{"id":112351,"date":"2022-06-29T10:18:01","date_gmt":"2022-06-29T09:18:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/?p=112351"},"modified":"2022-06-29T10:18:01","modified_gmt":"2022-06-29T09:18:01","slug":"building-safety-act-2022-offers-leaseholder-protections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/building-control-news\/building-safety-act-2022-offers-leaseholder-protections\/112351\/","title":{"rendered":"Building Safety Act 2022: leaseholder protections from cladding costs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The latest update from the Building Safety Act<\/a> offers leaseholder protections from cladding related costs and limits future liability<\/a> for repairing other historical defects<\/h2>\n

From 28 June 2022, leaseholder protections ensure that qualifying residents in England will pay nothing to remove dangerous cladding<\/a>, and the amount they can be asked to contribute to fixing other historical building safety defects is firmly capped.<\/p>\n

Residents qualify if their property is in a building above 11 metres (or 5 storeys) and was their main home on 14 February 2022. Residents must have owned no more than 3 UK residential properties on this date.\u00a0 Leaseholders who bought their properties since 14 February 2022 also qualify.<\/p>\n

If you are a qualifying leaseholder:<\/h3>\n

You should not pay any outstanding invoice for historical cladding or non-cladding building safety costs that were caused during the construction or refurbishment of your building. If you are a qualifying leaseholder, you are now protected from all cladding-related building safety<\/a> costs.<\/p>\n

Any existing invoices are no longer valid, and any landlord or agent who seeks to enforce them could be committing a criminal offence.<\/p>\n

You will be able to confirm your new legal rights through a short certificate you can fill in which will be available on GOV.UK once new regulations become law during July.<\/p>\n

Before a landlord can charge you any historical non-cladding costs, they will need to fulfil a series of transparency and financial reporting requirements. If they do not, the law requires them to pay all building safety costs in full, with no charges at all for leaseholders.<\/p>\n

This means you should not pay any historical cladding or non-cladding costs before a landlord sends you and other leaseholders in your building a formal legal certificate, or can demonstrate that the costs do not relate to works covered by the Act.<\/p>\n

If you do not qualify for the leaseholder protections:<\/h3>\n

If the developer of your building has signed the Building Safety Pledge<\/a>, then they will be paying to fix all life-critical fire-safety risks, including non-cladding defects. If the developer or an associated company still owns the building, then they will also be completely liable for the repair work.<\/p>\n

Where an assessment following the latest guidance<\/a> suggests that repair work is necessary, then funding schemes will be available:<\/p>\n