Landlord of ibis London Wembley ordered to remove and replace cladding by High Court 

The landlord of the ibis London Wembley hotel has been ordered to remove and replace cladding that poses an “intolerable” fire risk from the building’s exterior.

A High Court judge has given London Property Company six months to remove the cladding, which is similar to that identified as a principal cause of the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017.

The company will have a further 12 months to replace the cladding with a suitable alternative.

The claim was made against London Property Company by the tenant and operator of the hotel, Essendi UK Hotels 2 ltd.

Essendi had closed the hotel on 29 July 2025 and the High Court ruling also entitled it to proceed to an assessment of damages in order to recover losses incurred from the temporary shuttering of the 16-storey, 210 bedroom hotel.

The High Court ruling followed a disagreement between the two parties about who was responsible for replacing the cladding.

Essendi successfully argued that the landlord was responsible under a “good condition” covenant in its lease agreement.

The judge ruled that “in the post-Grenfell period” and where “there is a multi-storey building providing accommodation in which people live and sleep” the covenant would require the landlord to address a defect that created a significant fire risk or required remediation to make the building reasonably safe for occupation.

The cladding on the hotel contains a highly combustible, polyethylene core sandwiched between aluminium sheets.