New Building Safety Act becomes law

Many leaseholders will, for the first time, be legally protected from unfair bills to make their homes safe when measures from the Building Safety Act 2022 came into force today on 28 June.

Those responsible for historical safety defects, and those who own buildings, will instead be required to fund essential repairs.

Some developers have already taken steps, as 45 of the UK’s biggest homebuilders have agreed to fix life-critical fire safety defects. These are for buildings over 11 metres tall that they have played a role in developing or refurbishing in the last 30 years. 

Stronger measures in the act include new powers for the Secretary of State to restrict irresponsible developers’ ability to build new homes, an extension of the Building Safety levy worth an estimated £3bn.

Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove has written to freeholders to remind them that the days of leaseholders facing large invoices for building safety repairs are now over. The letter notified freeholders that qualifying leaseholders now have protections in law from costs and that they will be acting illegally if they attempt to circumvent them.

The letter further reminded them of their new responsibilities as part of the act, including ensuring buildings have updated fire risk assessments that reflect the latest guidance on proportionality.

Where freeholders or owners of buildings over 18 metres tall with cladding-related issues do not have clear plans to address these issues, they must have full assessments ready to submit to the Building Safety Fund.

This will reopen for new applications shortly, helping to ensure applications can be handled in good time, reducing the disruption and stress to leaseholders.

Gove said: “Today marks a major turning point for building safety in this country, as we introduce a tough new regime to make homes safe and help rid the sector of bad practice once and for all.

“Hundreds of thousands of innocent leaseholders now have the legal protection they rightly deserve, freeing them from a financial burden they should never have faced.

“I’m pleased that most of the largest developers have agreed to play their part in solving this.

“But there is more to do – we are focusing intensively on work with lenders to unlock the mortgage market and empower leaseholders to take their next step on the property ladder, and we will remain vigilant if anyone fails to act on the pledges they have made.”