The housing secretary has announced new proposals to help more leaseholders at risk of high bills to fix serious building and fire safety defects
Existing rules already protect many leaseholders from footing the bill for fixing historic building safety defects, but some people still fall through the gaps because the law doesn’t cover different forms of ownership, leaving them at risk of paying for problems they didn’t cause.
Now, the government will go further to narrow these gaps and provide more financial support to leaseholders.
Building safety minister Baroness Blake said: “We are going further to protect more homeowners from unfair costs and make construction product manufacturers contribute towards putting things right.
“Alongside new powers to force those responsible to fix unsafe buildings, these measures will help give residents the safety and security they deserve.”
Manufacturers connected to building safety defects will be held accountable
These new proposals were unveiled in Parliament during the second reading of the Remediation of Unsafe Cladding Bill, a drive to get unsafe buildings fixed faster and ensure those responsible face tougher consequences if they fail to act.
Construction product manufacturers linked to historic unsafe cladding and insulation products will also be required to contribute more to putting affected buildings right.
The Bill will speed up action by placing a legal duty on those responsible to fix building safety defects, with those failing to act facing criminal penalties and fines of up to £500,000. It will also let authorities step in and get work done when those responsible repeatedly refuse.
For the first time, the government will have the powers it needs to recover contributions from manufacturers at scale.
The changes will protect different types of leaseholders
The new measures will intend to help:
Leaseholders who buy a flat as their only home but miss out on cost protections because of the previous owners’ circumstances
Under current rules, whether someone is protected from some building safety bills can depend on the circumstances of the person who owned the flat on 14 February 2022. This means someone can buy a flat later as their only or main home and still miss out, because a previous owner was ineligible.
The government is exploring ways to narrow this gap and help more leaseholders feel confident in their home’s safety.
Leaseholders in collectively owned and enfranchised buildings who face some of the biggest bills for fixing fire safety problems
Because there is no separate freeholder, residents are not covered by the Building Safety Act‘s leaseholder protections, putting them at risk of paying a lot. New government funding will help fund remediation of internal, high-risk, high-cost fire-safety defects.
Leaseholders with multiple properties that have non-cladding building safety problems they did not cause and are not currently protected under the Building Safety Act
At the moment, protections generally cover people who owned no more than three properties on 14 February 2022.
The government plans to raise this limit to six, so more people who owned four to six properties and did not qualify on this date will be protected from having these costs passed on to them. This will support individuals at risk of high bills through no fault of their own and, in many cases, who need to make their properties safe for the people who live in them.
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