Communicating clearly about PAS 9980

Mark London's recent piece in Construction News gives a helpful overview of the roles that PAS 9980 was intended to perform and how it is being used in practice.

There is an inherent tension between the overall intent of Building Regulations - securing the health, safety, welfare and convenience of people in and about buildings and others who may be affected by buildings - and the fact that PAS 9980 provides a justification for an alternative and, as Mark explains below, often lower standard of tolerable safety.

Pragmatic implementation of the recommendations of a PAS 9980 assessment produced by a competent professional by the agreement of building owners and contractors can significantly pare down remedial works and attendant cost, when compared to retroactive compliance with the Building Regulations. Such assessments, particularly for medium-rise buildings constructed in recent decades under the auspices of Approved Document B, can be hugely beneficial for everyone concerned with a building's safety.

But the expert team of authors of PAS 9980 must never be mistaken for having established a heterodoxy and alternative source for compliance with fundamental standards. The true intended role of PAS 9980 - plain on the face of the Specification - needs to be understood by building owners, developers, professional consultants, as well as by contractors and anyone else involved with constructing new homes, carrying out remedial works and managing the risks arising from existing buildings.

If that understanding is inaccurate or unclear, that misapprehension may infect third party communications about PAS 9980 assessments. Parties may inadvertently send mixed messages to leaseholders and residents based on incorrect premises, leading to a risk of disappointment and disagreement in the future.

Those dealing with and talking about PAS 9980 assessments should remind themselves of what these assessments are, what they are not, their benefits and their utility - and, as Mark also alludes to, their subjective nature.