Balcony

After the Grenfell Tower disaster, all London high rise apartment blocks have to replace their external flammable material with non-flammable material. Our London flat was built with a balcony that was two thirds concrete slabs and one third wooden decking. Our predecessor covered the whole thing with another layer of wooden decking.

The freeholder told us a few months ago that they had applied for a grant to replace the original wood, and then that their grant application had been approved, which would cover most but not all the cost. In July a new piece of legislation was passed that stopped freeholders passing on to leaseholders the cost of replacing the flammable materials. I'm sure the intention was to force freeholders to bear the cost not covered by the grant. Our freeholder has just told us that the work is now on hold as they can't afford the extra cost and they are seeking a legal opinion.

Meanwhile we had started to take up the additional decking layer which wouldn't have been covered anyway. It was hot and steamy this morning but we managed to get up quite a bit of the decking and then start to clean up the original balcony. Then we had a huge thunderstorm! I'm afraid this saga is going to run and run. Luckily we are happy in our flat, because until the whole block is signed off under the new legislation, no-one can buy or sell.