Building Safety Act 2022 leaseholder protections: what to do
From 28 June 2022, qualifying leaseholders in England can no longer be charged for cladding remediation, and there are legal protections for non-cladding costs.
Applies to England
- From Tuesday 28 June 2022, the leaseholder protections in the Building Safety Act 2022 come into force.
- Qualifying leaseholders will pay nothing to remove dangerous cladding, and the amount they can be asked to contribute to fixing other historical building safety defects is firmly capped.
- Before qualifying leaseholders are asked to contribute to these costs, landlords must provide a formal legal certificate, or demonstrate that the costs do not relate to works covered by the Act.
- We are also implementing a series of schemes to protect non-qualifying leaseholders from remediation costs, if remediation is needed.
Are you a qualifying leaseholder?
You are a qualifying leaseholder if your property is in a building above 11 metres (or 5 storeys), and on 14 February 2022:
- your property was your main home, or
- you owned no more than 3 UK residential properties in total
This means that the Building Safety Act has abolished your unlimited liability to fix historical building safety costs. You will pay nothing to remove dangerous cladding, and the amount you can be asked to contribute to fixing other historical building safety defects is firmly capped.
You are also a qualifying leaseholder if you have bought your property since 14 February 2022, but either of the two points above was true for the flat on that date.
What should you do if you are a qualifying leaseholder?
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 costs.
Any existing invoices are no longer valid, and any landlord or agent who seeks to enforce them could be committing a criminal offence.
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, and we will update this guidance then.
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.
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.
We will be working with leaseholder groups and others over the next few weeks to ensure we have the clearest possible guidance and digital tools available when these new regulations come fully into force, so you can understand exactly what you need to do, and what you are entitled to demand from your freeholder or landlord.
What should you do if you are a non-qualifying leaseholder?
Firstly, you should check whether the developer of your building has signed the Building Safety Pledge.
If they have, then the developer 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.
Where an assessment following the latest guidance suggests that work is necessary to make your building safe, then funding schemes will be available:
- Your landlord or freeholder will still be able to apply to the Building Safety Fund, the next phase of which will open shortly, if your property is in a building over 18 metres tall with dangerous cladding. If they applied during the first phase, you will be able to see the status of your registration on the portal.
- There will also be a new scheme for buildings over 11 metres tall, to be funded by developers through the Building Safety Levy – further guidance will be set out in the coming months.
For further details see the Frequently Asked Questions on the leaseholder protections in the Building Safety Act.