Building Safety Act
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The Home Office has published some updated guidance to help dutyholders, issued by the Secretary of State under Article 50 of the FSO, to assist responsible persons in meeting their duties under the FSO.
Find out whether you are a Responsible Person or Duty Holder under the Fire Safety Order and Fire Safety (England) Regulations and what responsibilities you have for fire safety here.
- Building Safety Act
- Dutyholders
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The FCA has confirmed new measures to support leaseholders in the multi-occupancy buildings insurance market.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has today (29th September) issued a press release confirming leasehold buildings insurance reforms.
The FCA’s action follows its review of the multi-occupancy buildings insurance market, which found that leasehold buildings insurance premiums had risen significantly since the Grenfell tragedy and building safety crisis, with leaseholders facing substantially higher costs and poor value, althoug unfhortunately, the evidence gathered wasn’t sufficient to assess whether the relatively recent increase in premium rates is fair and appropriate for the risks being underwritten, due to the complexity of underwriting and risk models within the residential property insurance market
From 31st December 2023, insurance firms will be forced to act in leaseholders’ best interests, treat leaseholders as customers when designing products and will be banned from recommending an insurance policy based on commission or remuneration levels, announced in a statement published this morning.
The FCA’s action follows its review of the multi-occupancy buildings insurance market and its aims to ensure better outcomes for leaseholders in the multi-occupancy building insurance market, and other policy stakeholders in a similar position to leaseholders. The new rules will do this by:
• Increasing transparency for leaseholders. This will make it easier for them to identify and challenge poor practices and incentivising firms to deliver better outcomes.
• Requiring firms to ensure their products are consistent with the needs and interests of leaseholders and other policy stakeholders, are priced in a way that provides fair value and that remuneration practices do not lead to poor outcomes.
Insurers will also be required to ensure that their insurance policies provide fair value to leaseholders and provide important information about their policy and its pricing, including the detail of any commission paid for leaseholders.
Although the FCA is pushing ahead with the rules and guidance broadly as they were in the consultation paper, it has made some amendments to them. These amendments are:
• Clarifying the ‘leaseholder’ definition to set out more clearly that it covers residential leaseholders. This means that the disclosure rules only apply to multioccupancy building insurance policies for residential leaseholders. Firms will not need to provide disclosures intended for commercial leaseholders.
• Including an additional part to the definition of ‘policy stakeholder’ so that it only captures natural persons who are acting outside of their trade or profession. This is to clarify that commercial entities (including commercial leaseholders) will not be considered policy stakeholders.
• Introducing guidance to make clear that the required remuneration disclosure for leaseholders must include all forms of remuneration or financial incentive, including contingent remuneration (payment that depends on a policy being taken out) and other remuneration earned post-contract.
• Making provision in the disclosure rules to allow firms to estimate the premium breakdown at building or dwelling level if they are unable to identify an exact figure.
Following a review into broker remuneration practices, the FCA expects brokers to immediately stop paying commissions to third parties (including property managing agents and freeholders) where they do not have appropriate justification and evidence for doing so in line with FCA rules on fair value.
The FCA will undertake further reviews across various products and will consider the full range of regulatory tools available to it as this work is progressed.
- Building Safety Act
- Leaseholder Protections
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Accountable persons and the principal accountable person manage the fire and structural safety risks of a high-rise residential building.
This updated guidance will help you understand these roles and their legal duties as set out in the Building Safety Act 2022.
The new guidance covers:
- Accountable person
- Principal accountable person
- Clarity about who is accountable
- Legal duties
- Additional duties for the principal accountable person
- Breach of duties
- Building Safety Act
- Dutyholders
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DLUHC has published guidance to explain what responsible persons need to do as a result of changes made to the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (‘the Fire Safety Order’) through the Building Safety Act 2022. You are advised to check whether you are a responsible person.
The guidance is for people who have responsibilities under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 which has been amended by Section 156 of the Building Safety Act.
Use this guide to understand what new responsibilities you have for fire safety when they come into force on 1 October 2023.
The guide has been published by the Secretary of State under Article 50 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (FSO) to assist responsible persons in meeting their duties under the FSO.
- Building Safety Act
- Section 156 - Fire Safety Regulations
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The Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLHUC) last week published its response to consultations on several regulations under the Building Safety Act, including provisions for the ‘golden thread’, information needed to attain a building-assessment certificate and duties to engage residents.
The government, alongside secondary legislation to bring the regulations into law, published its final impact assessment showing costs of the new regime, which applies to blocks at least 18 metres in height or have at least seven storeys and contain at least two residential units.
The impact assessment sets out three cost estimates for the industry.
Its ‘low’ estimate is a cost to industry of £1.24bn over 15 years, its central, or ‘best’ estimate is £1.82bn and its ‘high’ estimate is £2.9bn.
The assessment shows new rules requiring building owners or managers to produce safety cases for buildings will be the costliest area, with a central estimate of £830.9m.
- Building Safety Act
- Legislation, Regulations & Guidance