Guidance

Residents’ Voice: factsheet

Updated 5 April 2022

This guidance was withdrawn on 25 July 2022

This guidance is withdrawn as it is no longer current. Please see the latest guidance on the Building Safety Act.

What are we going to do?

Every resident of a higher building should be reassured that their Accountable Person is managing their building safety risks in their building. Residents can expect to be informed about the measures being taken to make their building safe. The Bill empowers residents of higher-risk buildings to raise safety concerns and to know that these will be taken seriously by those responsible for managing the safety of their building.

The Accountable Person must ensure the effective assessment and management of their building’s safety and will be required to provide certain information to residents about their building. The Principal Accountable Person must also promote the participation of residents in relevant decision-making about their building’s safety.

The Bill also recognises that residents have an important role to play in keeping their building safe. The Bill includes safety-related obligations for residents of higher-risk buildings to help them to play their part. Where residents fall short of their obligations the Accountable Person can pursue compliance through the county courts.

Residents also have the right to escalate complaints to the new Building Safety Regulator, where the Principal Accountable Person has not resolved their concerns. This additional process will ensure that their concerns are addressed and not dismissed.

In addition, the Bill requires the Building Safety Regulator to establish a committee know as the ‘Residents’ Panel’, giving residents a voice in the work of the regulator. We have tabled amendments to the Bill that would require the Regulator to take all reasonable steps to ensure that the Panel contains representation from disable residents of higher-risk buildings or groups that represent and support disabled residents. The Regulator will also have a broad power to consult the Residents’ Panel on any of its functions, which relate to higher-risk buildings.

Background

Dame Judith Hackitt’s Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety, found that residents did not have a strong enough voice in the management of their buildings. They often:

• did not have the chance to offer views and participate in making decisions about the management of safety in their building
• lacked access to key building safety information
• struggled to get their complaints addressed, even when they related to building safety

The Bill provides clear routes to resolve issues raised by residents, about the assessment and management of building safety risks.

How are we informing and empowering residents?

The Accountable Person

All occupied higher-risk buildings will be required to have at least one clearly identifiable Accountable Person, known as the Principal Accountable Person. If an occupied high-rise residential building has just one Accountable Person, they will automatically become the Principal Accountable Person for that building.

The Accountable Person will be legally responsible for ensuring that the fire and structural safety of high-rise buildings is properly managed. They will be accountable to residents and to the newly appointed Building Safety Regulator, which has powers to require compliance and sanction the Accountable Person.

The Principal Accountable Person will have a legal obligation to ensure residents are informed about, and are involved in decisions that concern the safety of their building. They will also be required to provide, upon request, information that helps to ensure that residents better understand and are informed about how the safety of their building is managed. This means residents will have a stronger voice in the management of their building.

The Principal Accountable Person in any building will be required to:

• produce a Residents’ Engagement Strategy that explains how residents will be involved in making decisions about the management of their building in relation to the risks of fire and structural failure. This strategy will explain how residents will be consulted and how the effectiveness of the strategy will be measured. This engagement will apply to all residents of the building, and we would expect Accountable Persons to have particular regard to the requirements of those residents, such as disabled residents who may have vulnerabilities; and
• establish a complaints system that ensures residents’ safety concerns are heard and dealt with.

To ensure residents’ complaints are taken seriously, residents will be able to escalate their complaints to the Regulator, should they be unable to resolve a complaint with the Principal Accountable Person. We will set out in secondary legislation rules about how complaints can be made and how the Regulator must consider them.

Resident’s duties

Residents have an important part to play in the safety of their building, and the Bill paces a responsibility on residents to make sure their actions do not negatively impact on the safety of others. We would anticipate that the majority of residents will already be fulfilling this obligation.

We expect that the combination of better information and improved engagement by the Accountable Person will help ensure that all residents understand the important role they can play in keeping their home and the building they live in safe.  

To ensure the safety of residents and enable the Accountable Person to effectively assess and manage their building’s safety risks, we are placing three, clear and proportionate obligations on residents. The obligations are intended to foster and promote the safety of residents. These will complement the work of the Accountable Person, helping them to ensure the safety of the building and all its residents are safe. The majority of residents already fulfil these obligations.

Residents must:

• not act in a way that creates a significant risk of fire or structural failure
• not interfere with a relevant safety item
• comply with a request by the Accountable Person for information reasonably required to perform their duties to assess and manage building safety risks

To ensure the safety of all residents, we are also providing the Accountable Person with the power to ensure compliance with the obligations. In the case where a resident falls short of their obligations, the Accountable Person can issue a contravention notice. An accountable person may also require access to a residents’ premises, strictly to fulfil their duties relating to building safety or to determine whether a residents’ duty has been contravened. The Bill sets our clear requirements for such requests, such as notice periods and reasonable proposed times of entry.

What are the benefits for residents?

Residents will have confidence in the safety of their building and will have a greater say in how their buildings are being managed.

This will involve greater accountability on those that manage the building: the Accountable Person will have clear responsibilities overseen by the Regulator.

Residents will understand how they can be involved in the Residnets’ Engagement Strategy, which promotes the participation of all residents in decision-making about their building. Residents will be able to request further information about the safety measures in place for their building from the Accountable Person. Residents will also be able to hold their Accountable Person to account as each Principal Accountable Person will be required to operate a complaints system. Where complaints cannot be resolved, they can be heard by the Regulator.

What is the Residents’ Engagement Strategy?

Residents will be at the heart of the decisions being made about their safety. The Principal Accountable Person must produce a strategy that promotes the participation of residents in the decision-making process about the building safety risks in their building. Every resident will be provided with a copy of the strategy.

The strategy will contain:

• what information will be provided to residents
• what residents will be consulted on
• how residents’ views will be sought
• how the effectiveness of the strategy will be measured

We are continuing work, engaging with the representatives of residents, on guidance for the Accountable Persons about the content of the Residents’ Engagement Strategy to ensure that it is clear for all residents. We have also tabled amendments that would introduce a requirement to consult residents on the Residents’ Engagement Strategy in certain circumstances, to ensure they have a say in how and when their views are sought.

Where a residents considers that the Strategy for their building does not meet the requirements of the Bill, they will be able to raise a compliant with the Principal Accountable Person. Where the complaint is not dealt with satisfactorily the resident may escalate it to the Regulator.

What information will be shared with residents?

Residents will be kept informed about the safety of their building, receiving mandatory information about their building’s safety. Residents will also be able to request further information from their Accountable Person, unless, for example this would contravene data protection legislation.

We are continuing work, working with residents’ representatives on the further information that can be provided on request. We are clear that the additional information should help residents to better understand the assessment and management of safety in their building.

If a request is ignored, residents will be able to use the complaints system.

How will residents’ concerns and complaints be resolved?

The Principal Accountable Person will be responsible for ensuring Accountable Persons have a clear and effective building safety complaints process for residents. We are also requiring the new Building Safety Regulator to have its own complaints system, which provides a further protection for residents and ensures their concerns and safety are taken seriously.

We are continuing work on both the Accountable Persons and Building Safety Regulator’s complaints systems. We are working with residents’ representatives to design the process for raising safety concerns.

What is a relevant safety item?

A ‘relevant safety item’ means anything which forms part of the common parts of the building that improves that building’s safety, for example signage, sprinklers, fire extinguishers etc.

What powers will the Accountable Person have?

To ensure that residents don’t put others or their own safety at risk, the Accountable Person will have the power to issue contravention notices where it appears to them that the resident has not adhered to, or is not adhering to, their obligations. The notice will be clear on what the contravention is, the actions the resident should take, and steps the Accountable Person may take on non-compliance.

Where a resident has interfered with a relevant safety item, they can be asked to pay a reasonable sum for its repair or replacement. The Accountable Person will be able to escalate the notice to the county court if the resident continues not to comply.

To ensure the safety of all residents and the building, the Accountable Person may request access to a residential unit or other premises in the building for the purpose of assessing or managing building safety risks, or to determine whether a residents’ duty has been contravened.

To make sure residents are aware of any access and that the Accountable person carries this out in an appropriate manner, the Accountable Person must provide a written request setting out the purpose and an explanation of why access is required, providing at least 48 hours’ notice with access required at a reasonable time.

Where a resident refuses access, providing the Accountable Person has followed the prescribed procedure, the Accountable Person will be able to apply to the country court for an order to gain access.

How can residents oversee the Accountable Person?

We expect the Accountable Person to be proportionate in ensuring residents’ compliance with their duties. The Building Safety Regulator, in consultation with the Residents’ Panel, can issue guidance to Accountable Persons about the actions they take in relation to residents.

If a resident does not agree with the Accountable Person’s use of a contravention notice or request for access they can refuse to comply. If the Accountable Person applies to the County Court, the resident will be able to set out their position to an independent judge. They are also able to formally raise an issue concerning the Accountable Person’s actions through the Accountable Person’s complaints process and escalate it to the Building Safety Regulator.

We will work with resident representatives on how a contravention notice can be given and residents will have recourse to the Building Safety Regulator.

What is the Residents’ Panel?

To make sure that residents have a voice in the work of the Building Safety Regulator, the Regulator will establish a Residents’ Panel. The Regulator will be able to consult the Residents’ Panel on any of its functions which impact the residents of higher-risk buildings.

The Residents’ Panel may include non-resident owners as well as residents, given their direct interest. We have also tabled amendments to require the Regulator to take all reasonable steps to include on the Panel either a disabled resident or a representative of an organisation that supports disabled residents.

What steps are planned to make sure disabled residents are considered?

The Building Safety Bill will require the Regulator to take all reasonable steps to make sure that the Residents’ Panel contains representation from disabled residents. This representation could consist of disabled residents of higher-risk buildings or groups that represent and support disabled residents.

The Regulator will publish information on engagement in its annual statement on resident engagement and we have tabled an amendment to require the regulator to report specifically on its engagement with disabled residents as part of this.