Olympic village owner launches fresh legal action over £432m fire safety bill

A spokesperson for Get Living said: “We want the programme of works at East Village to be delivered as quickly and efficiently as possible for the benefit of all residents. This has always been our priority.

“Unfortunately, the current £400m+ provision being suggested by EVML for the site-wide remediation work appears neither justified by sensible expert opinion nor proportionate to the issues identified.

“Triathlon stands to gain a substantial benefit from a full remediation that goes beyond the government’s PAS 9980 methodology for external works and what is necessary and proportionate. This is why we have applied for a remediation contribution order against Triathlon Homes to recover the costs of remediation that go beyond the standard required.”

Get Living has offered to remediate all Get Living and Triathlon homes at East Village to PAS 9980, a government-backed standard. But this proposal “has not been supported by Triathlon”, which is pushing for a gold-plated “full remediation”.

“We cannot continue in this deadlock,” Get Living said, adding it has already begun to remediate the 22 Get Living-owned buildings to PAS 9980 standards.

“Get Living’s strong preference remains the site-wide offer, which would see all homes remediated at no cost to residents and ensure EWS1 forms are issued to all leaseholders as soon as practicable. This offer remains open to EVML.”

“We welcome Get Living’s willingness to fund remediation across East Village as an important starting point. However, residents deserve a scope set by competent experts, not one capped at the level preferred by the landlord. Any credible proposal must properly involve EVML as the Principal Accountable Person, whose statutory responsibilities cannot be bypassed or diluted. Get Living can resolve our concerns by committing to fund the expert-defined programme that EVML is legally required to deliver.”

They continued: “Seven years on from the first defects being identified, residents cannot be left in further limbo by partial offers or further argument about the standard of remediation. Work on the external walls of 20 buildings is due to begin in early 2026 with support from the Building Safety Fund, this will deliver the EWS1 forms needed by residents. Triathlon is determined this work, and subsequent phases, lead to robust outcomes and structurally safe homes across East Village.”

In a separate development, Get Living has been granted permission to appeal a smaller £18m cladding bill for part of East Village in the UK Supreme Court.

It is the landlord’s final chance to contest last year’s landmark tribunal ruling which ordered it to pay towards fixing defective cladding on five buildings.

The Supreme Court has allowed Get Living permission to appeal on one ground: whether the “retrospectivity” of the fire safety bill – which is for costs incurred before the Building Safety Act 2022 came into force – rendered it invalid.

The tribunal ruling, handed down in January 2024, was the first use of a new power, called a remediation contribution order, under the Building Safety Act.

It was hailed as a victory by leaseholders who have been unable to sell their flats since defects were uncovered, as well as Triathlon which brought the action. Get Living previously challenged the ruling in the Court of Appeal, but it was thrown out in July.

Residents of East Village fear that the fresh legal action against Triathlon plus the Supreme Court appeal could mean years of further uncertainty about who pays to fix their homes.

A spokesperson for the Olympic Park Homes Action Group, which represents some of the residents affected, said: “In-fighting and politics between Triathlon Homes, EVML and Get Living continue to frustrate progress on remediation. Leaseholders remain at the mercy of these three corporations.

“With proposals on the table to remediate East Village, we remain deeply frustrated and disappointed that not enough is being done to find a solution seven years on from the first defects being identified.”

Following Triathlon’s victory at the tribunal last year, Get Living must 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 his judgment dismissing Get Living’s appeal, handed down on 8 July, Lord Justice Nugee wrote: “I think the first-tier tribunal were entirely justified in concluding that… 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.”

At the Court of Appeal in March, counsel representing the government argued that issuing retrospective bills was “fundamental to the overarching aim” of the legislation.

East Village has 3,800 homes and more than 6,500 residents, and Get Living did not design or build the blocks. After the Olympic Games, the original developer, Stratford Village Development Partnership, was sold to the consortium of investors that owned Get Living at the time.