The Building Safety Act 2022 has been put in place to ensure that leaseholders living in buildings of 11 metres or higher will not have to pay for cladding remediation.
What is the Building Safety Act?
The 252-page Act is aimed at improving building standards, ensuring the safety of residents, and protecting leaseholders from cladding remediation costs.
A range of measures have been put in place, including a new Building Safety Regulator for buildings over 18 metres, and a New Homes Ombudsman to help with leaseholder complaints against developers.
The changes were in response to the Grenfell Tower tragedy to ensure residents in buildings are safe.
Will A2Dominion charge leaseholders for cladding remediation or relevant defects?
A2Dominion will not charge leaseholders for any works relating to cladding remediation or any works to remediate relevant defects. This is because of the leaseholder protections set out in Schedule Eight of the Building Safety Act 2022.
What does this mean for buildings under 11 metres?
The government has confirmed that blocks below 11metres that have already been deemed in need of remediation will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. It has said there is no systemic fire risk in buildings below 11metres, and that mitigation measures are often more appropriate.
What about non-cladding works?
For non-cladding works, such as insulation, fire breaks and compartmentalisation work, the new law seeks to make developers and cladding manufacturers pay. It will then move on to building owners, where they have the means to do so.
Building owners who did not build the blocks but can afford to pay for the works must pay non-cladding costs.
In the small number of cases, where the building owner cannot pay, leaseholders will be protected by a cap on non-cladding work. The caps are £15,000 in London and £10,000 outside the capital. Any costs paid out by leaseholders towards these fixes in the past five years will now count towards the cap, meaning some leaseholders will pay nothing more.