Building Safety Act. What do we know so far?

The Building Safety Act (BSA) passed all the stages of the legislative process and came into force in April 2022.The Grenfell Tower disaster called for a complete overhaul of building and fire safety and the new law is going to bring forward some fundamental changes that everybody should be aware of..

What do we know?

The building regulations will undergo reforms providing more safety to residents of higher-risk buildings in terms of how they are built and maintained. In general, higher-risk building term refers to residential buildings, but is also applicable to hospitals and care facility buildings, etc. that meet the following criteria:

- they are supposed to be at least 18 meters in height;

- and/or has at least 7 stories or are even higher;

- has two or more residential units.

Put simply, the Building Safety Act aims to eliminating or significantly reducing the risks regarding fire, and structural failures by improving building control, imposing extra duties on duty holders and increasing professional competence in the designing and building stage. On the other hand, the new legislation gives more rights to homeowners, leaseholders, and residents.

The BSA also establishes a gateway regime to ensure safety at all 'gateways', e.g. stages – planning and design, construction, and eventually occupation. It will eventually impose additional duties on construction design and management duty holders.

The Government is also going to establish a new supervising body – Building Safety Regulator to oversee compliance with the regulations at all stages and drive improvements. This supervising body will also get significant powers and gets the right to demand any documentation and even suspend works.

What should stakeholders be aware of?

Apart from increased liability the BAS significantly expands the time limits within which legal action can be taken against developers and contractors:

- the time frame for claims against anyone involved in the project under the Defective Premises Act (DPS 1972) for already completed objects expanded from 6 to 30 years.

- claims against anyone involved from 6 to 15 years for projects that will be completed in the future.

- breach of Buildings Regulations under Section 38 of BA 1984 allows claims to be brought within 15 years.

- limitation period for refurbishment works has been expanded to 15 years.

The 'accountable person' for documentation and information in regard to safety is the landlord/freeholder. The requirement to appoint a Building Safety Manager for each project, which was proposed before, was eliminated. Under new regulations, the Principal Designer and Principal Contractor will be responsible for overseeing the safety of higher-risk buildings.

What’s more, all higher-risk buildings that are already occupied, are supposed to be registered by Building Safety Regulator by the end of 18 months transition period. Otherwise, it will be considered a criminal offence.

Toughened responsibility will also require accountable persons to meet certain requirements and demonstrate their competence.

Implementation period

The new regulations are expected to be implemented within 18 months following April 2022 and come into force in October 2023. The UK Government initiated a Consultation on the new regulations, and it closes in October 2022. The parties involved in the development process should voice their concern and get a chance to influence the implementation process of the regulation that will significantly impact their future projects.