In our new column covering topical legal issues, Rebecca Dawson, a Partner in the commercial property team at Burnetts, highlights recent changes in building safety rules set to impact North East owners, tenants and residents alike.
Further changes to the Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA) in England – designed to raise fire and structural safety safety standards – came into effect on 16th January.
The ultimate aim of the new rules is to improve building safety – so here’s a brief breakdown of what’s involved and who is affected.
What are the new rules?
The new rules cover high-risk buildings, which are those that are at least 18 metres or seven storeys high and contain at least two residential units. This includes both existing and new constructions. It adds additional responsibilities to the owners and management companies of these buildings.
These include carrying out a regular and comprehensive fire safety evaluation of the building’s structure, external walls and apartment entrance doors and taking all reasonable steps to anticipate and prevent building safety risks materialising.
Buildings covered by the new regulations must be registered with the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) who must subsequently be kept informed and advised of mandatory occurrence reporting. All existing high risk buildings should now have been registered.
A fully comprehensive safety case report must be prepared containing detailed information crucial to the building and made readily available to residents and to the BSR. The new system requires reporting specific occurrences related to the building’s safety, such as cladding failures, fires, or structural concerns.
Who will be expected to implement these rules?
The responsibility for ensuring the building is fully compliant lies with the ‘accountable person’, and, crucially, the accountable person cannot delegate their responsibility.
An accountable person holds the legal estate in any part of the common parts or has repairing obligations in relation to any part of the common parts.
Common parts under s.72 of the BSA include “the structure and exterior of the building… or any part of the building provided for the use, benefit and enjoyment of the residents of more than one residential unit (whether alone or with other persons).”
If the lease obliges a management company to repair any part of the common parts, they are the accountable person, even if they have no legal title to the common parts.
Right to manage companies are the accountable person if they have taken over responsibility for any part of the common parts.
If there is a management lease of the common parts, the tenant of that management lease is the accountable person if the management lease states they have repairing obligations for any part of the common part.
What are the penalties for failing to comply with the new rules?
The BSR can serve contravention notices on accountable persons if they are not complying with their duties under the BSA.
The notice must:
Set out details of the alleged breach of duty.
Set out actions required to remedy the breach.
Urgent notices can be used including a time scale.
Failure to comply with a notice is a criminal offence – up to two years’ imprisonment or a fine, with more stringent fines where the failure causes “a significant risk of death or serious injury arising from a building safety risk.”
The BSA empowers residents to hold the accountable person responsible through a new complaint process and access to building safety information.
How do I find out more?
Government support is available in the form of various resources, from informative materials to guidance documents, to help owners comply with the new rules, which will also cover some boarding accommodation such as supported housing and mixed use buildings.
The Building Safety Act 2022: www.gov.uk/ guidance/the-building-safety-act
Guidance for the new higher-risk regime: www.gov.uk/government/collections/guidanceon-the-criteria-for-being-a-higher-risk-building
Building Safety Regulator (BSR): www.hse. gov.uk/building-safety/regulator.htm
The commercial property team at Burnetts, which has offices at Citygate, Newcastle, Carlisle and Cockermouth are also on hand to advise.
www.burnetts.co.uk
