The Building Safety Act for managing agents: which buildings are caught and what the duties are

The Building Safety Act 2022 uses two different height tests, and much of the confusion in management offices comes from applying the wrong one. The regulator's regime for occupied buildings starts at 18 metres or seven storeys. The leaseholder protections on remediation costs start at 11 metres or five storeys. A building can be in the second and not the first. This guide takes each in turn, from the government's own pages, and says what the managing agent's part is.

Higher-risk buildings: 18 metres or 7 storeys

A building is higher-risk in occupation if it is at least 18 metres in height or has at least seven storeys, and contains at least two residential units. Height is measured from ground level to the top of the floor surface of the top storey, ignoring rooftop plant and machinery; on sloping ground the measurement starts from the lowest adjacent ground. Care homes, hospitals, secure residential institutions, hotels and military barracks are excluded only where the entire building is used for that purpose; a block with shops below flats is caught.

The principal accountable person. Each higher-risk building has one principal accountable person, usually the organisation that owns or is accountable for the structure and exterior, and in limited cases an individual. The managing agent is normally not the PAP; the freeholder or RMC is. The agent does the work on the PAP's behalf, and should have that written into the management agreement, because the duties and the offences sit with the PAP.

Registration. The PAP registers the building with the Building Safety Regulator. The fee is £251 per building. Within 28 days of applying, the PAP must supply the key building information on structure and fire safety. The registration service is also where the PAP tells the Regulator that a safety case report has been prepared or updated.

The safety case report. The report sets out the building safety risks, meaning fire spread and structural failure, and how they are being managed. The PAP should prepare it as soon as possible when the building becomes occupied or when it becomes the PAP, and must send it to the Regulator when told to apply for a building assessment certificate, or at any time the Regulator asks for it. For most agents the report is commissioned from a fire engineer, and the agent's job is the evidence behind it: the fire risk assessment, the maintenance records for fire doors, alarms, dampers and lifts, and the plan for keeping them current.

The resident engagement strategy. The PAP must prepare a strategy describing the building safety decisions residents will be asked about, the information they will be given, how their opinions will be collected (letters, surveys, meetings, email and so on, with regard to different communication needs), how feedback and resulting changes will be reported back, and how participation will be reviewed. Residents are consulted on it for at least three weeks. It must be reviewed at least every two years, after any mandatory occurrence report to the Regulator, and after a significant alteration to the building, with each review recorded. The PAP must also run a complaints system for building safety concerns, separate from the strategy.

All of that is correspondence, records and diary: the part of the Act a managing agent's office does every day.

Relevant buildings: 11 metres or 5 storeys

The leaseholder protections apply to a relevant building: at least 11 metres or five storeys, with two or more dwellings. Section 117(3) takes some buildings out even when they meet the height test: where the leaseholders have exercised a right of first refusal, compulsory acquisition or collective enfranchisement, where the freehold is leaseholder owned, and where the building is commonhold. Many blocks run for a leaseholder-owned freeholder fall outside the protections for that reason, so check how the freehold is held before quoting them. Here the questions are about money.

Qualifying leases. A lease granted before 14 February 2022 where the flat was the leaseholder's principal home on that date, or the leaseholder owned no more than three UK properties.

Cladding. Qualifying leaseholders are protected from all costs of remediating unsafe cladding systems. The building owner bears them.

Non-cladding defects. Contributions from qualifying leaseholders are capped at £10,000 outside Greater London and £15,000 in it, with the cap at zero where the flat was worth less than £175,000 (outside London) or £325,000 (London), and higher caps of £50,000 and £100,000 for the most valuable flats. Sums paid since 28 June 2017 count towards the cap, and what remains is spread over a maximum of ten years.

Certificates. The leaseholder gives a leaseholder deed of certificate establishing the qualifying status; the landlord gives a landlord's certificate setting out its position on the defects and the cost. The agent will be asked to run both exchanges, and the demand for any remediation charge has to reflect them. The demand checker covers the ordinary statutory tests the demand must also pass.

Section 20 on remediation works

Since 1 April 2023, a Section 20 notice for works to remedy a relevant defect in a relevant building must also describe the steps the landlord has taken to recover the cost from others, such as the developer or a contractor, under section 20D of the 1985 Act. The consultation itself runs as our Section 20 stages guide describes.

The two lists, side by side

A 12-metre block of two flats sits in the right-hand column only. A 20-metre block sits in both.

This is general information for England, not legal advice. The Welsh regime differs.