WIREDGOV

Landlords are welcoming an amendment to new laws that would end the injustice of there being worthy and unworthy leaseholders able to access support to tackle dangerous cladding.

Government plans mean individual landlords who are leaseholders renting out more than one property will be excluded from proposals pledging that no leaseholder in a building over 11 metres in height will have to pay for the removal of dangerous cladding.

An amendment tabled to the Building Safety Bill by the Conservative Peer, Lord Naseby, will, if passed, mean all leaseholders are treated equally.

This development follows a parliamentary motion tabled by the Conservative MP, Sir Peter Bottomley which calls for buy-to-let landlords and owner-occupier leaseholders to be treated the same, cross-party support.

The Government also risks delaying remedial work on dangerous cladding as it seeks to understand which leaseholders would and would not be eligible for protection under its plans.

The National Residential Landlords Association has been campaigning to end the damaging decision to treat leaseholders so differently and welcomes these latest efforts to tackle the problem.

Ben Beadle, Chief Executive of the National Residential Landlords Association, recently said:

“We warmly welcome Lord Naseby’s amendment and call on peers to support his proposal.

“It makes no sense for the Government to treat landlord leaseholders so differently to owner-occupiers. Both groups have faced the same problems at the hands of developers, and therefore both should be treated equally. This amendment would go a long way to rectifying this unfairness.”

Peers will start to consider and debate amendments to the Building Safety Bill at Committee Stage starting on 21^st February.