'Fire risk' cladding removal from Bexhill apartment block to be removed - this is when

Oakfield Estate Agents, which manages the Landmark building, said it has secured £6.4m in funding to completely replace the cladding.

In January, the Observer reported on how residents living in the complex said they face crippling bills to pay for major repairs.

The Observer reported in early 2021 how residents in the building, which contains 66 flats, said they were ‘living in fear’ after surveyors recommended major repairs to the complex following a safety report in November 2020.

Since then, residents have seen their insurance costs rise, as well as bills for new safety measures increase. Some said their flats were now worthless, leaving them unable to sell up.

Last month resident Elaine Stevens said: “We the leaseholders are still waiting for the remediation work to start. Sometimes this seems like the least of our worries with spiralling service charges, especially the building insurance. It used to be around £45,000 per year but it’s now £248,178 per year. People here are really struggling to pay.”

Oakfield said the company was appointed managing agents for the Landmark after the developers went into administration in 2012.

It said a waking watch and new fire alarm system have been put in place. The former is a fire safety system in which trained staff patrol the floors and the outside of a building continually to provide warning in the event of a fire.

Oakfield said it was able to secure funding for the installation of the new fire alarm system via the Government’s Waking Watch Relief Scheme. However, it added leaseholders had to pay for the waking watch patrols themselves.

Further funding to replace the cladding has been approved from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) via the Government’s Building Safety Fund.

Sam Hensher, financial director at Oakfield, said: “This has come as a huge relief for everyone, particularly the leaseholders. We are all looking forward to the remediation work being fully completed.

“We’re now working very hard to get work started as soon as possible, and have lined up the contractor to begin work on site in May. It has been a very long and challenging journey for everyone involved.”

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