‘The post-Grenfell cladding scandal has left me penniless and about to go bankrupt’
Malcolm Cameron-Lee thought he was doing the right thing when he decided to invest his lifesavings into property twenty years ago to fund a comfortable retirement.
At the time, “pension schemes were being mismanaged” and, as an electrical contractor, he believed “the way things were working it was better to fend for yourself”.
But the dream of home ownership has turned into a nightmare because of the long-running cladding scandal that has left the 58-year-old “penniless and about to go bankrupt”.
“We’ve been stitched up for so long and now it’s ruined me,” he told Sky News.
Malcolm bought nine small rental flats in Salford’s City Link development between 2007-8, for around £80,000 each.
But now they are effectively valued at £0 because of defects found in checks required after the Grenfell Tower fire.
The issues include flammable cladding, insulation, wooden balconies, and missing fire doors – with banks unwilling to take the risk of lending on the properties until they are made safe.
The works have been estimated to cost £33,000 per flat.
While ministers have repeatedly said that leaseholders should not pay for the mistakes of developers in the wake of Grenfell, which exposed a widespread building safety scandal, Malcolm is one of many who does not currently qualify for support.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
‘We’ll force developers to fix unsafe buildings’
The protections announced in last year’s Building Safety Act exclude buy-to-let landlords who own more than three properties – so-called “non-qualifying leaseholders”.
People in this group can be liable to pay for cladding remediation and are also shut out from a protective cap on expensive non-cladding costs.
Housing Secretary Michael Gove previously said the exclusion was because he did not want to support those with “significant means” to pay for remediation themselves.
But Malcolm accused the government of “discriminating against leaseholders who have grafted all their lives and saved hard to fund our own retirements”.
Having worked as an electrical contractor for 40 years, the income from the rent on the flats was his savings to put towards his pension.
But those savings have run dry because of the “spiralling costs” of maintaining the properties.
Malcolm has had to pay “extortionate” amounts for interim safety measures such as a waking watch and new fire alarm system, the latter costing him about £1,200 per flat.
The Grenfell Tower block in west London was destroyed in a fire that killed 72 people
His annual service charge has more than doubled from £900 to £2,100 while his building insurance is expected to shoot up by 42% this year.
This is on top of rising mortgage rates which have caused his payments to soar from £20,000 to £55,000 in the last year.
Malcolm is effectively hostage to these terms because the safety issues mean “the properties are valued at nothing, so there is no chance of being able to re-mortgage or sell”.
And he fears being stuck for many more years because there is no timeline for when the remediation will be complete.
Since the issues came to light the developer of Malcolm’s 17-metre high block has dissolved and filed under a new name.
Rendall and Rittner, who now manage the City Link development, told Sky News they are “working towards a resolution” and indicated they will seek funding for the cladding removal from the government’s medium-rise scheme for where developers can’t be traced.
The Department for Housing also insisted Malcolm would benefit from this scheme, despite his non-qualifying status, when contacted for comment.
But the scheme – to be funded by a new tax on the building industry – isn’t yet open, and Malcolm can no longer afford to wait.
Read More:
More than 900 people agree civil settlement over Grenfell Tower fire
Developers named and shamed for not signing post-Grenfell safety contract
“I can’t carry on, I have lost all my money,” he said.
“I am down to my last pennies, and I am going to file for bankruptcy beginning of May.
“I will lose the flats which were my income while I was retraining as something else. I will lose my home that I live in with my wife and I will lose my pension.
“I am normally very positive, but this has left me feeling broken. If I wasn’t married, I’d be on the street.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Grenfell: ‘We’ll fight to the end’
A spokesperson for the Department for Housing insisted “all leaseholders in buildings above 11 metres are protected from the cost of fixing unsafe cladding” as they pointed to its various funding schemes announced to address the building safety scandal.
But the End Our Cladding Scandal campaign (EOCS) said there is more to be done, and Malcolm’s “desperate story spells out the unfairness of the supposedly protective legislation that the government has devised, which has limited the help that is on offer”.
The campaign group estimates there are thousands of non-qualifying leaseholders excluded from protections in the Building Safety Act. As well as landlords with multiple properties, the group includes those in low-rise buildings below 11 metres.
Campaigners fear the dividing line will have a ripple effect on remediation, with works delayed or unable to go ahead if non-qualifying flat owners can’t pay.
Giles Grover, a spokesperson for the group, said: “The government has known about Malcolm’s circumstances for over a year, but has done nothing and there are many other non-qualifying leaseholders in the same situation – how many more ordinary people must have their lives ruined before Mr Gove, Mr Sunak and Chancellor Hunt will be moved to change course?”
World
In the idyllic Cognac region of southern France, Trump’s tariffs threaten a centuries-old way of life
The impact of Trump’s tariffs is reaching deep into every economy.
We travelled into the French rural heartland, heading for Cognac – the home of French brandy.
It is only half the size of Surrey but its exports to America are worth €1bn a year and that trade is now severely threatened.
The first buds are out on the vines of Amy Pasquet’s vineyard.
An American, she has married into the industry and with her French husband owns JLP Cognac.
She knows more than most the bond brandy has formed between their two countries that goes back to the war.
Tariffs latest: Follow live updates
Ms Pasquet said: “A lot of the African-American soldiers had really loved their experience here and had brought back the cognac. And I think that stayed because this African-American community truly is a community and they want to drink like their grandfather did.”
The ties remain with rappers like Jay Z’s love for cognac.
However, Ms Pasquet adds: “There’s also this other community of people who have been drinking bourbon for a long time, love bourbon, but find the prices just outrageous today. So they want to try something different.”
Amy Pasquet owns JLP Cognac with her husband
JLP’s products were served at New York’s prestigious Met Gala.
They were preparing to launch new product lines in the US. But now that’s in doubt.
It is hard being an American in France now, Ms Pasquet says.
Her French neighbours are appalled by what US President Donald Trump is doing.
She continues: “They’re like, okay, America’s forgotten how close France and America are as far as (their) relationship is concerned. And I think that’s hurtful on both sides. I think it’s important to remember that the US is many things, and not just this one person, and there are millions of inhabitants that didn’t vote for him.”
A fresh challenge for a centuries-old tradition
Making cognac takes years, using techniques that go back centuries. In another vineyard we met Pierre Louis Giboin whose family have been doing it for more than 200 years.
In a cellar dating back to the French Revolution, barrels of oak sit under thick cobwebs, ageing the brandy.
The walls are lined with a unique black mould that thrives off the vapours of cognac.
They have seen threats come and go over those centuries, wars, weather, pestilence. But never from a country they regard as one of their oldest allies and best of customers.
Read more:
What China could do next as Trump’s tariff war
How tariffs will affect your money
Could Trump’s tariffs tip the world into recession?
Pierre Louis Giboin’s cellar dates back to the French revolution
Mr Trump’s tariffs, says Mr Giboin, now threaten a way of life.
“It’s at the end of like very good times in the Cognac region. It’s been like 10 years when everything’s been perfect, we have good harvest, we sell really easily all the stock, but now I mean it’s the end.”
Ms Pasquet and Mr Giboin are unusual.
Most cognac makers sell their produce through the drink’s four big houses, Hennessy, Remy Martin, Martell and Courvoisier.
Some have been told the amounts they can sell have been drastically reduced.
Independents though like them must find new markets if the tariff threat persists.
Confusion away from the chaos
Outside in the dappled light of a Cognac evening Mr Giboin and I toast glasses of pineau – the diluted form of cognac drunk as an aperitif.
In this idyllic corner of France, a world away from Washington, Mr Trump’s trade war on Europe simply makes no sense.
“He’s like angry against the whole world and the way he talks like that Europe the EU was made against the US to cheat on the US. It’s just crazy to think like this,” Mr Giboin says.
It’s not just what Mr Trump’s done. It’s how Europe now strikes back that concerns the French. And it’s not just in Cognac where they’re concerned
France exports more than €2bn worth of wine to America.
In the heart of the Bordeaux wine region, Sylvie Courselle’s family have been making wine since the 1940s at their Chateau Thieuley vineyard.
It’s bottling season but they can’t prepare the wine headed for America while everything is up in the air.
Showing me the unused reels of US labels for her wine she told me she was losing sleep over the uncertainty.
Later she was meeting with her American distributors.
Gerry Keogh sells Ms Courselle’s wine across the US.
He says the entire industry is reeling
Sylvie Courselle with distributers
The Chateau Thieuley vineyard in the Bordeaux wine region
“I think it’s like anything. You don’t really believe it’s happening. And even when you’re in the midst of it, it was kind of like 9/11.
“You’re like… This is actually happening. It’s unbelievable. And when you start seeing the repercussions from the stock market, et cetera, and how it’s impacting every level, it’s quite shocking.”
They know the crisis is far from over and could now escalate.
“We feel stuck in the middle of this commercial war and we don’t have the weapons to fight, I think,” Ms Courselle said.
It is, she says, very stressful.
Gerry Keogh
The histories of America and France have been intertwined for centuries through revolutions against tyranny and two wars fighting for liberty.
America used to call France its oldest ally, but under Donald Trump its now seen here as turning on France and the rest of Europe in a reckless and unjustified trade war.
It is all doing enormous harm to relations between the US and its European allies.
How Europe now decides to retaliate will help determine the extent of that damage.
World
In the idyllic Cognac region of southern France, Trump’s tariffs threaten a centuries-old way of life
The impact of Trump’s tariffs is reaching deep into every economy.
We travelled into the French rural heartland, heading for Cognac – the home of French brandy.
It is only half the size of Surrey but its exports to America are worth €1bn a year and that trade is now severely threatened.
The first buds are out on the vines of Amy Pasquet’s vineyard.
An American, she has married into the industry and with her French husband owns JLP Cognac.
She knows more than most the bond brandy has formed between their two countries that goes back to the war.
Tariffs latest: Follow live updates
Ms Pasquet said: “A lot of the African-American soldiers had really loved their experience here and had brought back the cognac. And I think that stayed because this African-American community truly is a community. and they want to drink like their grandfather did.”
The ties remain with rappers like Jay Z’s love for cognac.
However, Ms Pasquet adds: “There’s also this other community of people who have been drinking bourbon for a long time, love bourbon, but find the prices just outrageous today. So they want to try something different.”
Amy Pasquet owns JLP Cognac with her husband
JLP’s products were served at New York’s prestigious Met Gala.
They were preparing to launch new product lines in the US. But now that’s in doubt.
It is hard being an American in France now, Ms Pasquet says.
Her French neighbours are appalled by what US President Donald Trump is doing.
She continues: “They’re like, okay, America’s forgotten how close France and America are as far as (their) relationship is concerned. And I think that’s hurtful on both sides. I think it’s important to remember that the US is many things, and not just this one person, and there are millions of inhabitants that didn’t vote for him.”
A fresh challenge for a centuries-old tradition
Making cognac takes years, using techniques that go back centuries. In another vineyard we met Pierre Louis Giboin whose family have been doing it for more than 200 years.
In a cellar dating back to the French Revolution, barrels of oak sit under thick cobwebs, ageing the brandy.
The walls are lined with a unique black mould that thrives off the vapours of cognac.
They have seen threats come and go over those centuries, wars, weather, pestilence. But never from a country they regard as one of their oldest allies and best of customers.
Read more:
What China could do next as Trump’s tariff war
How tariffs will affect your money
Could Trump’s tariffs tip the world into recession?
Pierre Louis Giboin’s cellar dates back to the French revolution
Mr Trump’s tariffs, says Mr Giboin, now threaten a way of life.
“It’s at the end of like very good times in the Cognac region. It’s been like 10 years when everything’s been perfect, we have good harvest, we sell really easily all the stock, but now I mean it’s the end.”
Ms Pasquet and Mr Giboin are unusual.
Most cognac makers sell their produce through the drink’s four big houses, Hennessy, Remy Martin, Martell and Courvoisier.
Some have been told the amounts they can sell have been drastically reduced.
Independents though like them must find new markets if the tariff threat persists.
Confusion away from the chaos
Outside in the dappled light of a Cognac evening Mr Giboin and I toast glasses of pineau – the diluted form of cognac drunk as an aperitif.
In this idyllic corner of France, a world away from Washington, Mr Trump’s trade war on Europe simply makes no sense.
“He’s like angry against the whole world and the way he talks like that Europe the EU was made against the US to cheat on the US. It’s just crazy to think like this,” Mr Giboin says.
It’s not just what Mr Trump’s done. It’s how Europe now strikes back that concerns the French. And it’s not just in Cognac where they’re concerned
France exports more than €2bn worth of wine to America.
In the heart of the Bordeaux wine region, Sylvie Courselle’s family have been making wine since the 1940s at their Chateau Thieuley vineyard.
It’s bottling season but they can’t prepare the wine headed for America while everything is up in the air.
Showing me the unused reels of US labels for her wine she told me she was losing sleep over the uncertainty.
Later she was meeting with her American distributors.
Gerry Keogh sells Ms Courselle’s wine across the US.
He says the entire industry is reeling
Sylvie Courselle with distributers
The Chateau Thieuley vineyard in the Bordeaux wine region
“I think it’s like anything. You don’t really believe it’s happening. And even when you’re in the midst of it, it was kind of like 9/11.
“You’re like… This is actually happening. It’s unbelievable. And when you start seeing the repercussions from the stock market, et cetera, and how it’s impacting every level, it’s quite shocking.”
They know the crisis is far from over and could now escalate.
“We feel stuck in the middle of this commercial war and we don’t have the weapons to fight, I think,” Ms Courselle said.
It is, she says, very stressful.
Gerry Keogh
The histories of America and France have been intertwined for centuries through revolutions against tyranny and two wars fighting for liberty.
America used to call France its oldest ally, but under Mr Trump it is now being as turned on, as France, along with the rest of Europe, finds itself in what many would argue is a reckless and unjustified trade war.
It is all doing enormous harm to relations between the US and its European allies.
How Europe now decides to retaliate will help determine the extent of that damage.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway