults which is not leaseholders mistake or fault but leaseholders need to rectify their buildings quickly that is if they have the money to keep their flats and rest in peace in the buildings without the worry about the fire or if they need to sell their flats as they can not in the present status and after the changes in building regulations and the standards, well after they bought the flats . Again from our experience in Manchester the prices have inflated for the materials, the survey and testing of the buildings and performing the rectifying work etc. The building management companies responsible for the buildings have to book the services and the materials for a certain time otherwise the leaseholders might have to pay more at a later time. The business for these services is booming.
There are other groups who are affected but with much less effect or influence from the first three and they are :
4 - Government and Local Governments
The Government and Local Governments seems out of the whole issue and without any liability for what has happened.
The issue of the cladding and safety came after Grenfell Tower incident and as a reaction to it and not an action to protect people by regular updating of the fire safety standards which, if this had been done and happened before Grenfell Tower incident we wouldn’t talk about it now.
The government offered grants to the leaseholders and that suppose to be considered honourable and big accomplishments from the governments and for the leaseholders to forget the rest of the rights. This also may enhance the government's popularity and give them credit without further liability. However, for leaseholders who paid for rectifying their buildings before the offer came will receive nothing.
The building regulations for the cladding and safety issues seem have not been updated regularly in the UK and that cover wide areas, where the high rise building started to dominate the sky like Manchester City where it may have the highest affected area as we have heard.
The government and local governments should have a safety body to observe and inspect the adherence to the building regulations of the cladding and safety issues and upgrade the regulations and standards if and when necessary and not wait for people to be killed to do it.
We consider both the government and local governments are very lucky that they have not been sued.
According to a friend of VIMTO: The new building regulations and standards should be applied to the construction and renovation of buildings starting after the regulations dates.
However, when the issue is a safety issue as we have here who is responsible for it The one asks for it or the one who owns it.
Were these building built with adherence to the buildings regulation standards at the time they built?
5 - Media and Newspapers
The Media and newspapers coverage for the cladding and safety issues is great in highlighting it to let everyone knows about the problem and the suffering of the leaseholders which might influence the government to help them.
However, these issues filled a considerable time for the media and columns for the newspapers since the starts and the problem came to the surface and that help increases their circulation and viewings.
6 - Politicians
Some politicians trying to help the leaseholders and we don’t know if the government listening to them or not, however, leaseholders appreciating their standing with them and this will help them in the next election if the people consider they did a good job in this important issue.
7 - Human Right Organisations
We do not know if the leaseholder's situation and suffering and the sudden demands to pay more than they can pay is considered a human rights violations but we know some leaseholders are living in hell and their lives turned upside down, can not sleep, concentrate or live a normal life. Is this not an abusive and touchers atmosphere to live in or not. Especially for the ones who are going to lose their accommodations because they can not afford to pay for the expensive repairs. Some call it a human right violation and then we saw an article in The Guardian
Britain flouting human rights over Grenfell-style cladding ( https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/aug/19/britain-flouting-human-rights-over-grenfell )
and this
Watchdog confirms Grenfell breached human rights laws ( https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/our-work/news/watchdog-confirms-grenfell-breached-human-rights-laws )
and a lot of mention of human right in the discussion of the issue of cladding and building safety regulations however never heard from human right organizations or some specialized person to clarify if this issue is violating human right or not. Or is it just VIMTO doesn't know about HROs involvement. As this issue has brought the human right organizations to the surface, HROs may have benefited indirectly by an increase in donations because of the issue without maybe doing anything.
It is not our business to interfere with their business but it is good to ask them kindly for support for Manchester locals.
When we googled " human right organisations and Manchester cladding issues " we found Manchester | Amnesty International UK
and they have a green logo instead of the usual yellow colour. we thought to tweet them to see if they consider this issue human right violation or not and do they have any thought to support Manchester leaseholders.
Finally, when you read tweets like this you know how bad is this issue.
https://twitter.com/MrRoGog/status/1287314698778693632
https://twitter.com/dlphillips13/status/1287844765539631107
8 - VIMTO
VIMTO know friends that effected by the episodes of the cladding and safety issues and feel really bad to see them disadvantaged for something, not their fault and to see them unhappy, stressed and worrying all the time, which has changed their life upside down and maybe for a long time.
VIMTO is disappointed to see these people subjected to the level of maybe torcher and abuse that is going on for a long time and some to lose their accommodations that they bought to enjoy like others but their life’s disrupted without having the ability to stand for their rights.
As far as we know human rights organisations not even standing by them or maybe there is no human right violations but still, they are facing very bad and unpleasant experience that no like to hear about never mind living it and they need even little support.
We feel sorry to our friends in Manchester and to our friends from outside the UK who are leaseholders. VIMTO, when asked about the cladding issue by friends from abroad who bought flats in Manchester and they can not come because of COVID, we tell them that they are at least safe in their houses and in a better position than the locals. For the locals, the flats are their homes and their saving for them it is just investment and holiday.
Other businesses have effected by these issues but we not sure how many but sure lawyers and solicitors will have some extra work, do you know any others.
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