Rogue fire consultant puts lives at risk

Following the Grenfell tragedy, it became a requirement to review every building that met certain conditions to be inspected and ensure they did not have external cladding that could result in another Grenfell.  This required anyone carrying out these inspections to be certified to do it.

One of the issues is that there are limited people in the UK who can do these inspections and issue the reports, its caused a lot of delays.  Many properties have yet to be inspected.

What is an EWS report?

It stands for External Wall System.  The purpose is simple, to assess whether or not the external walls of a building are safe.  In particular, cladding was added to the front of buildings.  The highly combustible nature of the cladding on the Grenfell high rise was the principal cause of a fire starting in a kitchen managing to engulf the building so quickly.

An EWS is not a legal requirement.  It was created as part of a joint initiative between The Royal Society of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and Mortgage lenders in 2019.

All properties fall into 2 categories.

A. For buildings where the external wall system is unlikely to support combustion.
B. For buildings where there is combustible material present and may or may not need remediation.

Depending on the outcome of the investigation into a building it may need to have existing cladding removed and replaced.

Lenders will use the outcome of the EWS report to determine whether or not they will lend on a property.

Who is Tri Fire?

Tri Fire is a firm that was set up by Adam Kiziak.  It's understood he worked in the industry already but saw an opportunity in the market to create his own firm carrying out EWS inspections.  As noted above there are simply not enough people/firms to get around all buildings swiftly.

It's also understood that he gained around a third of the market share in EWS inspections by undercutting others.

Kiziak has been under investigation since as far back as August last year for potential malpractice.  Despite this, he has continued to carry out inspections and sign off EWS reports.

It's suggested his firm signed 410 out of 1,139 EWS forms from March 2020 and December 2021.

Although he is allowed to continue working, he can't sign off the EWS himself while suspended by the Institution of Fire Engineers (IFE).

What is the claim?

A fire engineer based in Saudi Arabia, Awwal Salisu, claims he signed an agreement to assess 100 buildings for Tri Fire.  He suggests that in the majority of cases, the report provided to him by Adam Kizial at Tri Fire did not contain sufficient information to issue the EWS certificate and returned the reports to him.

Despite this many of those returned reports have had an EWS certificate issued and been assessed as safe.  They have the signature of Awwal Salisu on them.  Awwal Salisu strongly denies that he signed them.  Beyond that, there is evidence that EWS certificates have been issued in the name of Awwal Salisu that were not properties he had agreed to look at.

Awwal Salsiu further advises that he uses a unique electronic signature on his documents, therefore, any reports with his initials that did not come from him will not have his electronic signature.

The investigation is ongoing.  The vast majority of the reports centre around London.

Impact on borrowers

This does of course impact borrowers.  Some are already finding that where they are in the process of purchasing a property in a building with a Tri Fire issues EWS, the lender has withdrawn their offer.

And for those who are trying to sell a property, they will find it difficult unless they can find a cash buyer.  And even then a cash buyer will be aware of the situation and want a discount.  A suggestion I have heard mentioned is around a 20% discount on market value.

For now we will have to wait and see what the outcome will be. I understand that RICS is arranging to carry out fresh inspections on a sample of the Tri Fire reports to understand more.