Impact of the Building Safety Act 2022
18 novembre 2022
Damien Kenny, director at Currie & Brown, highlights the impact of the Building Safety Act [2022] on England residential and associated ‘high-rise’ developments and explains why engaging clients on the implications of these changes now is essential to the project programme.
The Building Safety Act (‘BSA’) is one of the most far-reaching pieces of legislation to affect the construction industry in decades. These regulations apply to England only; however, similar regulations are being introduced in Wales, Scotland and NI that will require careful consideration and have likely implications for client projects.
In summary, this is what BSA means:
- A newly created ‘building safety regulator’ will be appointed for the building control regime
- A high-risk building will be defined as over 18m high, over seven storeys, which contains two residential units or is a care home or hospital
- Three gateways will apply to high-risk buildings:
- Gateway 1 – Introduced at the planning stage from 1 August 2021, requiring the project to be notifiable to the building safety regulator.
- Gateway 2 – Approval of the completed design must be obtained before construction starts. This is expected to apply from 1 April 2023, so no work can proceed until this is approved.
- Gateway 3 – A completion certificate will be required prior to registration or occupation. This is expected to apply from 1 April 2023, and it is also expected to apply to schemes currently under construction that complete after 1 Apr 2023.
- The requirement to register all existing buildings that fall into the high-risk category with the building safety regulator by October 2023
- Defects Premises Act is being changed so that the developer’s liability is extended to 30 years from 6/12 years on existing buildings and 15 years on new buildings after 28 June 2022, when the regs came in
To discuss the latest Building Safety Act with our team please contact [email protected]