Seven lenders have agreed to cover the cost of making cladding forms public, UK Finance has revealed.
Barclays, HSBC UK, Lloyds, Nationwide Building Society, NatWest, Santander and TSB have pledged to foot the bill for making existing EWS1 forms publicly available through the Fire Industry Association (FIA) Building Safety Information Portal.
EWS1 forms are used by mortgage lenders for valuation purposes to determine if a property needs remediation work to remove unsafe cladding.
They were introduced in 2019 following government guidance to address the building safety crisis following the Grenfell Tower fire.
The FIA portal was created to host completed EWS1 forms and make them publicly available but UK Finance says that many fire professionals who undertake EWS1 assessments have been slow in adding the completed documents to the portal.
Lenders are to cover the cost of uploading an estimated 6,000 existing forms and as well as paying the fees for around 250 fire professionals to register on the portal.
Once the forms have been uploaded they will be accessible to home owners, prospective buyers, valuers and lenders through the central portal.
UK Finance director of mortgages Charles Roe says: “These forms are vitally important for anyone looking to buy, sell or remortgage homes in a multi-storey building.
“The financial backing and support of the seven lenders is a positive step to keep the housing market moving for flats and apartments. In addition, it will improve transparency and access to building safety information for everyone involved in the home-buying process.”
Fire Industry Association chief executive Ian Moore says: “We offered to set up the Building Safety Information Portal as a repository to make it easier for the public to find EWS1 forms for their buildings.
“In addition to this are the checks to ensure the person who surveyed the building and completed the EWS1 form is who they say they are, have the correct qualifications / credentials, and that the form has been completed correctly.
“Accessibility to accurate information is well overdue and this portal will go some way to solving that.
“Finally, a huge thanks to UK Finance, the mortgage lenders and RICS in making this project work.”
