Building Safety Act
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On 13th January 2024, new Regulations (the sixth commencement regulations made under the Building Safety Act 2022) have now brought into force various sections in Part 4 of the Act, as of 16th January 2024.
Sections now enacted include:
- Sections 79 to 82 which impose requirements with regard to registration of occupied higher-risk buildings and obtaining and displaying a building assessment certificate for such a building;
- Sections 83 to 86 which impose duties with regard to assessing and managing building safety risks, the safety case report and its provision to the regulator;
- Sections 87, 88 and 90 which impose and are in relation to duties to report certain safety information, keeping prescribed information and documents for higher-risk buildings and for sharing that information and documents with various interested parties;
- Sections 91 to 94 which impose requirements in relation to a resident engagement strategy for a higher-risk building, requests by residents for further information or documents about their building, and the complaints procedures to be operated by the principal accountable person and the building safety regulator;
- Sections 95 to 97 which impose duties on residents and provide for contravention notices when those duties are breached and for access to residential units;
- Sections 98 to 101 which impose requirements in relation to enforcement by the regulator;
- Section 102 (and the accompanying Schedule 7) which creates the special measures regime, an enforcement tool of last resort; and;
- Section 111 which makes provisions in relation to articles of associations of resident management companies.
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On 23 November 2023, DLUHC announced that deadline for applications to the Waking Watch Replacement Fund were extended to midnight 31 March 2024.
The purpose of the fund is to help leaseholders by covering the cost of installing a common alarm system in accordance with the recommendations of BS 5839-1 for a Category L5 system, on a building of any size, where a waking watch is in place.
This fund was designed to build on the original £35M Waking Watch Relief Fund (WWRF) that was brought into place for high rise buildings above 17.7m in height, due to unsafe cladding.
Read more about the Waking Watch Replacement Fund here.
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A recent FTT case has highlighted the consequences for a landlord where they fail to produce the landlord’s certificate. We are grateful to Cassandra Zanelli of Property Management Legal Services for the information provided.
Access the case here.
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Today (26th October 2023), the Levelling-Up and Regeneration Bill received Royal Assent.
The measures in the Levelling-Up and Regeneration Act will support communities and local authorities to transform their local areas, complementing government investment in projects that will help regenerate left behind areas, and seeks to speed up the planning system, hold developers to account, cut bureaucracy, and encourage more councils to put in place plans to enable the building of new homes.
The Act also contains two amendment to the Building Safety Act, under the Leaseholder Protections legislation, dealing with circumstances where leaseholders may partly-own other properties, and for leaseholder who have extended their lease and no longer satisfying the criteria for a qualifying lease at the qualifying time (before 14th February 2022). The Lords amendments put forward are:
- Lords Amendment to insert a new clause after Clause 214: Nonqualifying leases under the Building Safety Act 2022
Amendment 242 seeks to secure parity between qualifying and non-qualifying leaseholders
under the Building Safety Act 2022, extending protection to three properties for all
leaseholders and excluding from the calculation of the number of properties those where 50%
or less is owned by an individual.
Lords Amendment to insert a new clause after Clause 214: Qualifying leases under the Building Safety Act 2022
Amendment 243 seeks to address the issue whereby a lease which qualifies for the
leaseholder protections under the Building Safety Act 2022 ceases to qualify where it is
‘extended’ (because a ‘lease extension’ is actually a surrender of the existing lease and the
grant of a new one) or, in certain cases, varied. The new section is intended to apply to a
qualifying lease whenever the variation, surrender or regrant occurred and notwithstanding
any agreement that would disapply the section to a particular qualifying lease.
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- Lords Amendment to insert a new clause after Clause 214: Nonqualifying leases under the Building Safety Act 2022
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Housing secretary Michael Gove has announced a 30-month transition period before the new second staircase guidance must be followed in England.
Announcing the intended transitional arrangements for the policy in a statement on Tuesday 24th October 2023, Michael Gove said this period will begin from the date the government publishes and confirms the changes to Approved Document B – the government’s building guidance covering fire safety.Housebuilders will then have 30 months from this date, during which new building regulations applications can conform to the guidance “as it exists today, or to the updated guidance”.
In July, Mr Gove confirmed that the government will impose a requirement for second staircases on all new buildings in England that are 18 metres or taller, lowered from the 30 metres proposed when the initial consultation on the policy launched. He said this followed “confirmation from expert bodies that they support this threshold”.
After the two-and-half-year transition period, Mr Gove said “all applications will need to conform to the new guidance”.
Any approved applications that do not follow the new guidance will have 18 months for construction to “get underway in earnest”. If not, they will have to submit a new application following the new guidance.
“Sufficient progress, for this purpose, will match the definition set out in the Building (Higher-Risk Buildings Procedures) (England) Regulations 2023 and will therefore be when the pouring of concrete for either the permanent placement of trench, pad or raft foundations, or for the permanent placement of piling has started,” Mr Gove said.
He added that the transitional arrangements will ensure that projects which already have planning permission with a single staircase, “the safety of which will have been considered as part of that application”, can continue without further delay if they choose.
Mr Gove said: “I want to be absolutely clear that existing and upcoming single-staircase buildings are not inherently unsafe. They will not later need to have a second staircase added, when built in accordance with relevant standards, well maintained and properly managed.
“I expect lenders, managing agents, insurers and others to behave accordingly, and not to impose onerous additional requirements, hurdles or criteria on single-staircase buildings in lending, pricing, management or any other respect. Those who live in new buildings over 18 metres can be reassured that those buildings are already subject to the additional scrutiny of the new, enhanced building safety regime.”
Mr Gove added that the Building Safety Regulator is working to agree the design details that will go into Approved Document B “rapidly” and said he will make a further announcement soon.
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