Cladding, EWS1 and the Building Safety Act: what leaseholders in England pay

Is the building covered?

GOV.UK sets three conditions for a relevant building:

Height is measured from ground level on the lowest side to the floor of the top storey, ignoring basements and roof-top plant. Only storeys at or above ground count, the ground floor being the first. The defect must create a risk from the spread of fire or structural collapse, arise from building work, products or linked professional services, and date from the 30 years ending 27 June 2022 (28 June 1992 to 27 June 2022). A building completed after 28 June 2022 is therefore not covered.

Is your lease a qualifying lease?

A lease qualifies if all of these apply:

1. it is a long lease (over 21 years) of a single dwelling in a relevant building;
2. you pay a service charge;
3. it was granted before 14 February 2022;
4. on 14 February 2022, the flat was your only or main home, or you owned no more than 3 dwellings in the UK in total.

The status is fixed on 14 February 2022 and transfers automatically to later buyers, whether or not they live there. Since the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 (section 243, in force from 26 December 2023), the protections also continue when a qualifying lease is extended, varied or replaced, retrospectively to 14 February 2022. The protections apply in England only: GOV.UK says leasehold properties in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are not covered.

What you can be charged

Caps for non-cladding costs over 10 years (GOV.UK table):

• No more than one-tenth of the cap can be charged in a single year.
• Amounts paid since 28 June 2017 towards remediation or interim measures count towards the cap. Paying more than the cap in the past gives no compensation.
• A shared owner’s cap is reduced in proportion to their share.
• The lease value is not a market valuation: for a purchase on or before 31 December 2020 it is the open-market price paid times a multiplier for the year of sale published by GOV.UK; for a purchase from 1 January 2021 to 13 February 2022 it is the price paid. The Leaseholder Protections Checker on GOV.UK does the sum.

A non-qualifying leaseholder is not covered by these caps: what they pay depends on the lease and general service charge law.

Proving it: the deed of certificate, EWS1 and lenders

• Leaseholder deed of certificate. You can complete it at any time, and must when the landlord serves a notice, which gives at least 8 weeks to reply (an extra 4 weeks can be asked for before the deadline). It is executed as a deed, witnessed by someone outside the family. Without it, the landlord can treat the lease as non-qualifying. The landlord cannot charge for the notice or certificate, and the documents are passed to buyers through conveyancing.
• Landlord’s certificate. To pass any historical remediation cost on through the service charge, the landlord must provide one (and must also do so within 4 weeks of a leaseholder’s request). GOV.UK says that without a valid certificate the landlord cannot pass remediation costs on.
• EWS1. GOV.UK: “EWS1 forms are not a statutory or regulatory requirement”; their use is set by banks and building societies.
• Lenders. Following the UK Finance and Building Societies Association statement updated on 18 December 2023, GOV.UK lists Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide, NatWest, Santander, Skipton, TSB and Virgin Money as lending on 11 m+ buildings in England that are being fixed by the developer, are in a government-funded scheme, or where the leaseholder is protected as shown by a deed of certificate.

Deadlines and pending legislation (status at 21 October 2026)

The government’s Remediation Acceleration Plan (December 2024, updated July 2025) sets targets: by the end of 2029, every 18 m+ building in a government-funded scheme remediated, and every 11 m+ building with unsafe cladding remediated, given a completion date, or its landlord liable for penalties. The July 2025 update announced a legal duty to remediate, with 2031 as the end date for works and failure to meet it without a reasonable excuse to become a criminal offence. The government’s Building Safety (Remediation of Unsafe Cladding etc) Bill was introduced in the House of Commons on 14 October 2026; on 21 October 2026 it was awaiting second reading and is not law yet. The leaseholder caps in Schedule 8 of the Act, as published on legislation.gov.uk up to date to 1 July 2026, are those in the tables above.

Which professional to consult

A conveyancer checks the deed of certificate, the landlord’s certificate and the remediation history before you buy or sell a flat in a tall block. A mortgage adviser knows which lenders accept the building and the evidence they want. A surveyor or valuer reports on the flat itself; the fire risk appraisal of external walls is a specialist job commissioned for the building. For service charges in general, see service charges and ground rent and leasehold and freehold.