I have spoken to a surveyor about this on a couple of occasions and, unfortunately, he was unable to give me anything solid about how the Scottish or UK Government are responding and helping people trapped in “worthless” unmortgageable properties.
There is a further meeting next week where it is hoped there may be more answers, rather than more questions. On speaking with my friend, it appears that advice is changing, literally, on a daily basis.
Obviously, in this situation, safety is the paramount concern for everyone but, people are living in these “unsafe” buildings. They are unable to move. And it is not their fault.
It does appear that the Scottish Government is looking to address this issue and Kevin Stewart has written to the UK Housing Minister. In his letter Mr Stewart pleads for a sense of urgency in finding a safe, but practical solution to the problem.
We have checked and none of the flats under our management are currently in this situation but, we do know that this is affecting a lot of owners in Edinburgh. The flats at Western Harbour have also suffered from “Nil Valuations”.
It appears that Mortgage companies have lost their appetite for lending on ALL properties with cladding. We are also glad to report that no domestic buildings in Edinburgh have been found with the ACM Cladding, deemed responsible for the Grenfell disaster.
https://www.gov.scot/
So, to us, it looks like the lending will be a temporary problem and once an agreement concerning a way forward is found, homeowners will be able to sell their properties again on the open market.