A couple living in a flat with dangerous cladding say their life is ‘on hold’ and they may have to declare bankruptcy due to the £25,000 cost of having it removed.
Abi Tubis, 29, of Leeds, is among the thousands of people across the UK who are trapped living in unsafe flats with flammable cladding.
Speaking to the BBC, Abi said she and her husband want to start a family but can’t because they could face a crippling repair bill of over £25,000 which would bankrupt them – and can’t sell or remortgage until the cladding is removed.
Lenders have been refusing to offer mortgages on tens of thousands of homes after new safety rules were introduced in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire.
Abi Tubis, 29, of Leeds, is among the thousands of people across the UK who are trapped living in unsafe flats with flammable cladding, and says she feels like her life is ‘on hold’
‘If we want to have a family, we have to start now and we can’t, we can’t financially because we might have to declare bankruptcy due to this. We couldn’t bring up a child in an unsafe home,’ she said.
‘I’m stressed and anxious, like, I don’t feel like me. I feel like I’m living someone else’s life.
‘I just wake up every day thinking, “Why? Why is this happening to me? Why is my life being impacted in this way?”‘
Abi bought her first home in Leeds city centre with her husband in February 2017 at the age of 26 and told how she felt ‘such a sense of pride and accomplishment’.
Abi bought her first home in Leeds city centre with her husband in February 2017 (pictured together in their flat) at the age of 26 and told how she felt ‘such a sense of pride and accomplishment’
Abi said she and her husband want to start a family but can’t because they could face a crippling repair bill of over £25,000 which would bankrupt them – and can’t sell or remortgage until the cladding is removed
But she admitted her dream has ‘become a nightmare’ and she now wishes she was still renting.
The couple face remediation bills and a monthly bill of £400 on top of their mortgage for 24-hour fire wardens because their building is unsafe.
‘I live on the floor where the cladding starts, so my flat is like wrapped around with cladding,’ she explained.
‘Every night we have that fear of, if the alarm goes off, we’ve got our stuff ready and our emergency bag to just go and just to leave as quickly as possible.’
She added: ‘It’s even bigger than you can imagine. It’s just, it literally is just pulling and ripping our lives apart.
Abi admitted her dream has ‘become a nightmare’ and she now wishes she was still renting
‘And we’ve known about this for a whole year, and Grenfell happened over three years ago, and nothing has changed.’
The Grenfell tragedy, which killed 72 people, exposed decades of ‘utter rubbish’ building work and regulatory failure that left flammable materials on the building to feed the blaze that ripped through dozens of homes.
The Government has set aside £1.6 billion to help fund repair work, but MPs expect total costs to amount to £15 billion.
It means some leaseholders face bills of up to £115,000 each to make their homes safe.
Around 3,000 buildings have applied to the Government fund, including Abi’s in Leeds.
Around 3,000 buildings have applied to the Government fund, including Abi’s in Leeds (pictured)
Abi, who lives on the floor where the cladding starts, told how every night she and her husband have fear of the alarm going off, and have packed an ’emergency bag’ to leave as quickly as possible
MPs and campaigners are calling on the Government to pay for the work to be done, but earlier this week building safety minister Lord Greenhalgh said ‘some costs would fall on leaseholders’, but the Government will aim to make it ‘affordable’.
Abi said: ‘Why should we pay? You wouldn’t pay for a faulty car after you purchase it. It is completely scandalous that all of these costs are coming down to the leaseholders.
‘The fact is, we are paying and it shouldn’t be the case, it should not happen.’
In March, Abi tweeted that she was put on furlough from her job, with an expected return to work date in July.
While she was able to put her mortgage on hold, she pointed out she was still expected to pay her increased service charges and the additional fee for 24/7 waking watches – while having to isolate in a dangerous building is ‘terrifying’.
This week it emerged growing numbers of people who own flats with dangerous cladding are turning to firms that pay cash for unwanted properties at cut prices.
Money Mail revealed some owners have been left with no choice but to accept reductions of up to 40 per cent on their asking price.