Cladding: Deed of Certificate – Five Day Rule?

Cladding: Deed of Certificate – Five Day Rule?

9:31 AM, 23rd October 2023, About 7 months ago 6

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Hello, I’m a landlord and I have 5 buy-to-let properties in England. I don’t live in any of these. Some of the BTLs are affected by cladding in the same building. The properties were purchased over 6 years ago.

Correct me, but ordinarily, I don’t think that I qualify for Leasehold Protections although I don’t understand why – as I purchased them in the same good faith as any other leaseholder!

Until now I thought that these flats would be covered by the Freeholder as they had committed to carry out remedial work. However, the Freeholder has sent me an email demanding that I fill in a Leaseholder Deed of Certificate.

An FAQ on the government website says that ‘Your landlord must send leaseholders a request for a deed of certificate within 5 days of finding out either that you intend to sell your property, or that there is a relevant defect in the building’ BUT it doesn’t say what the consequences are, for both Freeholder and Leaseholder, if this request is not sent within the 5 days. I’m desperately trying to find out.

I would be most grateful if you could help me answer this or point me to someone who might be an ‘authority’ on the subject.

Thanks,

Connal


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Comments

Dylan Morris

12:45 PM, 23rd October 2023, About 7 months ago

I received some paperwork just over a month ago to complete and return to the freeholder to enable a Deed Of Certificate to be issued. I own two rental flats in the same development.
As I own more than one property in additional to my own home these leases will be classed as non qualifying. Which essentially means tough luck I will have to pay for any cladding or fire protection remedial work myself…… allowing the developer, Government and local authority to get off scot free. It’s a penalty that’s being applied to landlords for absolutely no reason other than spite, by a despicable creature that goes by the name of Gove.
Very luckily for me the EWS1 report which was obtained a few years back shows I’m not affected by cladding issues (or any other safety concerns).

NewYorkie

16:29 PM, 23rd October 2023, About 7 months ago

Fortunately, I am now down to only one BTL flat plus one resi (come Friday), which I believe makes me 'qualifying '.

Stephen Thompson

16:57 PM, 23rd October 2023, About 7 months ago

The landlord (freeholder) is trying to learn who are qualifying leaseholders and therefore are protected against charges for these works, please see link below which will provide a full explanation. Hope this helps.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/mandatory-information-required-from-leaseholders-and-building-owners#SnippetTabation.

Dylan Morris

9:55 AM, 24th October 2023, About 6 months ago

It won’t make you qualifying as it goes on your situation as on 14th February 2022. So if you were not qualifying then you will always be non qualifying. Off loading properties after this date does not help you at all. Also if you now sell a non qualifying flat to a first time buyer that flat will never become qualifying for them. So they obviously won’t buy it.
Gove’s not a fool, he has intentionally designed it like this so that you can’t offload your flats and get yourself out of this situation. It’s as evil as they can make it.

Alltaf Samji

13:17 PM, 30th October 2023, About 6 months ago

Hi Guys,
Thanks for all your responses. Much appreciated.

There was another part to my question which I'm also trying to address:

"An FAQ on the government website says that ‘Your landlord must send leaseholders a request for a deed of certificate within 5 days of finding out either that you intend to sell your property, or that there is a relevant defect in the building’ BUT it doesn’t say what the consequences are, for both Freeholder and Leaseholder, if this request is not sent within the 5 days. I’m desperately trying to find out."

Can anyone help?

Thanks again

Stephen Thompson

15:09 PM, 30th October 2023, About 6 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Alltaf Samji at 30/10/2023 - 13:17
If the landlord doesn’t supply their certificate it is deemed as an admission that they are responsible for remediation costs.
If the leaseholder does not supply theirs, then they forgo any right to claim costs to which they otherwise would have been entitled.

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