Northpoint Bromley

JohnB 20 Mar 19 6.41am
I lived in Northpoint, a 57 flat building next to Bromley North Station, for 10 years. I sold my flat about 2 years ago. I had no idea when I sold it just how lucky I was to have sold it when I did. I think around a year after I had sold it, they discovered it had Grenfell style cladding all over the building. The buildings freehold was sold by the builder to another company whilst I was living there and now everyone is washing their hands of responsibility to replace the cladding. This has meant that residents, as a private building, were told 3 things. You must either hire or carry out between themselves, someone to patrol the building 24 hours a day with floor walking to check for fires. You must replace the cladding at a cost of Ł70k per flat Your home is now unmortgageable and if this is not completed by April, the building will be condemned. I feel so sorry for all of the residents there and even worse for the person that bought my flat as a buy to let. I can't believe that Wimpey, the original builders have washed their hands of this, the new freeholders have said it's Wimpey's responsibility and the government and local council have so far refused to help at all. I have been there since moving and the residents have had to turn the foyer into a sort of communal working area to allow them to carry out the 24 hour patrols as they can't afford to hire a company to patrol the grounds which would only add to the Ł70k per flat. [Link]
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JohnB

20 Mar 19 6.41am

I lived in Northpoint, a 57 flat building next to Bromley North Station, for 10 years. I sold my flat about 2 years ago.

I had no idea when I sold it just how lucky I was to have sold it when I did. I think around a year after I had sold it, they discovered it had Grenfell style cladding all over the building.

The buildings freehold was sold by the builder to another company whilst I was living there and now everyone is washing their hands of responsibility to replace the cladding.

This has meant that residents, as a private building, were told 3 things.

You must either hire or carry out between themselves, someone to patrol the building 24 hours a day with floor walking to check for fires.

You must replace the cladding at a cost of Ł70k per flat

Your home is now unmortgageable and if this is not completed by April, the building will be condemned.

I feel so sorry for all of the residents there and even worse for the person that bought my flat as a buy to let. I can't believe that Wimpey, the original builders have washed their hands of this, the new freeholders have said it's Wimpey's responsibility and the government and local council have so far refused to help at all.

I have been there since moving and the residents have had to turn the foyer into a sort of communal working area to allow them to carry out the 24 hour patrols as they can't afford to hire a company to patrol the grounds which would only add to the Ł70k per flat.

[Link]

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Badger11 Beckenham 20 Mar 19 7.42am
I live in a block of flats and we own the leasehold we recently spent Ł125,000 (between us) on a new roof (after 40 years) that is the price of flat living. However I have nothing but sympathy for the occupants they should not be liable and could not possibly have known when they bought their flats (so much for building society surveyors). I have no idea about the law but morally the current company that owns the leases should do the repairs and sue the previous leaseholder to recover their costs. Looking at the article I suspect that company doesn't give a dam the sooner they reform the laws around owning leases the better. Far too many people are trapped in homes with leases which are running down because the sharks that own it want to much money to extend them. One more point
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Badger11

Beckenham 20 Mar 19 7.42am

I live in a block of flats and we own the leasehold we recently spent Ł125,000 (between us) on a new roof (after 40 years) that is the price of flat living.

However I have nothing but sympathy for the occupants they should not be liable and could not possibly have known when they bought their flats (so much for building society surveyors).

I have no idea about the law but morally the current company that owns the leases should do the repairs and sue the previous leaseholder to recover their costs.

Looking at the article I suspect that company doesn't give a dam the sooner they reform the laws around owning leases the better. Far too many people are trapped in homes with leases which are running down because the sharks that own it want to much money to extend them.

One more point

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cardiff eagle 20 Mar 19 8.37am
Personally wouldn’t touch a leasehold property again. Two scandals in the above properties I’m sure: 1. Bet there’s a doubling clause in the ground rent whichll also now make it tough to sell as many lenders won’t lend against that. Now the freehold has been sold to what is probably an investment company, the cost to remove those clauses or buy freehold will be huge. 2. Despite not owning the freehold and having no say on it, the leaseholders still have to pay for the building! Feel so sorry for them- these are issues the government should step in on but they won’t. They never do
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cardiff eagle

20 Mar 19 8.37am

Personally wouldn’t touch a leasehold property again. Two scandals in the above properties I’m sure:

1. Bet there’s a doubling clause in the ground rent whichll also now make it tough to sell as many lenders won’t lend against that. Now the freehold has been sold to what is probably an investment company, the cost to remove those clauses or buy freehold will be huge.

2. Despite not owning the freehold and having no say on it, the leaseholders still have to pay for the building!

Feel so sorry for them- these are issues the government should step in on but they won’t. They never do

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Fatherken 20 Mar 19 9.44am
Although Northpoint is cladded with a Glenfell type cladding system it MAY well be safe . Glenfell was an old brick building with cladding added to it to make it look nice along with badly fitted opening windows . Northpoint is a newish building built to a different standard and if correctly built and the fire breaks are in the right place [ behind the cladding ] and the windows do not open [ like most modern high rise flats are ] it should be safe . I think that there has been a knee jerk reaction to this problem , that is any building that has the Glenfell type system it is unsafe , this may well not be true .
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Fatherken

20 Mar 19 9.44am

Although Northpoint is cladded with a Glenfell type cladding system it MAY well be safe . Glenfell was an old brick building with cladding added to it to make it look nice along with badly fitted opening windows . Northpoint is a newish building built to a different standard and if correctly built and the fire breaks are in the right place [ behind the cladding ] and the windows do not open [ like most modern high rise flats are ] it should be safe . I think that there has been a knee jerk reaction to this problem , that is any building that has the Glenfell type system it is unsafe , this may well not be true .

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