UK Building Safety: 11 days left to register your higher-risk building before the 1 October deadline

Anyone responsible for the safety of a higher-risk building (over 18 metres, or 7 stories high, with at least 2 residential units) should have 1 October circled in bright red pen on their Calendar.

As well as being the date when a whole host of further provisions of the Building Safety Act 2022 come into force, it is also the deadline for registration of higher-risk buildings.

A further set of regulations were introduced last week and, while they don’t add much detail to the substantive regulations introduced back in April, they serve as a good reminder that the clock is ticking…

We set out a detailed breakdown of how to go about registering a higher-risk building in our earlier update but here is a recap on the key things you need to know.

Accountable person responsible for registration

The accountable person (the person responsible for the building’s safety) is responsible for registering the building.

If there is more than one accountable person, the “Principal Accountable Person” – the person responsible for the walls and structure of the building – must register the building

Initial registration

The government has created a portal to submit applications to register higher-risk buildings on its website.

All that you need for the initial application is confirmation that the building meets the height threshold for being “higher-risk” (over 18 metres or 7 storeys tall, with two or more residential units).  

The government portal allows you to input some information, and come back to your application to finalise it, so it’s well worth starting the process now, even if you don’t have all the information you need at the outset.

Key Building information

Within 28 days of registering through the government portal, the accountable person (or principal accountable person) then needs to provide the “Key Building Information” (or KBI). This is set out in detail in our previous update but in short, includes:

• Details of any ancillary buildings;
• The building’s use, and any change of use since construction;
• Information about the material used in the structure and exterior of the building;
• The number of basement storeys, and the number of floors served by each staircase;
• Details of the energy supply and storage system;
• Details of the evacuation strategy and the fire and smoke control equipment at the building.

Next steps

Time is running out to get buildings registered by the deadline. If you think you may be required to register, we can provide you with more tailored and detailed guidance, and help you through the registration process.

Authored by Lucy Redman and Katie Dunn.