The Building Safety Act
Cripps has set up a dedicated Building Safety Act (BSA) team to help guide you and ensure you understand the full implications of the law and what you need to do. Contact us if you are impacted by any of the issues below.
The Building Safety Act 2022 is one of the most far reaching pieces of real estate legislation this century. It is intended to improve building safety standards, transparency and accountability. However, interpreting this lengthy and technical piece of legislation remains a thorn in the side of all those operating in the UK’s built environment sector.
How we can help you
We can help guide and navigate you through the new leaseholder protection regime and associated certification process including providing advice on:
- whether a building falls within scope of the leaseholder protection regime
- ascertaining the identity of the relevant landlord
- the preparation of a landlord’s certificate
- responding to a leaseholder deed of certificate.
- identifying which buildings fall within the scope of the new higher-risk building regime
- understanding the obligations on duty holders including identifying Accountable Persons or Principal Accountable Persons and their associated responsibilities.
We can help those seeking to acquire or dispose of a higher-risk residential or mixed use building who require guidance on the practical impact the Act has on the transactional process including enhanced due diligence requirements. Please contact Sarah Ferguson or Richard Blackman.
If you are operating in the development sector and plan to build a new higher-risk building, create one through change of use or alteration/extension or undertake building work to an existing higher-risk building, we can provide:
- advice on the terms of construction contracts and other project documentation in terms of risk and building safety
- assistance navigating the new building control regime
- guidance in relation to the transitional arrangements that will apply going forward.
If you are an existing tenant intending to sell or a potential buyer looking to acquire a leasehold flat in a relevant building, we can offer advice and support on issues such as:
- qualifying lease status and whether leaseholder protection can be validly claimed
- potential liability for costs in connection with the remediation of historical safety defects
- the preparation of leaseholder deeds of certificate and assessment as to their validity
- the impact the Act has on the conveyancing process more generally.
We can provide further information on remediation, redress and enforcement under the Act including:
- the effect of extended liability periods on historic and current projects
- dealing with the potential litigation threats under the Act including the various new enforcement measures such as building liability orders, remediation orders and remediation contribution orders
- the recovery of service charge costs taking into account the new leaseholder protections
- more general building safety compliance issues.
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