The cladding bill: what it means if you are buying or selling a flat

What happened

The government introduced the Building Safety (Remediation of Unsafe Cladding etc) Bill to the House of Commons on 14 October 2026. It passed its second reading on 27 October and is now at committee stage, which must finish by 8 December. It is not yet law, and it can still change.

According to the House of Commons Library, the bill would:

• Create a legal duty to assess and fix life-critical fire safety risks in external walls. It applies to buildings with two or more homes that are at least 11 metres high or have at least five storeys, and mainly applies in England.
• Put that duty on “responsible entities”, such as freeholders, with offences and financial penalties for failing to comply.
• Provide a backstop: a local housing authority could apply to a tribunal for powers to do the work if the owner has not.
• Set up a mandatory register of medium-rise buildings, those between 11 and 18 metres or five to seven storeys. Higher-rise buildings already have one.
• Make it easier to recover costs from cladding manufacturers.
• Protect leaseholders from having costs such as penalties for non-compliance passed on through service charges.

What it means if you are buying a flat

• It does not make any building safe today. A new duty is not the same as finished work, and even once it is law, the work will take time.
• Ask about the walls early. What has been assessed, what has been fixed, who is paying and when the work will be complete are the questions that matter. The seller’s answers on the Property Information Form and your solicitor’s enquiries are where they get pinned down.
• Your lender will have its own view. A mortgage valuation on a flat in a block with unresolved wall issues can be a problem, and a lender may ask for evidence such as an EWS1 form.

What it means if you are selling a flat

• Clear paperwork is an advantage. If your block has been assessed or fixed, having that evidence ready can save weeks and reassure a buyer.
• Uncertainty costs you buyers. Where the answer is unclear, buyers and lenders tend to hesitate, and that can be behind a sale that will not move.
• Do not rely on the bill as an answer. A buyer will want to know what has happened in your building, not what Parliament may do next.

Jon’s view

Who should pay is the contentious part. Jon’s view is that responsibility belongs with the original developers and their contractors, not the people who bought the flats in good faith. Those firms would likely disagree. Whatever the argument, the practical question for a buyer or seller today is what has been assessed, what has been fixed, who is paying and when will the process complete.