Newsflash: New industry-wide process agreed for valuation of high-rise buildings

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), The Building Societies Association (BSA), and UK Finance have today agreed a new industry-wide valuation process which will help people buy and sell homes and re-mortgage in buildings above 18 metres (six storeys).

The guidance creates clarity and consistency about when a valuer is not required to request further investigation of cladding through an EWS1 form before valuing a property in a building of multiple occupation.

The guidance details that an EWS1 form will only be required for:

• Buildings over six storeys with cladding or curtain wall glazing, or vertically stacked balconies made from or connected by combustible materials (such as timber).
• Buildings of five or six storeys where there is significant cladding (covering approximately a quarter of the building or more), or there are ACM, MCM or HPL panels on the building, or there are vertically stacked balconies made from or connected by combustible materials.
• Buildings of four storeys or less, if there are ACM, MCM or HPL panels on the building.

New criteria for the requirement of EWS1 forms:

For buildings over six storeys an EWS1 form should be required where:

• There is cladding or curtain wall glazing on the building or
• there are balconies which stack vertically above each other and either both the balustrades and decking are constructed with combustible materials (e.g. timber) or the decking is constructed with combustible materials and the balconies are directly linked by combustible material.

For buildings of five or six storeys an EWS1 form should be required where:

• There is a significant amount of cladding on the building (for the purpose of this guidance, approximately one quarter of the whole elevation estimated from what is visible standing at ground level is a significant amount) or
• there are ACM, MCM or HPL panels on the building** or
• there are balconies which stack vertically above each other and either both the balustrades and decking are constructed with combustible materials (e.g. timber), or the decking is constructed with combustible materials and the balconies are directly linked by combustible materials.

For buildings of four storeys or fewer an EWS1 form should be required where:

• There are ACM, MCM or HPL panels on the building**.

*Building Control Certificates are valid if in accordance with The Building (Amendment) Regulations 2018

** Note: metal cladding and ACM/MCM/HPL are visually very similar, so if metal panel cladding is present, the valuer should confirm with the building owner or managing agent in writing that they are not ACM/MCM/HPL, or, if confirmation cannot be obtained, an EWS1 inspection should be requested.

Click here to view the full RICS Guidance