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The Building Safety Act 2022 was brought into legislation due to tragedies and loss of life in failures to high-profile building. This legislation has been in place now for two years and the transition period ended in April 2024.

The regulations cover structural issues and fire safety. Dutyholders such as the Building Control Principal Designer and Building Control Principal Contractor under the Act will be required to manage building safety risks with clear lines of responsibility during the design, construction and completion stage.

The Act defines “high-risk“ buildings as those that are high rise (over 18m or seven storeys with at least two residential units) other than excluded buildings. The regulations impose differing rules and regimes depending on whether the property or project falls into the high-risk category.

They have removed the Local Authority Building Control department’s remit for high rise, and the regulator for these buildings is now the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). An accountable person must be appointed, but it is best practice and guidance to have an accountable person for all non-domestic properties.

For low-rise buildings, there are several changes, which could be summarised as the “golden thread”. The golden thread is a digital record of a building’s information that is kept throughout its life cycle. It includes information about the design, materials, construction processes and compliance with regulations. The document should be kept up to date.

The building safety documents are likely to be scrutinised when any property transactions occur and will clearly be the go-to document when considering altering or refurbishing a property.

Building Regulations now makes the client responsible for the appointment of both a Building Control Principal Designer and Building Control Principal Contractor. If these are not appointed then the client must fulfil the role (this does not extend to domestic/residential clients).

Clients must make a declaration at the end of a project that to the best of their knowledge, the work comply to the regulations (which is a new responsibility). The Building Regulations Principal Designer and Building Regulations Principal Contractor must also declare via the client to the Building Control Body that they have fulfilled their duties under part 2A (duty holders and competence) and again that the works carried out comply with the regulations. This is effectively transferring more responsibility for compliance from Building Control checking conformity to the client, Principal Designer and Principal Contractor.

The regulator for the Building Safety Act 2022 will be the HSE, and under the Act the accountable person can be subject to an improvement notice or prosecution (up to 2 years or an unlimited fine).

Robinson & Hall’s Building & Project Consultancy team can assist with fulfilling the Building Control Principal Designer requirements under the Building Safety Act 2022 for works our clients are planning, designing and constructing in respect of low-rise structures, for which the team has nearly 100 years of combined experience.

If you would like to find out more information, then please contact me.