Homeowners to get 15 years to sue for bad workmanship

Housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, has announced that homeowners in England and Wales will now get 15 years to legally challenge unsatisfactory building work.

Jenrick said the move would "put new cards in the hands of the leaseholders".

However, some leaseholders have not been enthusiastic about the announcement, and Labour has said it would bring "little relief" as the cost of legal action is "too high and costly".

Jenrick said that when it came to fire safety changes, "it is not right that either the leaseholder or the taxpayer" should have to pay.

"I'm announcing today we are going to change the law retrospectively to give every homeowner 15 years in which to take action against the people who built their building if there is shoddy workmanship,” he told the BBC's Andrew Marr programme.

"This is a huge step forward - the law as we found it was that you only had six years to take action against the person who built your home.

"That often gives you less protection than if you had bought a toaster or a fridge."

The government clarified that the change will be applied retrospectively for new builds.

"This could mean that residents of a building completed in 2010 that is unfit to live in, such as from unsafe cladding installed on the building when constructed, would be able to bring proceedings against the developer until 2025," the government said.

Will Martin, a leaseholder from Sheffield, told the BBC that many questions had arisen from Jenrick’s announcement.

"My building is over 15 years old and my developer is insolvent - what is he going to do where the developer has become insolvent?," Martin asked.

"What is he going to do where the developer put legal materials on the side of the building but where the materials are now illegal?

"I don't know when my building is going to be made safe, I don't know when I will be able to sell, I don't know when I will be able to move on with my life - it's been a hellish four years," Martin said.

Lucy Powell, Labour’s shadow housing secretary, said the announcement will "bring little relief to homeowners trapped in unsellable, unmortgagable homes, as those already in the scope of the deadline have found barriers to mount legal action too high and costly, and outcomes ineffective”.

Powell argues that leaseholders should have legal protection from costs and that a building works agency should be formed to "pursue developers themselves, to ensure the polluter pays".