Buying a Leasehold Flat: Cladding, the Building Safety Act and EWS1 Forms Explained

If you are buying a leasehold flat in Manchester, Salford, Stockport or anywhere else in the North West in 2026, there is a good chance your mortgage broker has mentioned the Building Safety Act, EWS1 forms, or “qualifying lease” status, and an even better chance you are not entirely sure what any of it means.

You are not alone. Almost four years after the Building Safety Act 2022 came into force, cladding and external wall safety remain the single biggest cause of delayed, downvalued or collapsed flat purchases in England. Greater Manchester, with one of the largest concentrations of post 2000 apartment stock in the country, sits right at the centre of the issue.

This guide walks you through what every flat buyer in 2026 needs to know before they exchange contracts, and how your conveyancing solicitor protects you along the way.

Why cladding still matters in 2026

Following the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, lenders became understandably cautious about offering mortgages on flats in buildings with combustible external wall systems. The result was a market for thousands of flats that could not be sold or remortgaged at any reasonable price.

Since then, the government and the property industry have introduced a framework intended to fix the problem: the Building Safety Act 2022, the leaseholder protections that flow from it, and the External Wall System review form (better known as the EWS1). RICS published a second edition of its EWS1 valuation guidance in May 2026, with an effective date of 1 November 2026, so the landscape continues to evolve.

For a buyer, the practical question is simple. Will your lender lend on this flat, who pays if the building needs remediation works, and what happens if you ever want to sell it on?

What is an EWS1 form?

The External Wall System form, usually shortened to EWS1, is a certificate that confirms a residential building’s external walls have been assessed for fire safety by a suitably qualified professional. It was introduced by RICS in December 2019.

An EWS1 is not a legal requirement. It is a mortgage valuation tool. Lenders use it to decide whether a building is safe enough to lend against, and at what value. The form covers the whole building rather than your individual flat, and is typically considered valid for five years (though most major lenders have agreed not to require wholesale re-reviews of forms that simply pass their fifth anniversary).

The key thing to understand is that you cannot commission an EWS1 yourself. It must be obtained by the freeholder or the building’s management company. If the building does not have one and your lender insists on seeing it, the purchase will stall until one is produced, which can take months.

The five EWS1 ratings explained

Every EWS1 falls into one of two options, with sub-categories:

Option A: External wall materials are unlikely to support combustion

• A1: No attention required. The external wall is made of materials that will not support fire.
• A2: Some combustible materials present but the system is satisfactory and no remedial work is needed.
• A3: Combustible materials present and remedial work is required, but the materials are not on the external face of the wall (so risk is contained).

Option B: Combustible materials are present in the external wall

• B1: The fire risk is sufficiently low that no remedial work is required.
• B2: The fire risk is high enough that remedial work is required.

For mortgage purposes, A1, A2, A3 and B1 are generally acceptable to mainstream lenders. B2 is the rating that typically prevents lending until remediation works are completed or a credible funding plan is in place.

If you are presented with a B2 rated building, that does not automatically mean you should walk away, but it does mean you need to understand who is paying for the remediation, what the timeline is, and how that affects your service charge.

The Building Safety Act 2022: what changed

The Building Safety Act 2022 is the main piece of legislation that determines who pays when a building has historic safety defects. Its leaseholder protections apply to “relevant buildings”, which are defined as residential buildings of at least 11 metres in height or at least five storeys, containing at least two dwellings.

Where the Act applies, the cost of remediation falls on developers, freeholders or the government, not on individual leaseholders. But, crucially, the full protection only applies to a particular category of lease called a qualifying lease.

Qualifying vs non-qualifying leases (the test that matters)

This is the single most important concept for any flat buyer in 2026. A lease is a qualifying lease where, on 14 February 2022 (the “qualifying time”):

1. It was a long lease (granted for more than 21 years);
2. The leaseholder paid service charge under the lease;
3. The building was at least 11 metres tall or had at least 5 storeys; and
4. The lease was the leaseholder’s only or principal home, or the leaseholder owned no more than three UK dwellings in total (including the flat itself).

If all four boxes are ticked, the lease qualifies, and the leaseholder benefits from the full statutory protections. These include:

• No service charge whatsoever can be passed on for cladding remediation works.
• Capped contributions for non-cladding safety defects (£10,000 outside London, £15,000 inside London, spread over ten years, with anything already paid since 28 June 2017 counting towards the cap).
• A low value test that removes the non-cladding contribution entirely where the dwelling was worth less than £175,000 outside London (£325,000 in London) on 14 February 2022.

If the lease is non-qualifying (typically because the leaseholder owned four or more UK dwellings on the qualifying date, which often catches portfolio buy to let landlords), the protections do not apply. The leaseholder may be liable for the full share of remediation costs, and selling the flat on can become extremely difficult.

The good news for buyers: qualifying lease status is now transferable. When a qualifying lease is sold, the protections pass to the new leaseholder. So if you are buying a flat that already has a qualifying lease in place, you inherit those protections, regardless of how many UK properties you yourself own.

The leaseholder certificate and landlord’s certificate

To actually rely on these protections, two documents need to exist:

• The leaseholder certificate (also called the Deed of Certificate) is completed by the leaseholder and confirms that the lease meets the qualifying criteria.
• The landlord’s certificate is completed by the freeholder and sets out the position on responsibility for defects and any contribution conditions.

Your conveyancing solicitor will request both certificates from the seller as part of the pre-contract enquiries. If they are missing or incomplete, that is a red flag that needs resolving before exchange of contracts. The seller cannot rely on protections they have not formally claimed, and neither can you.

What your conveyancer will request from the freeholder

When you instruct Gorvins Residential to act on the purchase of a leasehold flat above 11 metres, our team raises detailed Building Safety Act enquiries with the seller’s solicitor and the freeholder. We will typically request:

• A copy of the current EWS1 form (or, where the building has been remediated, equivalent evidence acceptable to your lender)
• The leaseholder and landlord’s certificates
• Confirmation of qualifying lease status
• The most recent fire risk assessment of the external wall (FRAEW)
• Service charge accounts for the last three years
• Details of any current or planned remediation works, and how they will be funded
• Confirmation that the building is registered with the Building Safety Regulator if it is a higher risk building (typically 18 metres or seven storeys and above)

We then report on the position in plain English so you can make an informed decision before committing.

Red flags that should make you pause

There are several warning signs that warrant a serious conversation with your solicitor and mortgage broker before exchange:

• The building has a B2 EWS1 rating and no funded remediation plan
• The freeholder has refused to provide a landlord’s certificate within the statutory deadline
• The seller cannot or will not produce a leaseholder certificate
• Service charge accounts show large balancing demands or significant ongoing legal costs
• The building is not on a recognised remediation funding scheme and the freeholder is unable to evidence a developer commitment
• The lease is non-qualifying and the building has known safety defects
• There is no clear answer on whether the building is “leaseholder owned” (in which case protections may not apply at all)

A red flag is not always a reason to abandon the purchase. Sometimes it simply means a price renegotiation or a longer timeline. But you should never exchange contracts without understanding the answer to each of these questions.

A note on buildings under 11 metres

The Building Safety Act’s leaseholder protections do not currently apply to buildings under 11 metres. The government’s position is that buildings of this size are inherently lower risk and rarely require remediation. In practice, most low rise blocks do not require an EWS1 form at all, though individual lender criteria still vary. If you are buying a flat in a building of four storeys or fewer, your solicitor will check whether the building has any of the specific risk features (such as ACM, MCM or HPL cladding) that might still trigger lender requirements.

How Gorvins Residential can help

Buying a leasehold flat in 2026 is more complex than buying a freehold house, and the building safety framework is a significant part of why. Our team handles leasehold flat purchases across Greater Manchester, Cheshire and the wider North West every week, including new build apartments, converted period blocks and city centre developments where these issues come up most frequently.

We will explain what each document means, raise the right enquiries, push back where freeholders are slow to engage, and report to you (and your lender) clearly so that you can move forward with confidence.

For a transparent, fixed fee quote on your leasehold flat purchase, call us on 0161 930 5350 or email Enquiries@gorvinsresi.com.