How to request an external wall system (EWS) form

Following changes to fire safety regulations and guidance to buildings owners introduced after the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, the External Walls System (EWS) process was established in December 2019 as a set way for building owners to confirm that an external wall system on residential buildings has been assessed for safety by a suitable expert, in line with government guidance.

As part of this process, EWS1 forms may be required by leaseholders when selling or remortgaging leasehold flats in blocks. The Council is not legally required to provide these forms, and they are not needed for all types of building.

However, unlike many councils and building owners, where a report is available for a building, the Council will provide EWS1 forms at request for a £750 fee to cover the cost of this.

The EWS process, and the resulting EWS1 form, is a way for a building owner to confirm that an external wall system on residential buildings has been assessed for safety by a suitable expert.

The external wall fire review process will require a fire safety assessment to be conducted by a suitably qualified and competent professional delivering assurance for lenders, valuers, residents, buyers and sellers. The process itself involves a qualified professional conducting a fire-risk assessment on the external wall system, before signing an EWS1 form, which is valid for the entire building for 5 years.

The EWS form must be completed by a fully qualified member of a relevant professional body within the construction industry with sufficient expertise to identify the relevant materials within the external wall cladding and attachments, including whether fire-resisting cavity barriers and fire-stopping have been installed correctly.

This process only covers the external wall system including cladding cladding panels, walls, balconies and fire-stopping measures.

It does not assess other elements of a building or provide a judgement of the fire safety of a building as a whole. The Council has a robust fire risk assessment process in place to evaluate overall fire safety of buildings.

Find out more:

• government guidance
• Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors
• House of Commons Library

Not every building will require an EWS1 form. Government guidance states that an EWS1 survey is only required for:

• buildings over 6 storeys where there is cladding, curtain wall glazing or vertically stacked balconies
• buildings of 5 or 6 storeys where there is a significant amount of cladding (25% plus of the whole of one elevation), ACM MCM or HPL panels or vertically stacked balconies; and
• buildings of 4 storeys or fewer where there are ACM, MCM or HPL panels
  buildings over 18m (6 storeys) or those which are high risk and require specialist testing will still require a qualified fire safety engineer to undertake an EWS1

There is no statutory requirement for councils and building owners to provide EWS1 forms, and many choose not to do so. We have made the decision to provide EWS1 forms wherever possible, with a £750 charge to the leaseholder as a contribution towards the significant cost of the assessment.

This is less than the actual cost of the assessment, which may require intrusive surveys, and significantly less than the cost of a leaseholder arranging for an assessment privately. The Council does not make any profit by charging for EWS1 forms.

Where an assessment results in a B2 rating the cost of the assessment is refunded to the leaseholder. An application for a refund can be done directly with the leasehold team via this email: service.charges@hackney.gov.uk.

The form was created to ensure buildings over 18m tall could be assessed for a potential of remedial works required in future to allow lenders to offer mortgages, and they are primarily requested by mortgage providers to ensure that a valuation can be provided for a mortgage or remortgage on a property.

The EWS1 form does not provide an assessment beyond the external wall system including the outside wall of a residential building, including cladding, insulation and fire break systems.

Therefore it does not give an assessment of the overall fire safety of a building.

Once we have assessed your enquiry, we will contact you on the details provided in order to further progress your request.

As the EWS1 form needs to be completed by a competent person with specific qualifications, we have appointed a contractor to carry out the completion of the EWS1 form.

Please note the current lead-in time for the EWS1 form is a minimum of 16 weeks, due to the high demand for this form across the country and availability of qualified surveyors.

The EWS1 form certifies that the external wall cladding system has been assessed by someone who is suitably qualified to do so. The form will offer either an A, B1 or B2 rating:

• A rating – combustible materials are unlikely to be present in the external wall system
• B1 rating – combustible materials are likely to be present in the external wall system, but that fire risk is low and remedial work is not required
• B2 rating – combustible materials are likely to be present in the external wall system and that remedial work may be required

An EWS1 form is valid for an entire block or building for five years, unless substantial changes are made to a building within that time. This means multiple leaseholders can use the same assessment.

It is common for buildings that complied with building regulations at the time they were designed and built not to meet updated regulations introduced since, and there is no immediate requirement to retrospectively bring up all older buildings to the latest standards.

However, we always consider any information provided from an EWS1 assessment alongside our own comprehensive fire risk assessments, which look at buildings as a whole including all fire safety measures and mitigations.

While we will support leaseholders to provide the documentation they need wherever possible, our priority is to focus investment where it is most needed to ensure that the 32,000 homes managed by the Council are as safe as possible.

Where a building received a B2 rating, we will consider the results of the EWS1 survey alongside wider information about the building, including our own fire risk assessments and other fire mitigations, to determine whether further investigations and/or remedial work are required.

If as a result of an EWS1 survey and the Council’s own fire safety assessments remedial work is required, the timescales for undertaking this work will depend on the nature of the issue.

If there is an immediate fire safety issue, we will always work to address these as quickly as possible and put in place interim arrangements to ensure residents are safe.

If as a result of an EWS1 survey and the Council’s own fire safety assessments remedial work is required but there is no immediate works required, this may be incorporated into the future planned maintenance programme.

In line with the Council’s Asset Management Strategy, we assess all Council-owned blocks on a cyclical basis every seven years to determine what major work, if any, is required to a building, with any changes made following full consultation with residents and leaseholders.

Hackney Council have previously joined an influential parliamentary committee in calling on the government to step in to ensure leaseholders and shared owners are not forced to pay the cost of making buildings with dangerous cladding safe.

The Council will continue to put pressure on the government to ensure sufficient funding is also made available to enable works to be completed to assist leaseholders affected by the implementation of the EWS1 process.

However, where work required is part of routine upkeep of the building, leaseholders may be required to contribute to the costs, in accordance with the terms of their lease.

If your estimated contribution, as a leaseholder, is over £250, we’ll consult you before we decide to carry out major works.