It’s hard to see why the names haven’t come out yet. Seems they’ve hard evidence so why not publish ?
Fucking idiot
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A Tipp man.
By fuck I want the names on that list published
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FFGs finest no doubt.The Indo know better than to publish the names.
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Anyone able do the necessary here?
When Geoff Shaw received a cold call from a company offering to install spray-foam insulation in the loft, he and his wife were enticed by the promise of lower energy bills. “We were told spray-foam insulation was government recommended,” says Shaw, a retired oil distribution director who lives near Harrogate, North Yorkshire. “We’re 80, and we didn’t want to leave our kids a house that isn’t saleable in terms of the energy [EPC] rating.”
In December 2021 Shaw paid £7,250 to have the foam sprayed in the loft of his 1990s bungalow. The next year, however, when he applied for equity release so he could buy a new car, lenders turned him down because of a potential liability in his attic: spray-foam insulation.
In some cases moisture can get trapped behind the foam and cause condensation and rotting timber; cowboy firms have plagued the industry. And even if the roof is not damaged, surveyors can’t inspect it behind the foam, so are reluctant to declare it safe to lenders. Downsides that affect an estimated 250,000 homes with spray-foam insulation.
“It’s appalling that spray foam is still advertised and installed without a legal requirement to tell you the downsides,” Shaw says.
“The reticence of lenders to accept properties with foam installed is causing distress to many homeowners who either cannot sell, mortgage or remortgage their homes,” says Andy Wilson, an equity release specialist in Lincolnshire. “In many cases the foam may have caused no damage, but to measure this effectively the foam needs to be removed. As surveyors cannot say definitively that a property is free of defects (mainly rotten roofing timbers), it is safer and easier for lenders to decline to lend.”
Shaw took out a loan to pay for the £9,960 cost of removal. Luckily, through Wilson, he found a removal company, the Hampshire-based Vac-Extract, that did such a good job he was able to get equity release afterwards. But he is so annoyed with the installers, he has enlisted Hydrogard Legal Services, a claims management company, to fight for compensation on a no-win, no-fee basis.
Chris Brown, the owner of Hydrogard, says they have 700 open inquiries about compensation for spray-foam insulation. “We probably take 35 to 40 calls a day, it’s staggering,” Brown says. “We’re winning about four or five claims a week, and the average payout is somewhere between £7,000 and £10,000.”
“The chances of us winning are very good, because in many cases the product shouldn’t be in their home,” Brown adds.
In March the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) released guidelines on installation. According to its consumer guide: “Before introducing spray foam, thermal calculations and condensation risk checks need to be undertaken by a qualified professional who has surveyed all parts of the roof. This documentation should be kept by the homeowner for future reference.”
It cautions: “Rics advises homeowners to seek independent expertise, commercially separated from the installer and manufacturer, to advise if spray foam is appropriate for their property. Most pitched roofs are designed to be ventilated, and spray foam is a change to the original design.”
Spray-foam businesses say that problems mainly occur with hard closed-cell insulation, whereas open-cell insulation is breathable and safe, but many surveyors dispute this: if it is not sprayed onto a vapour permeable underlay, problems can occur.
Lee Britten, owner of Britt & Co, a spray-foam removal company in Hampshire that Wilson also sends clients to, has found black mould in lofts where open-cell was installed incorrectly.
To break the impasse with lenders, last autumn mortgage companies, manufacturers, surveyors and installers met to create a protocol with clear guidelines for surveyors when inspecting roofs with foam. This protocol would make it easier for surveyors to determine if a roof was safe for mortgage companies to lend on.
The result, released by the Property Care Association in March, is the Spray Foam Insulation Inspection Protocol. The trouble with it is they are only guidelines, according to Steve Hodgson, chief executive of the Property Care Association. “And where surveyors are unable to make a decision about risk factors, there is a call for a specialist, but those specialists just don’t exist. Without further training of specialists the document is not going to work as hoped.”
Nicky Day, 60, had spray foam installed in her Devon home — but now has second thoughts as she wants equity release
APEX NEWS
Nicky Day, 60, has installed spray foam in the loft of her 1970s bungalow in Tiverton, Devon, which she bought last August, against the advice of her surveyor. But Day, a freelance secretary, was a cash buyer and didn’t require approval from a lender, so took a gamble, as the property was in good shape. “It was a good price, I couldn’t find anything else comparable and I love the location. It was a calculated risk.”
Now she’s having second thoughts. “I will want to get equity release within the next ten years. So I do want to get it sorted . . . I am in touch with the manufacturers, who say they are talking to Rics and the government about training surveyors to ascertain whether or not the foam is good. They say their product won’t cause rot or damp. I also have the manufacturer’s guarantee certificate, but that is useless to me if I can’t sell or get equity release.”
Day was advised by the HomeOwners Alliance to hire a Rics surveyor to do a specialist roof survey, but Day is reluctant to spend the money if lenders won’t accept the result. The only hope for homeowners, Hodgson says, is that recently “there has been a slight relaxation in the lending market”, where owners have paperwork that shows that the installation was done properly, with pre-survey suitability reports, condensation assessments and appropriate underlays.
Nationwide will lend on a case-by-case basis if you have the correct documentation. Santander may require a structural engineer’s report. Otherwise, Wilson says, you’re better off trying specialist lenders, which may accept the foam subject to specialist reports: “Norton Home Loans, Foundation Home Loans, Together Money, Habito and a few building societies such as Leeds, Dudley, the Vernon and West Bromwich.”
Simon Storer, chief executive of the Insulation Manufacturers Association, which last week released an inspection protocol of its own, hopes that once one lender starts approving roofs with foam, others will follow suit. “I understand there are plenty of examples where mortgage approvals have been made. Spray foam has been used in this country for 30 or 40 years. If there was the problem that people were claiming, you would see all these collapsed roofs. I know the lenders and surveyors have a job to do, and therefore we’ve worked with them to help them understand. The protocol is a method by which they can be satisfied about whether the job has been done correctly.”
Storer cautions against having the foam removed from your roof in haste. “There are cowboys who will try to persuade you to remove it.” Indeed, some of the same cowboys that installed foam have reinvented themselves as removals specialists.
To remove, or not remove — it’s all very confusing. Removal is still the best option if you want to get a mortgage or equity release now, according to Wilson. “Currently no lender in either the mainstream mortgage market or equity release market has announced any intention of accepting the protocol for properties they are looking to lend on where the foam is installed,” Wilson says. “The only guarantee of a safe roof is one that has had the foam removed and where an inspection of timbers suggest there has been no damage. My advice to those who ask about installing it is to not do so. There are so many problems that will potentially affect the homeowner in the future — whether it be from wet rot damage, lack of mortgage funding options or an inability to sell to a wide market of buyers.”
A spokesman for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities says: “We are looking into the issues some homeowners are facing and are working with the industry and stakeholders to resolve this as quickly as possible.”
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A good mate is in the retrofit advisory game for a while and he would always do his best to steer most folk away from this solution but fellas “who knew best” (and knew fuck all about building physics) saw it as a cheap solution to insulation and airtightness.
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Wasn’t long on the sidelines it appears
I saw that in the comments, but Chambers isn’t a legal firm.
It’s just some sort of Solicitor ranking site.
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Yeah that profile still refers to him working in Matheson.
The Ditch are gas, feeding the melons who love their muck raking mentioning the Central Bank.
OnLy In IrEaLaNd
he’s still listed there anyway.
Bunch of Sociopaths in there.
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You get very ratty when a media outlet report on corruption and solicitation or the professional classes. Why is that?
He’s a rugby player too, surprise, surprise
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Well that explains everything.
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A fine player in his day
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It was lost in the news cycle a bit but one of the other people involved in this was named by The Ditch earlier this week & she’s resigned at least one of her roles (had some senior position on board of Maynooth University). Turns out some of my pals had dealings with her back in another lifetime, at the start of our “careers” post college. A few of them were on graduate programmes in a bank & one of the lads was transferred into her team after, say, 9/10 months. They were all due to move up a level from something like junior associate to associate after 12 months & get an associated little rise in salary (every little helped back then, of course) but yer wan said she didn’t see enough ambition & desire from our pal in the 2-3 months on her team in the most junior role on the ladder. So she held him back a year while the rest of the intake got what was considered a default bump up. Once the dust settled, he used to get an awful slagging about it. Now he’s a highly decorated BUSINESSMAN & has had the last laugh.
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