No, I promise we aren’t being dramatic, under the Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA) owners and managers of higher risk buildings were required to register them with the government’s new Building Safety Regulator by October 1st 2023.
The registration forms required are part of the information now being stored about a building and its requirements to keep it safe. Failure to have submitted these forms by the 1st of October can result in freeholders and managing agents facing fines and potential imprisonment.
What are high-risk residential buildings?
Section 65 of the BSA defines higher risk buildings as buildings that contain two or more dwellings and are at least 18m high or have at least 7 storeys.
Registration requirements and how do you register a building?
Firstly, the registration must be done by the Principal Accountable Person, so if you haven’t identified them yet we suggest you begin doing so straight away. A definition of who a Principal Accountable Person may be is included here. If you find yourself in a dispute about who it may be, you can refer to the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) for a judgement, but with the October 1st deadline having passed, we suggest you act quickly.
Included within the registration must be the following information:
- The number of floors at or above ground level
- Its height in meters
- The number of residential units
- The year it was originally built
- Its address or addresses
- If the building is made up of more than one high-rise residential structure, the same information must be given for each structure.
If you would like to find further details on what should be included within the registration, you can read the full government guidance here.
A vital piece of information that must also be included within the registration is the name of the Principal Accountable Person and any other Accountable Persons. As previously mentioned, it is therefore important to identify these people before starting the application.
To being your registration, please follow this link.
Please be aware that the regulator doesn’t necessarily have to register every application they receive and can choose to reject an application or ask questions. If this happens, the applicant can apply to review a refusal within 21 days of the decision.
Conclusion
If you haven’t submitted your application, or even worse, begun identifying who the Principal Accountable Person is for each of your blocks, we would strongly advise you make it a priority now. Failure to have done s or to register new buildings in the future is considered a criminal offence, and therefore punishable by an unlimited fine or a prison sentence.
