The Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has confirmed that it has written to the freeholder of a 15 storey residential block in Stevenage, giving it 21 days in which to commit to remediating the tower’s fire safety defects to avoid an application being made to Court.

Leaseholders of the building have been waiting for more than two years for the freeholder to start fixing the serious issues at the block and the government's action marks some of the first action taken by its newly created Recovery Strategy Unit, which has been set up to identify and pursue entities which repeatedly refuse to remediate.

If the freeholder fails to meet the 21 day deadline then the government may apply for a Remediation Order pursuant to Section 123 of the Building Safety Act, which came into force earlier this year, to force the freeholder to take action.

In addition to Remediation Orders, the Building Safety Act introduces new sanctions and enforcement routes to compel remediation of buildings which have been identified as having fire safety defects. These include Remediation Contribution Orders which is an order requiring a company to make payments in connection with the remediation of relevant defects. 

Leaseholders are able to apply to Court for these remedial orders themselves and are being encouraged to do so by the government if the owner of their building is failing in its responsibilities. Forsters' Cladding team is able to help with such applications and further information can be found by following the link.