What is cladding in the UK? What homeowners should know

In 2022, the government revealed a wide-ranging agreement in which the housing industry contributed £5 billion to address the building safety scandal.

The move was seen as a victory for leaseholders. Then ‘Levelling Up' Secretary Michael Gove found a solution with the housing industry that saw property developers commit a minimum of £2 billion to fixing their own buildings. The industry was also asked to pay up to a further £3 billion through an expansion of the Building Safety Levy.

Regardless of the proposed solutions, which took time to implement, it is still important that those looking to buy or sell a house in the UK are up-to-date on building safety. Homeowners need to know what this can mean for transactions, the risks involved, and the improvements that have been made to safety regulations since the Grenfell Tower fire of 2017.

Cladding is a term used to describe a layer of material applied to the exterior of a home. Traditionally, it was used simply as a weather-proofing layer to protect underlying structural walls and surfaces from the elements, largely laid on roofs by skilled professionals. Over the past few years, it has started to become an aesthetic addition to the outside of homes and other buildings, improving the appearance of a standard exterior. It also serves to better insulate a home and help lower energy bills.

It's possible that you have seen rural buildings overlaid with wooden panels in a kind of alpine chalet style. Or, on industrial estates, commercial properties covered in sheets of aluminium. Both are examples of cladding.

Since the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, cladding has been in the spotlight from a fire safety point of view, leading to a considerable amount of anxiety among tenants and property owners. Owing to the use of a highly flammable plastic cladding called polyurethane and to prevent another tragedy from occurring, the government has introduced new legislation. 

Owners of flats and buildings with cladding will now require a valid ESW1 (External Wall System 1) form to sell or remortgage their property. Completing these forms requires the time and work of a surveyor, so the government has invested in training around 2,000 additional surveyors to help clear the system's backlog.

In most cases, you will not need planning permission to install weatherboard cladding on your home. However, there are some circumstances where you may need to consult advice before proceeding. There are certain areas where you may be required to seek planning permission from a local authority before installation. 

These include living in a national park, an area of outstanding beauty, a listed building, or a conservation area. It is likely that you will still be able to install your cladding, but to be safe, you should always consult your local authority to get permission first.

The presence of cladding on a home is a good sign that the current or previous owner has taken great care of maintaining its structural integrity. It should give homebuyers confidence that they are investing in a sound structure. What's more, aesthetically pleasing cladding adds curb appeal to a property and will ensure that it retains and grows its value in the years to come. 

However, there is a significant ‘but'. Mortgage lenders will not lend on a property unless they know exactly what the cladding in question is made of. Many buildings on which cladding was installed many years ago will not have records of the cladding having been installed, so it can take some time to resolve the issue and progress with your purchase. It is why it makes sense to have a full RICS Level 3 survey carried out when you are looking to buy a home, should you see that cladding has been installed, to get a more accurate picture of the constitution of the said cladding.

In most cases, it will be the landlord's responsibility to repair and maintain external or structural parts of a building, including the cladding. This means that if you are buying a leasehold property, you will not be responsible at any time for replacing the cladding on the property. 

If you don't undertake a full RICS Level 2 survey or even get a Level 3 survey on a freehold property at the time of purchase and the cladding needs to be replaced in the future, it is you who is liable to replace it. It is why you should take the time to compare the various surveys available to you before going ahead with a property purchase, to avoid nasty surprises and costs later down the line.

As covered previously, unless there is a formal record of the precise materials used to clad a property, it could be unmortgageable. Lenders are risk averse, so they will not lend on a property that they deem to be exposed to a high risk of fire in case they were to incur heavy losses should an accident happen. Your only options as a seller of a property deemed to have risky cladding would be to completely remove and reinstall the existing cladding, at a high cost, or sell your property for under its value to an investor or cash buyer.

This means that you will require the most thorough survey available (RICS Level 3), which will involve opening up the cladding to take a sample of the materials. You can get a survey quote in 60 seconds by using our free quote builder. Next-day bookings are usually available from our UK-wide network of RICS Surveyors, with over 100 expert chartered surveyors.

In 2022, the government outlined new plans designed to protect leaseholders by making developers and building companies pay to fix dangerous or defective cladding. Procurement guidance was released at the time to assist the construction industry in adopting and implementing procurement practices geared towards safe and high-quality buildings.

Building developers were pressured to replace defective or dangerous cladding from the Building Safety Bill, which now allowed owners and leaseholders to retrospectively demand compensation for safety defects up to 30 years old. In high-risk buildings, £27 million was allocated to install safety features such as fire alarms and sprinkler systems. There is still work to be done, but steps have been taken in the right direction regarding holding developers accountable and incentivising them to replace dangerous or defective cladding materials.

The number of potential issues that will be identified as part of a RICS survey depends on the level of survey that you undertake. A RICS Level 2 or 3 survey will look for excess condensation, gutter or roof leaks, missing roof tiles, issues with chimney stacks and a home's ventilation, amongst other things. They also assess the structural quality of a property and advise of any wall defects that may become a problem later down the line, including woodworms, rot, dampness, and subsidence. A basic Property Valuation Report will only provide a professional property valuation to prevent you from overpaying. It will not uncover any defects.

Get your quick surveyor quote with us today, and remember to instruct a conveyancing solicitor to oversee the sale, purchase, or remortgage you are undertaking. If you have any questions about cladding, any of our services or booking a RICS survey on a property, then be sure to contact us, and a member of our team will be happy to help.