Property managers warned over looming high-rise safety rules
Government wants those who run at-risk residential towers to get ready to register their properties under Building Safety Act regulations.
Property managers running many of England’s 12,500 high-rise residential properties have just under a month to begin registering relevant towers with the newly-minted Building Safety Regulator, the Government has warned.
Accountable Persons – a term which covers freeholders, lessees or management companies – have between April and October this year to add their applicable buildings to the register.
This includes high-rise blocks 18 metres or more in height or with at least seven storeys (whichever is reached first) and that contain two or more residential dwellings.
The Accountable Person, who will either own or have a ‘repairing obligation’ for common parts within the building as well as responsibility for its safety and management, must register its name, address, postcode, height, number of floors, the principal accountable person, which parts they are responsible for and the year the property was built/gained a completion certificate.
“This will more than likely apply to any lettings or sales agent who is managing a block as a block manager,” a Propertymark spokesperson told The Neg.
These new responsibilities are part of the Government’s ongoing efforts to overhaul and improve high-rise building management following the Grenfell Tower tragedy.
Accountable Person
The new Accountable Person has been created within Part 4 of the Building Safety Act which received Royal Assent in April last year and will have two key roles:
- prevent a building safety risk happening, with building safety risk defined as ‘spread of fire and/or structural failure’
- reduce the seriousness of an incident if one happens.
RICS, which was heavily involved in helping frame the new legislation following the Dame Judith Hackitt report published in 2018, says the new Accountable Person will “add to safety and see consistency in standards going forward”.
Andrew Bulmer, CEO of The Property Institute – the new name for the merged ARMA and IRPM – has said: “In its current form, as law, it is a clear call for those in the sector – including property managers, developers and landlords – to work together to identify, mitigate and manage risks to residents”.
