New indemnity insurance scheme will cover surveyors who complete cladding inspections of towers, and ease the logjam.
A new cladding initiative from the Government promises to release thousands of properties into the market previously stuck in limbo under Grenfell fire-related risk rules, it has been revealed.
This follows the Government Actuary Department’s (GAD) development of a new professional indemnity insurance scheme, enabling many qualified surveyors to cover their External Wall System (EWS1) assessments.
These assessments are carried out to decide whether remediation work such as cladding removal is needed on a high-rise building after mortgage lenders became reluctant to lend to buyers of high-rise flats following the Grenfell fire.
GAD says it has supported the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to design and work out pricing of the scheme, which project lead Jacqui Draper says was a complex and significant piece of work.
£100 MILLION
“We have estimated that claim costs will be £100 million, although there is no theoretical cap on the total size of claims that could be made,” adds Draper (pictured).
“We also advised DLUHC on the level of premiums needed to recoup the expected claims and operating costs.”
The scheme is set to launch in September and the government has teamed up with a selected insurer which will be administering the policies to qualified professionals.
CLADDING
Earlier this year, the government announced that leaseholders would not have to pay for remediation work on properties between 11m-18m high, making developers responsible for funding works.
After at first saying ‘qualifying leaseholders’ would not include landlords, it included ‘accidental’ landlords with no more than three properties in total.