Last updated: 5th October 2023
Described by the Government as the most crucial, ground-breaking reform of regulation across the residential property and construction sectors since 1984, the Building Safety Act will without doubt create lasting change and ensure that homes across the country are safer, all the while saving lives.
With fundamental changes like these often linking to pressurising and challenging times for building owners, we’re here to break down the Building Safety Act 2022 (the Act) into digestible chunks, so that you can ensure your buildings are entirely compliant with the new legislation, a task of paramount importance. The Act ranges across the construction, refurbishment and demolition of buildings, as well as the management of buildings already in use. In this blog, we’ll be referring to in-occupation buildings (buildings already in use).
On 28th April 2022 the Building Safety Bill received Royal Assent, transitioning into the Act and resulting in new legislation coming into force over an expected 18-month period. Part of the legislation relating to in-occupation buildings will require building owners and landlords to gather a variety of technical information in order to develop a Building Safety Case, which will include a comprehensive risk profile of a building, before submitting the Building Safety Regulator with a Building Safety Case Report.
First and foremost, let’s get to grips with some FAQs surrounding the Act.
The Building Safety Act aims to make people safer (and feel safer) in high-rise residential buildings. This will be done by ensuring building management is improved, and home builders construct better, high-quality homes. The Act is a response to the tragedy at Grenfell Tower in 2017; the tragedy was a direct result of serious failings in the building and how it was managed and maintained. The Act aims to ensure that there is accountability throughout the housing and construction sectors, to ensure that those responsible for the safety of high-risk buildings and their occupants are doing what they need to, and that those responsible for any mistakes or failures are held accountable and made to put them right.
Mark your calendars! All buildings in scope of the Act will need to be registered with the Building Safety Regulator, with registrations being expected at any time between April 2023 and October 2023. The Higher-Risk Buildings (Key Building Information etc.) (England) Regulations 2023 define the key building information which must be submitted by 30 September 2023. Once registered, the Accountable Person(s) must apply for a Building Assessment Certificate, a process which is expected to begin April 2024, which will include information about the reasonable steps taken to prevent building safety risks. This information will include a Building Safety Case Report. From 1st October 2023, the new regime of the Act came into law, including changes to the requirements for higher-risk buildings, increased responsibilities for building owners, and changes to the fire safety legislation. For new buildings completed after 1st October 2023, a relevant completion certificate or final notice is needed. The buildings must be registered before any residents can occupy them.
A Building Safety Case will demonstrate how the Accountable Person is taking action to identify, manage and mitigate fire and structural risks, and how critical information about the building is stored within the digital Golden Thread. The Safety Case Report will then essentially summarise the Safety Case and be both succinct and clear, to help the Regulator identify whether or not you are compliant.
For more detailed information about what your Safety Case and Safety Case Report should look like, alongside how to put them together, take a look at our dedicated blog.
The Golden Thread of information serves as a digital trail that is always-accessible; it is where you should store your information digitally. This is why it is very important to keep on top of the holding and management of your data, to efficiently record the life cycle of a building.
Need some more insight into what the golden thread is, and how you can plan and implement it? Watch our 'Building Safety: Implementing the Golden Thread of Information' webinar on-demand here. Gain valuable insight into the 10 golden thread principles, alongside a clear understanding of what you need to consider to meet your golden thread requirements.
The Accountable Person(s) will likely be the freeholder, head leaseholder or management body of a building. In cases where multiple Accountable Persons exist, the freeholder will be deemed the Principal Accountable Person.
The Accountable Person(s) will have a duty to ensure that the statutory obligations placed upon them are met, to assess and manage building safety risks and ultimately ensure that the building is registered with the Building Safety Regulator. They are also in charge of obtaining a Building Assessment Certificate.
The Building Safety Regulator is the body who will enforce the requirements set out in the Building Safety Act and will take action against those who breach them. The Regulator will implement and oversee the new stringent rules for high-rise properties, including how they are designed, constructed and occupied, as well as driving up standards for all buildings. The introduction of the Building Safety Regulator brings a more proactive approach to the oversight of building safety.
As it currently stands, the legislation relating to in-occupation buildings will apply to high-risk, high-rise buildings with two or more residential homes, which measure over 18 metres in height or have at least seven storeys.
If you are a landlord or building owner, it’s time to be gathering all the required technical information needed to develop a comprehensive risk profile of a building, in terms of the fire safety provisions in place, the building structure and its ongoing operation and management. We like to ask landlords to put in place building blocks for the development of their Building Safety Case, an approach which helps them stay coordinated, confident and compliant.
Our free, on-demand webinar 'Building Safety: Are you ready for 1st April?' provides a useful refresher session that will take you through the key things you need to be thinking about to have assurance that you are ready and well-prepared. Though recorded in January 2023, the webinar is still an invaluable resource for hearing directly from an organisation who have spent time preparing for the Act with our guest speaker. Learn how they have approached their duties, what they have learnt, and what their key challenges and significant issues have been. Watch below now!
A common key building block to start with in any building is the floor plans. However, floor plans may not always be readily accessible and available, particularly if you are dealing with an older building where there is a general lack of information surrounding when it was built and how it has been refurbished and redeveloped over time. Therefore, a good starting point is understanding what the building looks like externally. Do you know how tall the building is? Do you understand the wider context of where the building is positioned? Once established, you can then move onto understanding the internal layout of the building, through gathering scaled, two-dimensional floor plans. Our measured surveyors use the modern technology of LiDAR scanning to quickly complete this process in a precise manner, producing floor plans that are as accurate as possible.
The floor plans can then help develop compartment line plans. Within a building, it is required that the building be broken down into smaller compartments so that if a fire did occur, it would be contained for a set amount of time, restricting its ability to spread to other compartments. Line plans, then, are vital in understanding where each compartment should be. By determining the layout of a building, you are then able to effectively determine where the compartments should be and how they work.
In terms of where we fit into the picture, Pennington Choices are able to conduct a compartmentation survey to assess the suitability of each compartment to restrict the spread of smoke, fire and heat. We are also able to undertake a range of inspections of fire doors and determine whether key escape routes are suitably protected. We will identify and present any breaches of each compartment alongside the condition of fire doors and escape routes in a way for them to be fixed by contractors. Without the floor plans, the compartment line plans would not exist. Therefore, critical compartments in the building might not provide the level of integrity needed in a fire situation, showing just how vital it is to ensure that your building has all of the appropriate building blocks in place.
To keep on top of your preparation for the upcoming regulation changes and check that you have established all of these building blocks, why not download our free checklist produced by our in-house building safety experts?
Regarding fire safety, Fire Risk Assessments are absolutely necessary. They are a legal requirement to have in place and should be of high quality and suitability, capturing everything you need in order to understand the risk to life safety in the potential happening of a fire event. Landlords of all buildings should be providing residents with information about fire safety instructions and fire doors, alongside understanding the new operations and practices needed to comply with new regulations.
For more information about what these operations and practices entail, take a look at our Step-By-Step Guide to Fire Safety Regulations (England) 2022 blog.
Through preparing for the Act in the ways listed in this blog, you will be able to pull together a range of information, to successfully answer the following questions:
Whilst some defects may be small and affordable to fix without difficulty, other defects may not be so easily fixable. Fire doors, for example, will require more time to understand what the exact issues are, and what doors you will need to order and install as a replacement solution; our fire door audit service makes this process as seamless as possible.
In the timeline between a defect being identified and the appropriate work being done, it is imperative that you quickly understand how your building looks and works, where the problems are, what you can fix over a set period of time and what management procedures may have to be introduced in the meantime.
Amongst the regulatory change, there is immense focus upon the area of competence. It is important that you are working with the right people, with the right experience, skillset and knowledge to give you the correct information on how to repair and manage your buildings.
Pennington Choices acknowledge how daunting all of this information can be, it is a lot to take in and absorb. Rest assured that through working with those who are knowledgeable and skilled, you will be able to understand the risks of the spread of fire, the risks of structural failure and the risks from current operational procedures that might not be working in the best possible way.
We recognise that some organisations are ahead of the curve, being well-prepared for the new legislation. Equally, we recognise that some organisations are further behind than where they wish to be and would benefit from additional support. We can provide support and assistance should you need, with our focus being on risk assessment, technical surveying, remediation of risks and preparing your all-important building safety case – a full-service approach from an exceptional group of trusted experts.