Building Safety Act 2022: What Landlords Need to Know

The Building Safety Act 2022 was the second major post-Grenfell statute and the most substantial reform of building regulation in decades. It defines "higher-risk buildings" (18m+ or 7+ storeys, two or more residential units), created the Building Safety Regulator (BSR), and introduced the statutory roles of Accountable Person and Principal Accountable Person. Since 27 January 2026 the BSR has operated as a standalone regulator outside the Health and Safety Executive — a significant structural change from the Act's early years that this guide reflects. The Act also extended limitation periods under the Defective Premises Act 1972 to 15 years (prospective) and 30 years (retrospective), and introduced a detailed leaseholder cost-protection framework that is more graduated than a single flat figure. This page covers the higher-risk threshold, the BSR's current status and functions, Accountable Person duties, the leaseholder protection framework and its actual cost caps, the extended limitation periods, and the practical consequences for ordinary buy-to-let landlords.

What the Act did

The Building Safety Act 2022 received Royal Assent on 28 April 2022. It built on the Fire Safety Act 2021 but went much further, creating an entirely new regulatory architecture rather than amending an existing one: a new regulator, new statutory duty-holders, new statutory documents (the safety case report, the resident engagement strategy), and new criminal offences with substantial penalties. Its provisions commenced progressively through 2022 and 2023, and secondary legislation and organisational changes affecting how the Act operates have continued into 2026.

The Act's core targets are large, multi-occupied residential buildings — "higher-risk buildings" — which it treats as needing dedicated oversight beyond standard building control. For freeholders, managing agents, and developers of these buildings, the Act produced a step-change in regulatory burden. It also addressed issues exposed by the Grenfell Inquiry more broadly: allocating cladding remediation costs between developers, freeholders, and leaseholders; extending limitation periods for claims against developers; creating new protections for residents in unsafe buildings; and establishing a public register of higher-risk buildings.

Higher-risk buildings — the threshold

The Act's most demanding provisions apply only to "higher-risk buildings", defined in section 65 as buildings containing two or more residential units that are:

• At least 18 metres in height, OR
• At least seven storeys.

Either threshold is sufficient — a building does not need to meet both. Height is measured from ground level to the floor of the topmost storey containing residential accommodation, and storey-counting for mezzanines and partial levels follows detailed rules in the Higher-Risk Buildings (Descriptions and Supplementary Provisions) Regulations 2023. This threshold remains unchanged as of mid-2026.

The threshold catches a meaningful but limited slice of UK residential stock — mainly city-centre blocks of flats, social housing tower blocks, and some larger purpose-built rental developments. Most ordinary blocks of flats (typically 3-6 storeys) sit below the higher-risk threshold and are subject only to the Fire Safety Order and general building safety regulation, not the higher-risk regime.

A separate, lower threshold matters for cost protection. The leaseholder protections discussed below apply to a broader category of "relevant buildings" — buildings of 11 metres or more, or 5 or more storeys, containing at least two dwellings. A landlord or leaseholder in a building between 11m/5 storeys and 18m/7 storeys is outside the higher-risk regulatory regime (no Accountable Person, no BSR oversight) but can still benefit from the Act's leaseholder cost protections if the building has a qualifying historical safety defect. Confusing the two thresholds is a common and consequential error.

A building leaves the higher-risk category if it ceases to meet the threshold (for example through demolition or reduction in height); a building that is altered to cross the threshold becomes higher-risk from the date of that alteration.

The Building Safety Regulator — now an independent body

The Act established the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) as a new regulator. Its organisational status has changed since the Act was first implemented. From 2021 until 27 January 2026, the BSR operated from within the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), drawing on HSE's existing regulatory infrastructure and staff. On 27 January 2026, the BSR formally transitioned to a standalone executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) — a step explicitly framed by government as progress towards a future single construction regulator recommended by the Grenfell Tower Inquiry. The BSR's statutory functions and powers under the Act are unchanged by this move; only its host organisation and governance structure changed. A transitional arrangement allows the BSR to continue drawing on HSE staff for a period while it builds up its own independent workforce — check gov.uk for the current position on when this arrangement ends.

The BSR retains three principal functions:

1. Building control authority for higher-risk buildings. The BSR is the building control body for the design and construction of higher-risk buildings, replacing local authorities and approved inspectors for this category. New construction or major alteration of a higher-risk building requires BSR approval at three "Gateway" points: design (Gateway 1), pre-construction (Gateway 2), and pre-occupation (Gateway 3).

2. In-occupation regulator. Once a higher-risk building is occupied, the BSR registers it, oversees the Accountable Person's safety case, and enforces compliance through inspections, improvement notices, and prosecutions.

3. Improvement of building safety standards and competence generally. The BSR publishes guidance, drives professional competence standards across the wider built environment (not just higher-risk buildings), and engages with industry.

Through 2026 the BSR has also been running an "operational reset" aimed at reducing delays in remediation applications and Gateway decision times, following criticism of application backlogs; its 2026-27 strategic plan sets specific targets for faster decisions. The BSR retains substantial enforcement powers — compliance notices, prohibition notices preventing occupation, improvement notices, and criminal prosecution, with conviction on indictment carrying unlimited fines and up to 2 years' imprisonment for individual duty-holders.

The Accountable Person

Section 72 of the Act creates the role of "Accountable Person" for every higher-risk building. The Accountable Person is the legal entity — typically a freeholder, management company, or right-to-manage (RTM) company — responsible for the safe occupation of the building.

The Accountable Person's duties include:

• Registering the building with the BSR.
• Producing and maintaining a "safety case report" evidencing how building safety risks are managed, updated on any significant change.
• Producing a "resident engagement strategy" describing how residents are involved in building safety decisions.
• Operating a complaints procedure for residents.
• Cooperating with BSR inspections and information requests.
• Notifying the BSR of "mandatory occurrence reports" — incidents potentially indicating a building safety issue.

Where more than one Accountable Person exists for a building (typically because different parts are owned by different entities), one is designated the "Principal Accountable Person" with overall coordination responsibility. Failure to comply with these duties is a criminal offence carrying unlimited fines and up to 2 years' imprisonment on indictment for individuals, with civil penalties available as an enforcement alternative.

Leaseholder protections — the actual cost caps

Sections 116-127 of the Act introduced financial protections for leaseholders in "relevant buildings" (11 metres or more, or 5 or more storeys) with a qualifying historical safety defect. These came into force on 28 June 2022.

Cladding remediation. Qualifying leaseholders are protected from all cladding system remediation costs — there is no cap because the cap is zero. The government's position is that developers, or building owners associated with the original developer, must pay.

Non-cladding remediation and interim measures (e.g. waking watches). Here the protection is a graduated cap, not a single figure. Costs charged to a qualifying leaseholder must be spread over 10 years and cannot exceed the following (per the official contribution caps guidance):

Property value	Greater London	Rest of England
Below £175,000	£0	£0
£175,000 – £324,999	£0	£10,000
£325,000 – £1,000,000	£15,000	£10,000
£1,000,001 – £2,000,000	£50,000	£50,000
Above £2,000,000	£100,000	£100,000

Any amount already paid towards remediation or interim measures since 28 June 2017 counts towards the cap. A leaseholder is also entirely exempt from historical remediation costs if their building owner's group net worth exceeds £2 million per relevant building (regardless of the leaseholder's own property value) — the reasoning being that a well-resourced owner should absorb the cost rather than pass it to residents.

Who qualifies. A "qualifying leaseholder" is broadly someone who, on 14 February 2022, occupied the property as their only or principal home, or owned no more than three UK dwellings in total (including the one in question). Buy-to-let investors with four or more UK properties are typically non-qualifying and receive no statutory cap — their liability is governed by the terms of their lease.

The framework has produced substantial litigation over the scope of "relevant defect" and building owner obligations, and secondary legislation amending the original protections came into force in August 2023. The principal effect remains to shift the great majority of remediation cost away from individual leaseholders and towards developers, building owners, and government funding schemes.

Extension of limitation periods

Section 135 of the Act extended the limitation period for claims under section 1 of the Defective Premises Act 1972:

• Prospective application (causes of action arising after 28 June 2022): up to 15 years from completion of the work.
• Retrospective application (causes of action arising before 28 June 2022): up to 30 years from completion of the work, applied as though the extended period had always been in force, reviving claims that would otherwise have been statute-barred.

These figures are unchanged and remain current. The extension was designed to allow claims against developers of buildings built during the 1990s and 2000s where defects — particularly cladding-related defects — only became apparent after the ordinary limitation period had already run. The retrospective extension has been tested at appellate level and confirmed to extend not only direct Defective Premises Act claims but related contribution and negligence claims arising from the same defects. Substantial litigation against major developers continues.

What else has changed in 2026

Two further developments are relevant to anyone tracking this Act's practical effect, beyond the BSR's change of status:

Building Safety Levy. A new charge on developers, payable on building control applications for new dwellings, takes effect from 1 October 2026 (having been postponed from an earlier proposed date). It applies to developers rather than to buy-to-let landlords directly, but landlords who are also small developers or undertake conversions creating new dwellings should check whether an application will fall on or after that date.

Remediation enforcement. Through 2026 the BSR has stood up a dedicated Remediation Enforcement Unit targeting buildings with unsafe ACM or HPL cladding systems, alongside a published plan to reduce delays in remediation applications. For landlords with a flat in an affected block, this points towards remediation moving faster than in 2022-2024, but timelines still vary significantly by building.

What this means for ordinary buy-to-let landlords

Most buy-to-let landlords own properties below both the 18m/7-storey higher-risk threshold and the 11m/5-storey relevant-building threshold, and are not directly subject to any part of this Act. Where a landlord does own inside a taller block, the practical consequences tend to be:

Service charges in blocks of flats. Where the freeholder has commissioned fire risk assessments, EWS1 surveys, or remediation works, costs may flow through the service charge. If the landlord is a non-qualifying leaseholder (typically because they own more than three UK properties), the statutory caps above do not protect them — their exposure depends on the lease and the Act's separate cost-allocation rules between building owners.

Mortgageability and saleability. Properties in blocks with unresolved fire safety issues or unfavourable EWS1 ratings have historically been difficult to mortgage or sell. The position has generally improved as remediation programmes progress and the BSR's 2026 enforcement push targets a defined population of affected buildings, but the issue persists for buildings still awaiting works.

Insurance availability. Buildings insurance for blocks with known defects remains harder and more expensive to obtain than for unaffected buildings.

Indirect compliance. A landlord owning a flat in a higher-risk building has no personal duties under the Act but should expect engagement from the building's Accountable Person, including through the resident engagement strategy, and should check whether the freeholder or managing agent is meeting its registration and safety-case obligations to the BSR.

This is a general guide, not a substitute for advice on a specific building or lease — the leaseholder cost rules in particular turn on individual facts (lease value, ownership on 14 February 2022, building owner's net worth) that a generic article cannot resolve for you. Where significant sums are in dispute, take advice from a solicitor experienced in building safety and leasehold law, or use the government's Leaseholder Protections Checker.

Authoritative sources

• Building Safety Act 2022
• Building Safety Act 2022, section 65 — meaning of higher-risk building
• Building Safety Act 2022, section 135 — limitation periods
• Higher-Risk Buildings (Descriptions and Supplementary Provisions) Regulations 2023
• Building Safety Regulator (gov.uk organisation page)
• BSR becomes standalone body — GOV.UK news, 27 January 2026
• Building safety leaseholder protections: guidance for leaseholders
• Leaseholder contribution caps
• Definition of "relevant building"
• Building Safety Levy guidance
• Our Fire Safety Act 2021 guide