Court dismisses Get Living’s appeal against £18m Olympic village fire safety bill

The original tribunal ruling, handed down in January 2024, was the first use of a new power called a remediation contribution order (RCO), under the Building Safety Act 2022. It was hailed as a victory by leaseholders who have been unable to sell their flats since defects were uncovered, as well as by Triathlon Homes, the housing association that brought the action.

Get Living must now reimburse the government’s Building Safety Fund, which is paying £24.5m of taxpayers’ money to cover both Get Living and Triathlon’s share of the works. In its accounts published last week, Get Living revealed that it has already set aside £411m to fix wider fire safety issues on the East Village site.

In its appeal, Get Living argued that the ruling was not “just and equitable” because, among other reasons, it had not built the blocks. It also asserted that the “retrospectivity” of the RCO rendered it invalid, since it was a retrospective bill for costs incurred before the Building Safety Act came into force.

However, in his judgment handed down on 8 July, Lord Justice Nugee dismissed Get Living’s appeal on both grounds.

He wrote: “I think the First Tier Tribunal were entirely justified in concluding that as between SVDP [Stratford Village Development Partnership, the original developer of the scheme] and Get Living on the one hand and the public purse on the other, it was difficult to see why the public should fund the works in the interim rather than the developer and its associates who continue to own the buildings and who can (in the case of Get Living) well afford to fund the works.”

A spokesperson for the Olympic Park Homes Action Group, which represents some of the residents affected, said: “The Court of Appeal judgment is a clear victory for accountability. Those responsible for developing East Village must take responsibility for remediating the fire safety failures.

“We call on Get Living, its investors and the Building Safety Regulator to stop delaying and start delivering – beginning with a clear, time-bound plan to complete the estimated £411m in urgent remediation works.

“Leaseholders have endured eight years of uncertainty, stress, and inaction. The time for excuses is over. The time to remediate – and to do so at pace – is now.”

A spokesperson for Get Living said: “We are disappointed with the judgment from the Court of Appeal and, together with our shareholders, will now be considering our next steps.

“The works subject to this remediation contribution order are now complete and we have been working hard since 2020 to address the faulty construction work carried out by government-appointed contractors.

“Our priority now is to progress the remaining programme of works as soon as possible for the sake of all residents and several applications have been submitted to the Building Safety Regulator for the external remediation works required on the remaining buildings.

“We support the Building Safety Act in its goal to protect leaseholders and residents in buildings requiring remediation.

“However, we do not believe that the financial burden of funding repairs to defects in buildings built by the government should be laid exclusively at the door of our shareholders, which are themselves responsible for the pension funds of people across the globe. This is why we are progressing over 50 claims against the government-appointed contractors who are ultimately at fault.”

A spokesperson for Triathlon Homes said: “The decision by the Court of Appeal is emphatic. Residents have been waiting for this decision and are now hopeful Get Living will accept its legal responsibilities to fund the remediation of fire safety defects across East Village. This work must be done now. Without further delay.”