More building safety deadlines are coming and while the larger housebuilders have been in the spotlight, a wider pool of owners now have a mountain to scale.
As one deadline comes to a close, another looms in its place. The final date for larger housebuilders to sign up to the government’s Building Safety Pledge came – and went – in early March, although some are still to sign. However, across the residential sector as a whole, there remain many more milestones to come and many more obligations to meet under the Building Safety Act 2022.
There are three principal deadlines. The first is that on 6 April 2023, the Building Safety (Registration of Higher-Risk Buildings and Review of Decisions) (England) Regulations 2023 came into force. Principal accountable persons (PAPs), as defined in the Act, will need to register buildings with the new Building Safety Regulator (part of the Health and Safety Executive) from this date.
The registration of existing tall buildings will then end on or around 1 October 2023 – albeit the secondary legislation governing this part of the Act is yet to be published.
Finally, the draft Higher-Risk Buildings (Key Building Information Etc) (England) Regulations 2023 suggest registration will be quickly followed by “key building information” to be submitted within 28 days from registration.
What information is needed?
The Registration Regulations require details of who is the accountable person and/or PAP; details of the parts of the building for which each PAP is responsible; confirmation of any agents’ details; a single point of contact for corporate PAPs; a description of the building; and building control information.
Registration is not necessarily straightforward. It is a process with major legal responsibilities and technical assessments, so PAPs need a strategy to hit the actual and proposed deadlines. The government’s enforcement regime, which wields the power to issue fines and, in due course, stop orders for non‑compliance, means time is of the essence.
Working to assess and future proof
The important and potentially onerous part of the process is the submission of the KBI. This information set includes providing basic information about the building (build date, height, number of flats, etc), but also more tricky reports including plans, details of its construction, resident profile, protective measures and – ultimately – structural safety.
Putting together this pack will require plenty of prior planning. Many block owners will have already delved into these areas when looking at the potential need for remediation – with larger housebuilders in particular likely to be better prepared. Some smaller and medium-sized enterprise developers, by comparison, may need to start accelerating their programmes.
Technical assessments are a particular risk area. Expert surveying teams will be needed to make a thorough assessment of the premises – a time-consuming and expensive task. Surveyors will also have to commission and write the reports that will form the basis for future-proofing the building’s safety.
SME developers tend to lack the purchasing power of their larger peers. Meanwhile, constrained consultant and contractor supply chains are well-documented across the UK, and this pressure in the system is only likely to get higher as the Regulator’s deadlines loom.
The next obvious question is, how to pay for this consultancy work? Again, larger housebuilders may be ahead, having factored in these costs to their plans by setting aside resources and informing shareholders.
Carving out funds will not necessarily be as easy across the board. While the government has been clear that leaseholders should not bear costs for the additional duties associated with the Act, the reality is that funding has to be found from somewhere. The Act implies a term into relevant leases to permit recovery but the normal service charge rules will apply, and developers will need to think carefully about the interaction with Schedule 8 of the Act, which sets out where service charges can and cannot be used to remedy building defects.
Potential headache for RMCs
The challenges facing SME developers are in many ways magnified even further for blocks where resident management structures are in place in the form of resident management companies.
RMCs, made up of leaseholders, often exist without the necessity of proper resources or knowledge of building management. The directors of the companies are also likely to undertake their duties while managing full-time commitments, and so they often lack the time to deal with complex matters such as building safety.
This will make registering buildings and completing the KBI process even harder when it comes to procuring and managing consultants. Furthermore, RMCs will typically have few routes to funds other than charging leaseholders under the terms of their lease.
Putting a framework in place
The government’s deadlines to ensure building safety may seem daunting. These tasks will involve a huge amount of preparation, assessment and paperwork. SME developers and RMCs need to begin planning now for how they will meet the necessary requirements for submitting the key building information and avoid grave repercussions from the Regulator.
It will not be an easy few months for smaller companies to manage these responsibilities alongside a stagnant economy and pressurised supply chain but, by putting an action plan in place, it will make the race to have everything wrapped up by October far easier.
Charis Beverton is a partner at Winckworth Sherwood
