Guidance

Building safety leaseholder protections: guidance for leaseholders

This guidance provides leaseholders with a plain English explanation of the implications of the leaseholder protections in the Building Safety Act 2022.

• From: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
• Published: 21 July 2022
• Last updated: 24 July 2024 — See all updates

Applies to England

Summary

1. The leaseholder protections in the Building Safety Act 2022 (“the Act”) came into force on 28 June 2022, with new financial protections for leaseholders in buildings above 11 metres or five storeys with historical safety defects.

2. The accompanying secondary legislation came into force on 20 and 21 July 2022, providing further detail on how the measures in the Act will work and ensuring that the full range of leaseholder protections have their full effect.

3. This guidance provides leaseholders with a plain English explanation of the implications of the leaseholder protections in the Building Safety Act 2022. An overview of the leaseholder protections can be found below, along with the contents of the guidance.

Overview of the leaseholder protections

4. The government is committed to protecting innocent leaseholders from the unfair burden of remediation costs to make their home safe, and Parliament has passed a law to give this effect.

5. The Act ensures that those who built defective buildings take responsibility for remedying them, that the industry contributes to fixing the problem, and that leaseholders are protected in law from crippling bills for historical safety defects.

6. The leaseholder protections came into force on 28 June 2022, with new financial protections for leaseholders in relevant buildings with relevant historical safety defects.

7. The government is clear that developers must pay to fix buildings they had a role in developing or refurbishing, even where they no longer own the building. The Act ensures that building owners who are - or are associated with - the developer must pay for the remediation of historical safety defects (the definition of ‘building owner’ can be found in What are my building owner’s legal obligations?). More information on what leaseholders do and do not have to pay can be found in Remediation costs: what leaseholders do and do not have to pay.

8. Courts have also been granted new powers to extend liability to associated companies. This ensures that civil cases for claims against defective buildings can be brought against companies associated with a developer, preventing the use of complex corporate structures to avoid liability. More information on building owners’ obligations can be found in What are my building owners’ legal obligations?

9. Where a developer cannot be identified or has not yet agreed to pay for its own buildings, funding will be made directly available to pay for cladding system repairs and remediation. This will ensure that no qualifying leaseholder faces costs to remediate unsafe cladding systems on their building.

10. Qualifying leaseholders are protected from all cladding system remediation costs. Those whose property is calculated as being less than £325,000 in Greater London (£175,000 elsewhere in England) or whose building owner has a group net worth of more than £2 million per relevant building, as of 14 February 2022, are exempt from all historical safety remediation costs.

11. The Act ensures that any contribution required from qualifying leaseholders for non-cladding defects and interim measures (including waking watch costs) is firmly capped and spread over 10 years, with costs already paid out since 28 June 2017 counting towards the cap. If remediation costs exceed the cap, building owners must make up the difference.

12. The Act also includes a robust package of measures designed to ensure that those responsible finally put right the buildings they have contributed to making dangerous and that leaseholders are firmly protected from the unfair costs of remediation that they previously faced.

Contents of this guidance

13. This guidance includes the following sections:

Am I affected by the new laws?

• Definition of ‘relevant building’
• Definition of ‘relevant defect’
• Qualifying date, qualifying lease and extent

How do these changes affect my lease?

• How do these legal changes affect my lease?

My building has cladding defects that need to be fixed

• Cladding remediation

My building has non-cladding defects that need to be fixed

• Non-cladding remediation costs: summary
• Definition of non-cladding remediation
• Remediation costs: what leaseholders do and do not have to pay
• Leaseholder contribution caps
• Mandatory information required from leaseholders and building owners

Who pays when leaseholders don’t?

• How will cladding costs be paid for?
• Splitting of liability among relevant landlords

What are my building owner’s obligations and what happens if they are not meeting these obligations?

• What are my building owner’s legal obligations?
• Making sure remediation work is done
• Redress measures: information sheet

Leaseholder Protections Checker - check if you’ll have to pay to fix safety problems with your building

14. If you’re a leaseholder in England, you can use the Leaseholder Protections Checker to check whether you’ll have to pay to replace cladding or to fix other safety problems with your building.

Amendments to the leaseholder protections

15. Since the leaseholder protections came into force in June 2022, the Department has engaged extensively with leaseholders, landlords and other affected, such as lenders and conveyancers, to monitor compliance with, and the operation of, the Act and the leaseholder protection regulations.

16. The amending regulations came into force in August 2023 and ensure the protections have effect in the way original intended. More information on the amending regulations can be found in Leaseholder protections amendments.

17. The Building Safety Act 2022 has been amended to allow Right to Manage companies and Resident Management Companies to recover costs of legal and professional services in connection with obtaining remediation contribution orders from both qualifying and non-qualifying leaseholders. This is to support residents managing their buildings to apply for remediation contribution orders by allowing them to appropriately recover costs from all the leaseholders in a building, provided the leases allow it. For more information, please see making sure remediation work is done.

Published 21 July 2022
Last updated 24 July 2024 + show all updates

1. 24 July 2024

   Guidance updated to reflect amendments to the leaseholder protections that are now in force.

2. 18 October 2022

   Added link to Redress measures: information sheet.

3. 21 July 2022

   First published.