Apartment owners affected by flammable aluminium building cladding have been ignored, according to the organisers of a safety forum.

The forum, to be held in Sydney on Thursday, has been organised by Lannock Strata Finance and Bannermans Lawyers. It will present an expert panel to “fill the information vacuum around unsafe aluminium cladding on thousands of buildings across Australia”.

All Australian states and territories are carrying out building audits following the devastating fire in June at London’s Grenfell Tower, which killed at least 80 people.

But Lannock CEO Paul Morton says the issue is not being addressed with the necessary speed or transparency.

“The people most at risk in terms of personal safety and financial hurt have not been kept in the information loop,” he said.

“Regulatory failures by many parties over many years have brought us to this crisis and, while both the problem and solution is complex, every strata manager, landlord, owner-occupier or tenant needs to know what action they should take, right now, not at some indeterminate time in the future.

“In the strata community there is a high level of concern and distrust, born from the fact that every person who bought an apartment did so in the belief the system of checks and approvals was robust and reliable. Events have proven otherwise.”

Bannermans’ Principal Lawyer David Bannerman says the issue will have far-reaching consequences for apartment owners, builders, developers, insurers and certifiers.

“The NSW Government has begun writing to the owners of 1000 buildings identified as potentially at risk, but that is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “Even if you don’t receive a letter in the mail, it doesn’t mean you can presume you are safe.”

As well as Mr Morton and Mr Bannerman, the panel of experts includes Strata Community Insurance MD Paul Keating, Structured Project Management director Peter Blair, Strata Community Australia (NSW) President Chris Duggan and Real Estate Institute of Australia President Malcolm Gunning.

For more information and to register for the forum, click here.