Exclusive: government officials warned about fire risk assessor two years before his removal from approved contractors list

The emails showed campaigners held a meeting with officials from the department then known as the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in February 2023 to discuss a survey they had carried out into the operation of External Wall System 1 (EWS1) forms – the methodology used to grade the risk of fire from a building’s external walls.

Emails ahead of the meeting showed they intended to use the meeting to “highlight troubling reports that we have previously received relating to two individuals” operating in this market – one of whom was Mr Kiziak.

A further email to senior officials at Homes England raised concerns about Mr Kiziak, adding that “we are uncertain what, if anything, will be done with the intelligence that we shared”.

In February 2024, email correspondence with various officials, including ministerial aides, contained testimonials from residents whose buildings had been assessed by Tri Fire, which said they had “no confidence” in the firm.

One resident said that the first survey involved someone “turning up with a clipboard, looking at the building and rating it B2”, which means remediation works are required to remove combustible materials.

But the same firm then carried out a further assessment and gave the building a B1 grade, meaning the building’s risk is tolerable, without any actual changes being made to the building.

Another resident said his work included copy and pasting between different assessments. “I don’t think his reports are worth the paper they are written on,” the resident said.

Inside Housing is not able to independently verify these claims, but the fact they were brought up with the government raises important questions about the steps it then took to investigate.

Despite these concerns, Mr Kiziak remained on the Homes England panel until January 2025.

He was a prolific assessor during this period and carried out regular surveys for major housing associations, including Notting Hill Genesis and L&Q, which have since cut ties with him.

Following his suspension, lenders began to raise questions about the quality of his work, which led to the assessments being rejected by banks and leaseholders seeing deals to sell their flats fall through.

Awwal Salisu, a freelance fire engineer, has alleged that his signature was fraudulently used on assessments carried out by Tri Fire – an allegation strenuously denied by Mr Kiziak’s lawyers.

Inside Housing understands that Tri Fire commissioned Mr Salisu in autumn 2023 to peer review 62 reports produced by Mr Kiziak.

Mr Salisu said he failed all of the reports after he observed basic errors, such as copy and pasting from other assessments and a failure to identify the presence of combustible materials.

He said he never reviewed any buildings for Tri Fire. He spoke out publicly earlier this year after seeing reviews of buildings he said he had never assessed that included his signature.

During a debate in the House of Commons on Wednesday 26 February, Mr Kiziak was criticised by MPs, who described him as “notorious” and his called his work “fraudulent”.

EWS1 forms were introduced in late 2019 as a means for surveyors to assess the risk from the external walls of a building.

The forms became a major part of the building safety crisis, with lenders demanding that they be completed on buildings of all heights in order for sales to go through from 2020 onwards.

But this created an enormous demand for work, with many new businesses being established to take on the huge volume of assessments being commissioned.

A group of five Liberal Democrat MPs have now tabled an early-day motion in the House of Commons, expressing “deep concern over the systemic failures of the EWS1 assessment process”.

The MPs emphasised the “broader national implications of this scandal [involving Mr Kiziak]” and called on the government to launch an “urgent fraud investigation”.

An spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said: “We are clear that all cladding and remediation works should be carried out to the highest safety and quality standards and all remediation work supported through government funding is subject to rigorous and stringent audits.

“Since the Cladding Safety Scheme was launched, MHCLG and Homes England have engaged in regular meetings to discuss all aspects of the schemes, including the performance of assessors on the Assessor Panel and we continue to keep these matters under review.”

A Homes England spokesperson said: “Homes England meets regularly with End Our Cladding Scandal (EOCS) to learn from the experience of the leaseholders and residents that they represent.

“Dialogue with EOCS has provided crucial insight in helping us design the level of our audit and assurance activity, which has been strengthened continuously over the past 18 months.

“We will continue to listen to representations made by EOCS on behalf of leaseholders and residents in buildings affected by unsafe cladding and where EOCS chooses to do so, we will continue to work at pace to respond and progress buildings through the remediation process.”

Tri Fire and Mr Kiziak were contacted for comment.