Building Safety Act: What to include on the Safety Case Report
Registration with the Building Safety Regulator using HSE guidelines
While it has been described by the Government as the most crucial and ground-breaking piece of regulation introduced since 1984 across the residential and mixed-use property sector, the Building Safety Act 2022 has caused a fundamental change in the way health and safety information will have to be captured moving ahead. The transition period prescribed to make the industry adjust to the changes can cause a lot of confusion and it can get overwhelming for landlords, building owners, asset managers and property professionals to navigate the steps to ensure their portfolios are compliant.
This article is going to focus on the first initial steps to take to ensure you and your properties are on the right path. With the new guidelines of the Building Safety Act coming into effect from April 2023, you can break down the current process prescribed into three steps.
Step 1
A high-rise residential building needs to be registered with the Building Safety Regulator if it has:
at least 7 floors or is at least 18 metres in height, and has
at least 2 residential units.
Once a structure in your property portfolio qualifies under the above conditions and you have appointed an Accountable Person, you will need the following pieces of information:
the number of floors at or above ground level
its height in metres
the number of residential units
the year it was originally built
its address or addresses
The registration costs £251 per property, and relevant deadlines are mentioned on the website, With the above, the first step is to apply to register your high-rise residential building at the Gov.uk registration website. More information on who to choose as the Principal Accountable Person and Accountable Person
Step 2
The second step is to put together the Safety Case and a prepare a report on it. This Safety Case report also needs to be submitted by 30 September 2023. However, if you register a building on the 29 September 2023, you will be given a 28-day deadline to submit the Safety Case Report.
We have included an infographic and a downloadable guide at the end of the article on putting together the Safety Case Report.
A building Safety Case will highlight the features of the property, its usage, and demonstrate how the Accountable Person is taking action to identify, manage and mitigate fire and structural risks. This critical information about the building will be stored within the Golden Thread document, which will be part of the Safety Case Report. The report should not aim to be a dry collection of assessments and invoices and lists. It will be an active documents that is to be updated every year or in regular intervals, to summarise how the building is performing and ensure that its compliant with respect to Health & Safety and Fire Safety.
The HSE has so far put out a declaration that they will not be providing a template for this report ad it can get overwhelming for a lot of landlords who may not have all the resources at hand, or be able to comprehensively navigate the system.
You can download the Safety Case Report infographic and guide below, for free, which will guide you through the process and give you an overview of what information to compile and include in the
Step 3
Step 3 is awaiting the Building Assessment Certificate from the HSE, provided they are completely satisfied with the Health & Safety status of the property.
What should you include in a Building Safety Case Report?
The report should ideally include information that falls under the following broad categories:
An overview of general and technical information
A residents’ profile and engagement strategy
An ongoing maintenance and inspection strategy
For a more detailed version you can download the guide below.
While reports will vary from property to property, and essentially from company to company, The Asset Manager’s Handbook is currently working on a more detailed template that may be used as a guide for your actual Safety Case Reports that can be used for submission. Subscribe below and stay tuned!