Fire safety in new builds: Hornsey flat owners launch £2.2 million claim over cost of repairs

Thousands of other leaseholders in London are embroiled in disputes with developers and contractors.
Fuller Court in Hornsey

Frustrated London flat owners have launched a £2.2 million claim over the cost of fire safety repairs in what is thought to be one of the first legal cases of its kind since the Grenfell disaster.

Residents at the Fuller Court blocks in Hornsey are suing the National House Building Council (NHBC) after a two-year impasse over work on two buildings containing 56 flats.

Thousands of leaseholders in the capital are embroiled in disputes with developers and contractors about the bills for replacing flammable cladding or sorting fire safety defects that make their homes effectively unsellable.

So far few have come to court, in part because the Grenfell inquiry has still not determined whether inadequate building regulations or work on the tower was mainly to blame for the fire.

But residents, led by Andrew and Angela Krokou, have issued a claim for £2,252,783 to pay for the repairs, which do not include removing cladding but are related to issues like building design and access for firefighters.

They warned the bill may rise if further defects are uncovered. The NHBC provides warranties against major defects on most newly built homes for up to 10 years.

It is alleged to be responsible for the remedial work as the issuer of Buildmark warranty and insurance protection when the homes were built by developer Bellway Homes in 2011.

Lodging the claim at the High Court, barrister Gaynor Chambers said fire safety failings at Fuller Court pose a “present and imminent” danger to residents but “protracted correspondence” has failed to settle the deadlock.

Ms Chambers wrote in the writ: “The necessary repairs arise primarily out of breaches of the requirements of the building regulations in relation to fire safety which were current at the time of construction, and represent a present or imminent danger to the physical health and safety of the occupants of Fuller Court.

“The residents informed the NHBC’s claims department that it would be necessary to open up a large number of the flats to ascertain the extent of the problems and remedial works required.

“They invited the NHBC to arrange for a suitable representative to be present when any such opening up was carried out so that the NHBC could inspect and carry out whatever investigations it thought fit at that stage, irrespective of liability.

“The NHBC’s response was that it was for the managing agents of Fuller Court to submit information, and that it did not need to be in attendance at their investigations.”

Last year the Government set up a £1 billion Building Safety Fund to pay for the removal of unsafe cladding from high rise blocks.

Thousands of funding applications have been made and last week building safety minister Lord Greenhalgh suggested a levy on developers could raise funds to pay for the fire safety remedial work.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said leaseholders must be spared the cost of fire safety works and urged the Government to make more money available.

He told a Question Time meeting last week: “The Government’s response has been slow, piecemeal, and not good enough. I’m astounded that... there’s still no sign of a long-term and fair solution to the building safety crisis.”

A spokesman for NHBC said: “We have no comment to make at this stage.”