Building Safety and Cladding Costs: What Leaseholders Should Know

Why building safety costs are treated differently

Following the Grenfell Tower fire, a separate and more complex statutory protection regime was introduced for costs connected to historical building-safety defects - things like unsafe cladding systems, missing fire breaks, or other fire-safety remediation works. The leaseholder protection provisions apply to defined “relevant buildings” - broadly, buildings at least 11 metres high or at least five storeys and containing at least two dwellings, subject to statutory exclusions. Separate statutory definitions apply to “higher-risk buildings” elsewhere in the building-safety regime, and the two categories shouldn’t be treated as interchangeable. This sits under the Building Safety Act 2022 and related regulations, alongside (not instead of) the ordinary Section 20 framework.

What an EWS1 form is

An EWS1 (External Wall System) form is an industry valuation and lending assessment used to record whether a building’s external wall materials have been checked for fire safety risk, often required by mortgage lenders before they’ll lend against a flat in a building with cladding. A reference to cladding, external-wall fire risk, or an EWS1 form in your Section 20 notice is a warning that specialist building-safety issues may be present - but an EWS1 reference doesn’t itself establish that the Building Safety Act leaseholder protections apply. That depends on statutory criteria concerning the building, the lease, the nature and timing of the defect, and the leaseholder’s circumstances, possibly alongside the ordinary service-charge and Section 20 framework rather than instead of it.

Why this determines eligibility, contribution caps, and more

The Building Safety Act protections involve concepts like whether a lease is a “qualifying lease,” whether a defect is a “relevant defect,” and contribution caps that can limit what a qualifying leaseholder can be charged for certain remediation costs. Working out whether any of this applies to a specific leaseholder depends on detailed facts - the building’s height, when the lease was granted, the leaseholder’s circumstances, and more - that go well beyond what an ordinary Section 20 notice review can establish.

Why this is always a case for a specialist

Given how fact-sensitive and high-value these cases usually are, and how much is at stake for leaseholders, this is genuinely a situation where a solicitor with building safety experience, or a specialist adviser, is the right first call - not an automated information tool. Section 20 Defender does not assess qualifying-lease status, relevant-defect status, or contribution caps, and flags any case with a building-safety signal for specialist review rather than continuing with an ordinary Defence Pack.

Where to go for help

• A solicitor experienced in building safety and leasehold disputes
• Citizens Advice, for a general first steer
• LEASE, the government-funded Leasehold Advisory Service

If your case also involves an ordinary Section 20 element alongside a building-safety one, it’s still worth getting specialist advice on the whole picture rather than trying to separate the two yourself.