New guidance has been released aimed at reducing the number of wall safety surveys being requested by banks and building societies on blocks of flats.

Thousands of flat owners have been unable to sell or remortgage because they cannot get the checks done.

The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said it would help lenders save time when the inspections were not needed.

Most lenders are likely to follow the advice but there is no guarantee.

The checks were first developed to assess the potential financial impact of cladding on high-rise flats, after 72 people died at Grenfell Tower.

To begin with, only those who owned flats in tall buildings with dangerous flammable cladding were affected.

• Cladding rules: 'I wish I hadn't bought my flat'
• Safety checks eased to help flat owners 'in limbo'

But after the government extended its advice to smaller properties in January 2020, mortgage lenders began demanding fire surveys from a much wider range of sellers.

Hundreds of thousands of leaseholders have since been asked for EWS1 external wall safety forms when they sell or remortgage.

This requires a specialist survey - but there haven't been enough qualified surveyors to do the checks, leaving thousands of owners "in limbo", according to the government.
Source: bbc.co.uk