EWS1 Form: Selling a Flat in a Block with Cladding Problems
This is a made-up example. The people, places and numbers are not real.
What an EWS1 form is, when lenders still ask for one, who pays for cladding repairs, and how one couple sold their flat after two mortgages fell through.
- Category
- Regulatory: cladding repairs
- Property
- One bedroom flat on the fourth floor of a seven storey block
- Area
- Birmingham
- Main problem
- Cladding needing replacement, works not started, an EWS1 rated B2 that lenders would not lend on
- Time to complete
- 10 weeks
- Value added
- About £24,000
01The Situation
Mortgage lenders ask for an EWS1 form when they are not sure the outside walls of a block of flats are safe in a fire. If the form says works are needed, most lenders will not lend until the works are done or paid for by someone other than the flat owner. That stops most sales, because most buyers need a mortgage.
Liam and Sophie Brennan bought a one bedroom flat in 2019 for £152,000, in a seven storey block built in 2004 and about 22 metres high. In 2024 the building owner had the outside walls checked to the PAS 9980 standard. The report found panels and insulation that would burn and said they had to be replaced.
The building owner applied to the government's Building Safety Fund, which paid for blocks of 18 metres and over. The money was approved, but works were not due to start until spring 2027. That fund closed to new applications on 1 September 2025. New cases now go to the Cladding Safety Scheme, which covers blocks of 11 metres and over in England.
The couple were expecting a baby and needed a bigger home. Two buyers agreed to buy, at £140,000 and then £135,000. Both lost their mortgage offers when the lenders' valuers saw the report and valued the flat at nil.
02The Diagnosis
What an EWS1 Form Is
EWS1 stands for External Wall System. RICS, UK Finance and the Building Societies Association brought the form in at the end of 2019 so valuers had something to rely on when a block had cladding. One form covers the whole block, not one flat. The building owner orders it, and it is signed by a qualified person, usually a fire safety expert or a chartered surveyor with the right fire training.
What the Ratings Mean
Option A means the walls have no materials that would burn to any real degree. A1 and A2 are fine to lend on. A3 means balconies or attachments need work. Option B means burnable materials are there. B1 means a fire safety expert has judged the risk low enough that no work is needed. B2 means work is needed, and that is the rating most lenders turn down.
What It Is Not
It is a form for valuers and lenders. It is not a fire safety certificate, and it does not replace the block's fire risk assessment. A form is usually treated as valid for five years, unless the building is changed.
When Lenders Ask for One
The first rules were broad, and in 2020 and 2021 lenders asked for forms on almost any block. In November 2020 it was agreed no form was needed for a block with no cladding. In July 2021 the government's expert panel said a form should not be needed for blocks under 18 metres, and the big lenders backed it. RICS then set its valuers rules based on the number of storeys and the type of cladding seen. In January 2023 lenders signed an industry statement saying they would lend on flats in blocks of 11 metres and over where the developer was fixing the block, a government scheme was paying, or the leaseholder was protected by law. An April 2025 update said lenders would not insist on new surveys just because a form was over five years old or the person who signed it no longer met the rules. A fire risk appraisal of the walls, proof the block is in a funding scheme, or a leaseholder deed of certificate can be used instead, subject to each lender's own policy.
What Changes on 1 November 2026
RICS's second edition of its standard for valuing flats in blocks with cladding comes into force. It says valuers should ask for an EWS1 only where there is a clear reason, based on height, cladding they can see, glass curtain walls and some balcony types. In some cases a signed summary of the PAS 9980 appraisal can be used instead of an EWS1. Each lender still sets its own rules.
Cost and Time
The flat owner does not pay for an EWS1 directly. The building owner orders it for the whole block, and how the bill is shared depends on the lease and on whether a funding scheme covers it. Fees vary a lot with the size of the block, and a full PAS 9980 appraisal of a mid-sized block often runs into thousands of pounds. Expect weeks at best and often months, because only the building owner can order it and qualified signers are in short supply.
This Flat
The report and an EWS1 rated B2 were already in place. A new form would only say the same thing until the works were done. The real gap was that nobody had shown the buyers, in writing, that the couple would not pay for the works, and that a buyer would not either.
03The Value
The Building Safety Act 2022 protects leaseholders in blocks at least 11 metres or five storeys high with at least two flats. It works through the lease, not the person.
Qualifying Lease
A long lease (over 21 years) first made before 14 February 2022, where on that date the flat was the leaseholder's main home, or they owned no more than three homes in the UK. The Brennans lived there, so their lease qualified. That status is fixed at 14 February 2022 and stays with the lease when it is sold, even to an investor with fifty flats.
Cladding
No service charge can be taken from a qualifying lease for removing or replacing unsafe cladding. The bill is nil.
Other Fire Safety Faults
For things like missing fire breaks, a qualifying leaseholder pays nothing if the flat was worth under £175,000 on 14 February 2022 (£325,000 in London). This flat was worth about £150,000, so that bill is nil too. Above those values the share is capped at £10,000 outside London and £15,000 in London, spread over ten years, with higher caps for flats worth over £1 million.
If the Building Owner Is Linked to the Developer,
they pay for everything themselves.
If the Lease Does Not Qualify,
for example a landlord who owned four or more homes in 2022, the cladding protection still applies but the cap on other faults does not. A buyer then has to price that bill in.
So the buyer's risks were not the cladding bill. They were the wait, fewer buyers until sign-off, and service charges rising from higher insurance in the meantime. The government's Remediation Acceleration Plan says blocks of 18 metres and over in a funding scheme should be fixed by the end of 2029. The King's Speech in May 2026 confirmed a bill to make fixing unsafe cladding a legal duty, but it is not law yet.
The buyer priced it like this:
Value After Sign-Off
Similar flats in fixed blocks nearby sold for £148,000 to £155,000. Call it £150,000.
Holding Time
About two and a half years until that value could be sold or borrowed against.
Income While Waiting
Rent of £875 a month is £10,500 a year. Less a service charge of £1,900 and £1,200 for letting and repairs, about £7,400 a year is left.
Costs to Buy
Stamp duty at the higher rates for an extra home was £5,900, and legal fees, searches and a building safety review came to £1,900.
The Offer
£118,000. With the buying costs that is £125,800 in, a return of about 5.9 per cent a year while waiting, then a rise in value when the works are signed off.
04The Execution
Weeks 1 to 2, the Paperwork
The couple's solicitor gathered the PAS 9980 appraisal, the EWS1 form, the funding approval and the building owner's timetable. The couple signed a leaseholder deed of certificate showing the lease qualified, with proof of their address on 14 February 2022 and the flat's value then. The building owner sent back its own certificate confirming the protections applied.
Week 2, One Pack for Buyers
All of it went into a single pack, with a one page note on what a buyer would and would not pay. That is what had been missing for the first two buyers.
Weeks 2 to 3, the Right Buyers
Details went to buyers whose mandates covered blocks waiting for cladding works. A cash buyer who already owned four flats in similar Birmingham blocks offered £118,000.
Weeks 3 to 10, the Sale
The buyer's solicitor checked the certificates against the lease, the service charge accounts and the reserve fund, and confirmed no charges for the cladding had been asked for. Exchange and completion took seven weeks.
After Completion
The buyer let the flat at £875 a month. Once works are signed off they plan to remortgage, or sell to a buyer with a mortgage. A lender should then accept the sign-off papers or a new EWS1 rated A or B1.
05The Outcome
Bought for
£118,000
Spent
£7,800 on stamp duty, legal fees, searches and a building safety review
Worth After
About £150,000 once the works are signed off
Value Added
About £24,000
The couple sold for £34,000 less than they paid in 2019 and £17,000 less than the second failed sale, and moved into their new home a month before the baby arrived. The buyer's return depends on the works being finished on time. If they slip a year, the rent keeps coming in.
The Lessons
- An EWS1 is a lending form for the whole block, ordered by the building owner. You cannot order one for your own flat.
- A B2 rating does not mean you pay. For cladding on a qualifying lease the bill is nil, and the cap on other faults is often nil too.
- Check the lease qualifies: made before 14 February 2022, and on that date the flat was the owner's home or they owned no more than three homes. That status passes to the next buyer.
- Get the deed of certificate and the building owner's certificate before you market the flat. Lenders now accept them, with proof of a funding scheme, in place of a fresh form.
- From 1 November 2026, RICS valuers should only ask for an EWS1 when there is a clear reason. Ask your buyer which lender they use and what it wants.
- Price the wait, not the cladding: value after sign-off, years to get there, and what the rent pays while you wait.
- This is general information, not legal advice. Check your own position with a solicitor.
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