Get Living Issues More Than 50 Claims Over £400M Fire Safety Provision

Build-to-rent landlord Get Living’s attempts to recover fire safety remediation costs at the former London 2012 athletes village in Stratford have led to it issuing more than 50 claims against firms that worked on the project.

Last week, the circa 4,500-home BTR landlord revealed it had set aside more than £400M to cover the cost of the work at the site, East Village, which includes nearly 3,000 homes across blocks of between eight and 12 storeys. 

“The extent of the works required to remediate the building safety defects at East Village, delivered by government-appointed contractors, requires us to make an appropriate provision of £411.1M,” Get Living CEO Rick de Blaby said in a statement. “As we pursue those contractors, we expect that provision to reduce significantly in future years.”

The former athletes village was sold to Get Living’s investors after it had been retrofitted to become a residential estate, including 1,379 affordable homes and houses.

However, in a court of appeal ruling last week, Lord Justice Christopher Nugee rejected Get Living’s appeal to avoid or pass on the cost of remediating buildings under its ownership. The decision meant Get Living will have to reimburse the Building Safety Fund millions for work to remediate buildings at the East Village site.

“We are disappointed with the judgement from the Court of Appeal and, together with our shareholders, will now be considering our next steps,” a spokesperson said in a statement from the company. “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... 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. This is why we are progressing over 50 claims against the government-appointed contractors who are ultimately at fault.”

In its 2024 results, Get Living's revenue decreased by 33% from £246M to £165.2M. Its gross profit for the year was down by 19% to £89M from £110M in 2023, with an operating loss of £108M and an overall loss of £153M, heavily impacted by the £411M in East Village provisions.