Two years in limbo: the residents still paying mortgages on flats destroyed in east London fire

Sarah Williams owned a flat in the Spectrum Building, which burned down while the flammable cladding on the exterior was being replaced. Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian

Sarah Williams vividly remembers the night in 2016 when she camped overnight in a car park to put down a deposit on a flat in the newly completed Spectrum Building in Dagenham, east London.

“People started queuing for those flats 24 hours before they went on sale,” she said. “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.”