Homeowners in Scotland whose flats have external cladding will be offered free safety assessments to determine which properties have material needing to be removed.
As part of work to tackle cladding issues, the Scottish Government is seeking to gather information on buildings where a cladding or fire risk assessment has already been done and highlights a risk to life. This will build on assessments that have already been undertaken.
It is asking for expressions of interests by homeowners to join a Single Building Assessments pilot scheme.
A Single Building Assessment is undertaken on a whole building rather than by an individual flat owner. This will release affected buyers and sellers from difficulties in accessing mortgages without them having to pay for the current External Wall System (EWS1) Report on their individual property.
By starting with those buildings with known issues, the pilot phase will be able to quickly establish on a consistent and robust basis, what the remediation need is, the reasons for that, position of developer and what support from public funds can be provided.
The Scottish Government published the expression of interest form on 31 March 2021.
The expression of interest process runs until 25 May 2021.
The proposal, which paves the way for public funding for remediation, is a key recommendation in a report published last month by the Ministerial Working Group on Mortgage Lending and Cladding.
Subject to the outcome of the election, a Single Building Assessment programme will be launched to carry out the safety assessments. It is expected that the majority of inspections will show that the building is safe, giving peace of mind to homeowners. Where problems are identified, this will help to identify the scale of funding needed to take necessary remedial work.