April 2024 marks the end of the 6-month transitional period for the new building control regime for works to Higher Risk Buildings (“HRBs”) introduced by the Building Safety Act 2022. To ensure continued benefit, as a reminder the following tasks must be completed before the end of the transition period:
- The initial notice submitted (and accepted) prior to 1 October 2023, must remain in force;
- Construction works must be “sufficiently progressed”, and the Local Authority has been notified of the same. For new HRBs, this means starting placement of permanent foundation or piling. For works to an existing HRB (including material change of use), this means work has “started”;
- Where the work is overseen by an approved inspector, the inspector has applied for registration as a Registered Building Inspector; and
- Building Control Authority is registered with the Building Safety Regulator as a Registered Building Control Approver.
The obligation for a building inspector to have applied for registration by 6 April 2024 (rather than to be registered), follows the period for competence assessment being extended to 6 July 2024. Building inspectors must, however, have enrolled in and/or commenced their competency assessments by 6 April 2024, and not failed the assessment for the second time.
If the above criteria are not met, the works will no longer benefit from the transitional arrangements, and Gateways 2 and 3 will apply. A hard stop will be applied at Gateway 2 whereby construction works cannot commence to HRBs until the Building Safety Regulator is satisfied that planning and design elements comply with building regulations.
Further, from 1 April 2024, the Building Safety Regulator may start requesting applications for building assessment certificates for occupied HRBs from accountable persons.
For more information on the transitional regime, please see our article below.
The Building (Higher-Risk Buildings Procedures) (England) Regulations 2023 and Transitional Works