The Building Safety Act 2022 FAQs

The Building Safety Act 2022 is UK legislation introduced in response to the Grenfell Tower fire to strengthen building and fire safety regulation. It creates a tougher regulatory regime for higher-risk buildings, clarifies legal responsibilities, improves competence and accountability across the construction and property sectors, and places residents’ safety at the centre of building management.

The Building Safety Act 2022 received Royal Assent on 28 April 2022, but requirements have been introduced in phases.

• 2022 – The Act became law, with early provisions taking effect, including extended limitation periods and new rights for residents to seek redress for unsafe buildings.
• 2023 – The Building Safety Regulator was established, and the higher-risk building regime began to take shape, including registration requirements for occupied higher-risk buildings.
• 2024 – The full in-occupation duties for higher-risk buildings came into force, including safety case requirements, the Golden Thread, resident engagement duties, and the new building control gateway regime.

The Building Safety Act 2022 applies across the built environment, but its requirements are applied in a proportionate, risk-based way.

While the Act raises standards and accountability for all buildings, the most detailed and demanding duties — such as registration, safety cases, and the Gateway process — apply only to buildings classed as higher-risk buildings.

Yes, the Building Safety Act can apply to commercial buildings, but in a limited and proportionate way.

The Act raises building safety and competence standards across the built environment, including commercial buildings, through changes to building regulations and professional duties. However, the most detailed and stringent requirements (such as building registration, Safety Case Reports, and resident engagement) apply only to higher-risk residential buildings, not to commercial buildings used solely for non-residential purposes.

Yes, the Building Safety Act does apply to buildings under 18 metres, but in a more limited and proportionate way.

While the most stringent duties (such as registration, safety cases, and the in-occupation regime) apply only to higher-risk buildings, many parts of the Act affect all buildings. These include reforms to building control, stronger competence requirements, clearer accountability, extended liability periods, and changes to enforcement and redress.

No. The Building Safety Act 2022 does not apply in Scotland.

Scotland has its own building safety and standards system, which is separate from the regime introduced by the Building Safety Act in England. Building standards in Scotland are overseen by local authorities under Scottish legislation, rather than by a central regulator such as the Building Safety Regulator.

Partly. The Building Safety Act 2022 does not fully apply in Wales in the same way it does in England.

Wales is developing its own building safety legislation through the proposed Building Safety (Wales) Bill, which broadly aligns with the principles of the Act but includes differences, such as a wider definition of higher-risk buildings and a different regulatory structure led by local authorities rather than a central Building Safety Regulator.

Under the Building Safety Act 2022, a Higher-Risk Building (HRB) is a building in England that:

• Is at least 18 metres in height or 7 storeys, and
• Contains at least two residential units.

For the purposes of the Act’s in-occupation regime, higher-risk buildings include:

• Residential blocks of flats
• Care homes
• Hospitals

Hotels and secure residential institutions are excluded.

A higher-risk building is a tall residential building that meets the height threshold and contains multiple dwellings, bringing it within the Act’s enhanced safety and regulatory requirements.

The Building Safety Act 2022 created the Building Safety Regulator (BSR).

The BSR oversees building safety in England, with a particular focus on higher-risk buildings, and is responsible for setting standards, enforcing compliance, and regulating competence across the built environment.

An Accountable Person (AP) under the Building Safety Act 2022 is the individual or organisation legally responsible for managing fire and structural safety risks in the common parts of an occupied higher-risk building.

This is usually the person or organisation that owns or has a legal duty to repair or maintain those common parts, such as the structure, external walls, corridors, and stairwells.

Under the Building Safety Act 2022, the Principal Accountable Person (PAP) is the organisation or individual with the primary legal responsibility for managing building safety risks in a Higher-Risk Building.

The PAP is usually the person or body that:

• Owns or holds the legal estate in the common parts of the building, and
• Has responsibility for repairing or maintaining those common parts.

Where there is more than one Accountable Person, the PAP is the one responsible for the structure and exterior of the building.

The Principal Accountable Person is the party with overall control of the building’s common parts and structure and therefore carries the lead role for building safety compliance.

There are no “Building Safety Director” requirements for Residents’ Management Companies (RMCs) under the Building Safety Act 2022.

The Act does not require RMCs to appoint a Building Safety Director or a specific senior role with that title. Earlier proposals for a Building Safety Manager/Director were not taken forward.

Instead, where an RMC is an Accountable Person (or the Principal Accountable Person) for a Higher-Risk Building, it must ensure that:

• Clear responsibility for building safety sits with the organisation, and
• Safety duties are properly managed and overseen by competent people or contractors, even if day-to-day tasks are delegated.

The legal responsibility remains with the RMC, regardless of who carries out the work, and the Building Safety Regulator will look at governance, competence, and effective oversight rather than job titles.

Gateway 1 is the first regulatory checkpoint under the Building Safety Act 2022 and applies at the planning stage.

It requires developers to submit a Fire Statement with their planning application, explaining how fire safety has been considered in the building’s design, layout, access, and firefighting arrangements.

Fire safety becomes a formal planning consideration, and the planning authority must consult the Building Safety Regulator before granting permission.

Gateway 1 ensures fire safety is addressed early in the planning process, not left to later design stages.

Gateway 2 is the pre-construction approval stage for higher-risk buildings under the Building Safety Act 2022.

It requires full building safety and design information to be submitted to the Building Safety Regulator before construction can begin, ensuring the building is safe and compliant before work starts.

Gateway 3 is the final regulatory checkpoint under the Building Safety Act 2022 and applies at the end of construction, before a higher-risk building can be occupied.

At Gateway 3, the developer must demonstrate that the building has been constructed in line with the approved design, and that fire and structural safety risks are properly controlled. This includes submitting as-built information, compliance evidence, and the golden thread of safety information.

A completion certificate is issued by the Building Safety Regulator once the building meets the required safety standards. The building cannot be legally occupied without this certificate.

The Golden Thread under the Building Safety Act is a secure, accurate, and up-to-date digital record of building safety information for higher-risk buildings.

It ensures that key fire and structural safety information is created, maintained, and accessible throughout a building’s lifecycle, from design and construction through to occupation and ongoing management.

A Safety Case Report is a formal document that explains how building safety risks are being identified, managed, and controlled in a Higher-Risk Building under the Building Safety Act 2022.

It must demonstrate that the Accountable Person understands the building’s major fire and structural risks and has effective systems in place to keep residents safe.

The report must be submitted to the Building Safety Regulator:

• When registering an existing occupied Higher-Risk Building, and
• Before occupation of a new Higher-Risk Building, as part of the building control approval process.

It must also be kept up to date and resubmitted if there are material changes to the building or its risk profile.

The Safety Case Report shows how safety risks are controlled and must be submitted at registration or before occupation, then maintained throughout the building’s life.

A Building Assessment Certificate (BAC) is a formal certificate issued by the Building Safety Regulator confirming that a Higher-Risk Building is being managed safely in line with the Building Safety Act 2022.

It is issued after the Regulator assesses whether the Accountable Person has:

• Properly identified and managed fire and structural safety risks, and
• Put in place effective safety systems, including a suitable Safety Case.

A BAC shows that the building has passed regulatory assessment and can continue to be occupied, but it may be reviewed, varied, or withdrawn if standards are not maintained.

The Mandatory Occurrence Reporting (MOR) system is a legal reporting requirement under the Building Safety Act 2022 for Higher-Risk Buildings.

It requires duty holders to report certain safety-related incidents, risks, or failures that could pose a serious risk to life, particularly relating to fire or structural safety.

Reports must be made to the Building Safety Regulator, and are used to:

• Identify emerging safety risks
• Enable early regulatory intervention
• Support learning and prevention across the building safety system

MOR is about flagging serious building safety risks early, not waiting for incidents to occur.

Under the Building Safety Act 2022, the Residents’ Engagement Strategy sets out how residents in a higher-risk building will be informed, consulted, and involved in building safety matters.

The Accountable Person must prepare, implement, and keep this strategy under review. It must explain:

• How residents will receive safety information, including risks and safety measures
• How residents can raise concerns or complaints about building safety
• How the Accountable Person will respond to those concerns
• How residents will be involved in ongoing safety decisions and reviews

The strategy must be:

• Clear, accessible, and proportionate
• Provided to residents and made available on request
• Kept up to date, reflecting changes to the building or resident feedback

The Residents’ Engagement Strategy ensures residents are actively informed and listened to, rather than being passive recipients of safety decisions.

A qualifying lease under the Building Safety Act is a long residential lease that meets specific criteria, which determine whether leaseholders are protected from certain building safety remediation costs.

In simple terms, a lease is qualifying if:

• It is a long lease (originally granted for more than 21 years), and
• The property was the leaseholder’s main home on 14 February 2022, or the leaseholder owned no more than three residential properties in the UK at that time.

If a lease is qualifying, the leaseholder benefits from legal protections that limit or prevent them from being charged for certain fire safety and building safety remediation works.

A qualifying leaseholder is a leaseholder who holds a qualifying lease and is therefore protected from paying certain costs for remediating historical building safety defects.

A landlord certificate under the Building Safety Act is a formal statement confirming whether a landlord is responsible for contributing to the costs of remedying building safety defects and whether those costs can be passed on to leaseholders.

In many cases, no. The Building Safety Act 2022 significantly restricts when leaseholders can be charged for cladding removal.

Key points:

• Qualifying leaseholders are protected from paying for the removal or remediation of unsafe cladding. These costs must be met by the developer, building owner, or through government funding where available.
• For non-cladding fire safety defects, costs may only be passed on in limited circumstances, and are subject to strict caps based on the leaseholder’s circumstances.
• Landlords or building owners linked to the original developer, or who meet certain wealth thresholds, are prohibited from passing cladding costs to leaseholders at all.
• Leaseholders are also protected from retrospective charges and many historic bills.

There are exceptions (for example, where a lease does not qualify or in very specific scenarios), but the Act’s clear intention is that leaseholders should not bear the cost of cladding remediation.

Under the Building Safety Act 2022, a Remediation Order and a Remediation Contribution Orders are legal tools used to ensure that building safety defects are fixed and paid for by the right parties.

A Remediation Order is an order made by the First-tier Tribunal requiring a building owner or landlord to carry out specific remediation works to fix relevant fire safety defects (such as unsafe cladding) by a set deadline.

A Remediation Contribution Order requires a developer, landlord, or associated company to pay money towards the cost of remediation, even if they are not the current building owner. It is designed to stop parties avoiding responsibility by restructuring or selling assets.

The Building Safety Act 2022 significantly extends the time limits for bringing claims for defective construction work.

It does this by amending the Defective Premises Act 1972, as follows:

• For work completed before 28 June 2022, the limitation period is extended retrospectively to 30 years.
• For work completed on or after 28 June 2022, the limitation period is 15 years.

These extended limits apply where defective work has made a dwelling unfit for habitation, so claims can be brought much later than was previously possible.

The Act dramatically widens the window for legal action over defective work, particularly for historic building safety defects.

The Building Safety Act 2022 strengthens how the competence of architects and building inspectors is regulated by introducing clear standards, oversight, and accountability.

For building inspectors (building control professionals), the Act:

• Creates a new regulated profession, requiring inspectors to be registered and assessed for competence
• Places oversight with the Building Safety Regulator, which sets competence requirements and enforces standards
• Prevents inspectors from working beyond the scope of their competence

For architects and other designers, the Act:

• Requires duty holders to demonstrate they are competent for their role throughout the design and construction process
• Embeds competence into the new duty holder regime, meaning organisations must have appropriate skills, knowledge, experience, and behaviours
• Allows professional regulators (such as the Architects Registration Board) to strengthen disciplinary action where competence standards are breached.

The New Homes Ombudsman provides independent dispute resolution for buyers of new-build homes in England. Its role is to:

• Investigate complaints about poor workmanship, defects, or service failures by developers
• Resolve disputes fairly and independently where issues have not been resolved by the builder
• Order remedies, such as repairs, apologies, or financial compensation
• Set standards of conduct through the New Homes Ombudsman Code

Developers of new-build homes must belong to the New Homes Ombudsman Service, giving buyers access to this redress route.

If an Accountable Person fails to register a higher-risk building, they are breaking the law.

The consequences can include:

• Criminal offences under the Building Safety Act 2022
• Unlimited fines and, in serious cases, imprisonment
• Enforcement action by the Building Safety Regulator, including compliance notices and prosecutions
• The building being unlawfully occupied, as registration is a legal requirement
• Increased exposure to civil claims if a safety incident occurs

Registration is a fundamental gateway requirement. Failure to do it signals a serious breach of building safety duties.

Under the Building Safety Act 2022, company directors and senior managers can face personal criminal liability where offences are committed with their consent, connivance, or neglect.

Penalties can include:

• Unlimited fines for building safety offences
• Imprisonment (in serious cases, up to 2 years)
• Criminal records and disqualification risks under company law
• Prosecution alongside the company, not instead of it

These penalties apply to failures such as not registering a higher-risk building, breaching compliance or safety duties, ignoring regulatory notices, or providing false or misleading information to the Building Safety Regulator.