Building Safety: New regime governing the occupation of Higher-Risk Buildings goes live

The roll out of the new building safety regime for higher-risk buildings (HRBs) in England continues apace, with the Government enacting the Building Safety Act 2022 (Commencement No.6) Regulations 2024 (the Regulations) on 16 January 2024 which brought sections 79 to 88, 90 to 98, 101, 102 and 111 of the Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA) into force . From 19 January 2024, these sections impose: 

• a range of duties on the Accountable Person(s) and the Principal Accountable Person in respect of a HRB in relation to the management of building safety risks during the occupation of a HRB (as considered in more detail here);
• duties on the residents and owners of residential units within a HRB to avoid creating a building safety risk and to co-operate with the information requests from the relevant Accountable Person; and
• a duty on the Building Safety Regulator to enforce the new building safety regime for HRBs created by the BSA and underlying regulations. 

Given the significant sanctions that may be imposed in relation to failures to comply with the new building safety regime (including unlimited fines and up to two years in prison), it is vital that anyone who is an Accountable Person or Principal Accountable Person immediately takes steps to understand and comply with their obligations under the BSA.

If you require any advice on the building safety regime, our cross-sector, multi-discipline team have expert knowledge of this developing area of law and would be happy to support. Please contact Tom Weld for more information.

This article was written by Tom Weld, Kayla Urbanski and Grace Fadden.