Two years after a fire gutted several flats in the Spectrum Building in Dagenham, east London, leaseholders say they are continuing to make mortgage payments on properties that are uninhabitable while they await compensation. The delay has been blamed in large part on the bankruptcy of the freeholder, Arinium, which went under shortly after the 2024 blaze.
Sarah Williams, who bought a flat in the newly completed building in 2016, described the purchase as a rare opportunity in an overheated London housing market. "People started queuing for those flats 24 hours before they went on sale," she recalled. "It was basically the only flat I could afford in London. This was a year before Grenfell, and the flats market in London was completely crazy."
Leaseholders say the ongoing mortgage obligations are creating severe financial strain and uncertainty. Many are still technically responsible for servicing loans on homes that are effectively destroyed or unusable, while the question of who will meet the costs of repairs, rebuilds or compensation remains unresolved pending the distribution of funds tied to the freeholder's collapse.
The bankruptcy of Arinium has become a focal point for residents' frustration because it has complicated the route to payouts. With the freeholder insolvent, leaseholders say the process of establishing liability and drawing down any available insurance or compensation has been slowed, leaving families uncertain about timescales and outcomes.
For residents such as Williams, the episode has reopened wider anxieties about fire safety, housing security and the risks borne by individual flat buyers in developments managed by private freeholders. Campaigners and affected households are pressing for clearer information on how claims will be processed and for an urgent timetable for payouts so those who have already lost their homes are no longer forced to pay for them.
Local officials, lenders and insurers were not named in the accounts provided by residents, and it remains unclear how and when payments will be resolved. For now, those who bought into the Spectrum Building say they are caught in a costly and drawn-out legal and financial limbo two years after the blaze.