Legislation, Regulations & Guidance
Latest
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This webinar was about occupied residential buildings that meet the definition in Part 4 of the Building Safety Act and was delivered by Andrew Saunders and Josh Paulin of the BSR. It was delivered to TPI members as part of our building safety series with the HSE.
You can view the webinar, and find links to resources discussed during the session, here.
- Building Safety Act
- Legislation, Regulations & Guidance
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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.
- Building Safety Act
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The Property Institute was one of a number of stakeholders who flagged what appeared to be a rather obvious error with section 119 of the Building Safety Act 2022. As agents will know, where a lease is extended, by operation of law the original lease is surrendered and a new lease is then granted. The original drafting of section 119 explained that a qualifying lease had to be held at the qualifying time, i.e. 14th February 2022. This meant that if a qualifying leaseholder extended their lease, that they surrendered their existing lease and were granted a new lease. As the new lease will not have been granted before 14 February 2022, the statutory leaseholder protections in the Building Safety Act 2022 could not apply.
DLUHC proceeded to update their guidance, indicating that they were “..looking to legislate to resolve this issue as soon as Parliamentary time allows”. We now have the legislation in the form of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, which received Royal Assent on 26th October.
Section 243 of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 inserts a new section 119A into the Building Safety Act. It introduces the concept of a “connected replacement lease”. A connected replacement lease will also be a qualifying lease where the new lease replaces a qualifying lease.
This new provision will have retrospective effect. This means that any losses of qualifying status will be reversed.
The new provision will come into force at the end of the period of two months beginning with the day on which the Act is passed (i.e. 26th December 2023).
- Building Remediation
- Leaseholder Protections
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A government pledge signed by five insurance brokers will stop the sharing of commissions with parties who place or arrange buildings insurance for blocks with identified fire safety issues that are over 11 metres or four storeys.
The pledge also introduces a cap of 15% on the premium that brokers take to compensate for their work in arranging the insurance. A recent Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) report on broker remuneration found that this amount can be as high as 60% of the cost of the premium paid by leaseholders.
To read more, click 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.
- Building Safety Act
- Lords Amendment to insert a new clause after Clause 214: Nonqualifying leases under the Building Safety Act 2022
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TPI HSE webinar (24th January) ‘Building Safety Regulator TPI Member Q&A Session – Occupied Buildings'
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Welcome from the Chief Inspector of Buildings & Building Safety Health Check Panel Discussion - ARMA Conference 2023
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ARMA Advice Note: Fire Safety Management in Flats
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Building Safety Act 2022