10 Key Housing Management and Property Litigation takeaways from the BSA Conference 2024

On 25 September 2024, Devonshires hosted their flagship Building Safety Act 2022 Conference. Following on from last year’s success, this year’s conference had a record number of attendees who heard our lawyers and guest experts discuss all things Building Safety. The conference covered a wide range of areas including the following from a Housing Management and Property Litigation perspective:

1. Roles of the Principal Accountable Person, Accountable Persons and Responsible Persons under fire safety legislation
2. Resident Access and Enforcement;
3. Leasehold Reform and Building Safety;
4. Resident Engagement Strategies;
5. Service Charges; and
6. Relevant Tribunal decisions in relation to building safety.

We heard from some fabulous external speakers including Stephen Evans of Five Paper, Kumari Mensah-Dapaah of Southern Housing and Anna O’Halloran from TPAS. We were also treated to a thought-provoking keynote closing speech from Dame Judith Hackitt leaving us positive about the future of building safety. So much useful information was provided on the day, but we set our ten key Housing Management and Property Litigation takeaways below: 

1. Since our last conference, Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA) has come into force making various amendments to the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and introducing a raft of duties for the BSA dutyholders (PAPs and APs).
2.  Section 117 of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 introduces amendments to the BSA 2022 regarding remediation costs under qualifying leases. The amendment to the existing law permits a “management company” to recover, via the service charge where the lease permits, legal and other professional costs incurred in connection with an application or a possible application for or relating to a Remediation Contribution Order (‘RCO’).
3. When fully in force, section 113 of the BSA will require landlords of HRB residential units to provide information about building safety to their tenants within demands for rent or service charge.
4. The BSA imposes duties on residents of HRBs regarding allowing access and in relation to their conduct around building safety. If a notice or request served by an AP is not complied with, then the AP can apply to the County Court for an order requiring the resident to provide information or allow access to the property. 
5. One of the main aims of the BSA is to increase resident engagement in relation to building safety. It does this via the new duties on residents and dutyholders which promote engagement between them and promote the participation of residents in making building safety decisions. An emphasis is placed on transparency and ensuring that residents feel safe and are aware of each party’s individual responsibilities and what part the residents play in ensuring that these responsibilities can be fulfilled.
6. The restrictions on landlords’ ability to pass down service charges are intended to protect innocent leaseholders. However, they do not apply to buildings under 11 metres. These buildings can suffer from the same defects as those above 11 metres and, in these circumstances, landlords could in principle pass down the cost of fire safety remediation works without restriction if the lease permits this.
7. The BSA introduced Remediation Orders ('RO') and Remediation Contribution Orders ('RCO'). In the last year, there have been a number of important decisions in the FTT and this area is developing fast. In RCO cases, FTT is taking a purposive approach and progressing applications with reasonable speed expedition. Co-operation between parties is expected and the landlord will likely assume the burden of costs of reports, remediation specification etc.
8. Section 93 of the BSA places a requirement on PAPs to implement a new complaints policy/procedure for their HRBs relating to ‘relevant complaints’. These are complaints made in relation to a ‘building safety risk’ or the performance of an AP of any duty under the Act/Regulations. A ‘building safety risk’ is “a risk to the safety of people in or about the building arising from either the spread of fire or structural failure (or other prescribed matter)”. Section 93 sets out the timescales for a PAP to establish and operate this new complaints process.
9. Dame Judith Hackitt left us with wise words ; “every element of every building is important, and everyone has a role to play….we need lots of leaders and champions….it has been a long journey and there is more to come – but the pace is not fast enough.. the direction is not going to change...priorities are what you do and where you spend the money.”
10. From our experience in advising and assisting clients in this area, the BSA continues to shift the landscape of the sector and there is much more to come with further regulation and, potentially, an amendment of the definition of a HRB. Do watch this space…

We remain at the forefront of advising on this ever-developing area of law so please do get in touch if you have any questions. If you would like more information on the above, please contact Zoe McLean-Wells or Hannah Keane.

If you would like any more information about any other topics discussed at our conference, have any follow up questions, or require any assistance in relation to building safety matters, please refer to our HMPL services menu for the appropriate contact.