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A fire safety expert has been accused of endorsing safety certificates for high-rise block flats using another engineer’s credentials and signature without consent. The Institution of Fire Engineers (IFE) has been investigating Adam Kiziak since it suspended him in August 2024 for suspected malpractice. However, Kiziak’s firm, Tri Fire, has reportedly continued to approve safety certificates since his suspension. This has caused mortgage lenders like NatWest and Nationwide to withdraw offers to potential homebuyers with fire safety certificates issued by Tri Fire.
The EWS1s certificates rate the fire risk of buildings based on their construction and assessment of cladding, introduced after the Grenfell Tower fire accident, which claimed 72 lives. A majority of banks and building societies need these certificates to lend on flats in apartment blocks. While there is no official EWS1 register, analysis by the Building Safety Register discovered that Tri Fire issued 410 of 1,139 certificates between March 2020 and December 2021.
Qualified fire engineer Awwal Salisu, based in Saudi Arabia, says he contacted Tri Fire, via recruitment agency, over an agreement together to evaluate up to 100 structures. However, Mr. Salisu allegedly asserts that Kiziak approved safety certificates utilizing his signature without his knowledge, allowing him to continue the issuance of the certificates despite limited/insufficient information to justify them. Nevertheless, Kiziak’s lawyer has vehemently denied accusations of fraudulent activity.
The implications of Kiziak’s alleged actions have left potential homebuyers like Sam Ireland at risk of not acquiring the property they intended to purchase, and lenders have stopped offering mortgages on flats deemed safe by Tri Fire. Confident that his reputation isn’t implicated, Salisu alerted the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, the IFE, and UK Finance about the situation. The IFE refused to make further comments on Kiziak’s investigations.
The UK Government recently launched a plan to accelerate the repairs of thousands of high-rise apartment blocks with combustible cladding and fire safety problems. More than 60 blocks previously accepted into the government’s Cladding Safety Scheme were surveyed by Tri Fire to unclear standards, according to a Freedom of Information request by Construction News
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