In March and April 2023 we announced that we had signed the Government’s Developer Remediation Contracts for England and Wales respectively. Below are questions and answers to support queries from leaseholders.
Will my building be included?
Our commitment covers all buildings constructed by Taylor Wimpey or our legacy organisations that are over 11m firefighting height (from ground level to the floor level of the top habitable floor) and constructed in the 30 years up until the 5th April 2022.
I am a leaseholder, how do I know if you have contacted my building owner?
When contacting building owners and management companies, we have included a letter to leaseholders which we have asked them to distribute or make available to you. This letter will confirm that we have contacted your building owner and will work with them to resolve any life-critical fire safety defects arising from the design, construction or refurbishment of buildings, should any be present in your building.
My building has already applied through the Building Safety Fund; what will happen?
This will depend on what stage your buildings application was at with the BSF. If your application had not yet received a full funding award, Taylor Wimpey will work with your building owners and management company to prepare a remediation plan to address any life-critical fire safety defects, and progress these to start on site as quickly as possible. If your building has already had works started under a BSF funding agreement, these works will continue as planned and Taylor Wimpey will reimburse the BSF following completion of the works.
How long will works take?
This will depend entirely on your building and the works required. Our commitment has always been leaseholder focused, and we work hard with management companies to ensure residents and leaseholders are aware of the works, how long they will take, and any impact on them. This announcement will not change that, and any buildings which we will be working with as a result will be progressed with the same emphasis on resident communication.
I have struggled to mortgage my apartment; will these works change that?
All works undertaken or funded by Taylor Wimpey will be to bring your building up to a tolerable standard FRAEW, which is equivalent to an RICS EWS1 B1 standard. At the conclusion of the works the necessary paperwork will be made available so that you can provide details of your buildings external wall system to your lender to assist your mortgage application. If you are obtaining a mortgage prior to any remediation works being completed, Taylor Wimpey can provide you with a Letter of Comfort in respect of any necessary works, which can be provided to lenders to support a mortgage application.
We have not heard from Taylor Wimpey, but you were the developer. What should we do?
If your building meets the criteria set out above, in the first instance, you should contact your buildings management company or freeholder. It may be that they have not yet managed to inform leaseholders that contact has been made by us, or that we have already had a conversation and no works are required to your building. If your building owner or management company has not heard from us after 30 days from the date of this announcement, and they believe there are works required covered by this announcement, they should first contact [email protected].
Apartment homeowners in Scotland
In Scotland we continue to engage with the Scottish Government, seeking a swift resolution to the regulatory framework that will address fire safety in legacy apartment buildings to allow the assessment of buildings and any remediation if necessary to commence.
We will update this page once an agreement has been reached with Scottish Government to provide details on what activity can be expected in order to assess your building.
In the meantime, if you have any specific questions, please contact us at [email protected].
