The role of the Accountable Person in the Building Safety Act 2022

The Accountable Person (or Principal Accountable Person) is a named, responsible individual who is required to assess all building and safety risks in an occupied HRRB and take all reasonable steps to prevent such risks materialising and to minimise their impact if they do, in fact, occur.  

A building safety risk is defined as “a risk to the safety of people in or about a building arising from the spread of fire, structural failure or any other prescribed matter”.  The AP is effectively responsible for ensuring that the building can be safely occupied based on its particular characteristics.

The Building Safety Act requires an AP to gather certain types of information about their building, known as the ‘Golden Thread of Information’. Examples include a completion certificate for refurbishment work, or the certification for key materials such as replacement cladding.

Some of this information is needed to register a building with the BSR, while some of it will need to be included in the building’s safety case report, to help show that all reasonable steps to manage building safety risks have been taken.

It’s possible for there to be more than one AP for the same building. However, there can only be one Principal Accountable Person.

Where there’s only one AP, the PAP will be that person. But when there’s more than one, the PAP will either be:

• the leaseholder or freeholder who has the physical right to occupy these areas (ie the person who holds a legal estate in possession of the relevant parts of the structure and exterior of the building); or
• the AP who has the obligation to undertake repairs to the structure and exterior of the building.

If the PAP cannot be determined, then the potential candidates and/or the BSR may apply to a Tribunal to determine the issue.

Buildings can have several APs to carry out various duties such as tenant engagement, facilities management etc.

Both the Property Manager and Maintenance Manager may be defined as APs. No model management structure is in place to check against, but ultimately, they should continue doing what they already are but must make sure there is an engagement with residents.

The duties of a nominated person in your organisation would be:

• Register the HRRBs and apply for a building assessment certificate
• Mandatory reporting and registration of occupied buildings to the new Building Safety Regulator
• Assess the building safety risks and prepare a Building Safety Case Report to be submitted to the Building Safety Regulator
• Establish a residents’ engagement strategy and complaints procedure
• Apply for a Building Assessment Certificate from the Building Safety Regulator
• Reporting mandatory occurrences to the building safety regulator
• Create, hold and maintain the golden thread of information of its buildings
• Setting up new files for new properties
• Demonstrating that fire risk assessments are undertaken and reviewed regularly, and any recommendations are undertaken in a timely manner

From the outset there might seem a lot, but once new procedures are set up e.g Establish a residents’ engagement strategy, a complaints procedure and mandatory reporting then the APs on specific sites can implement these procedures.

We can assist with writing these procedures and also assist with the registration of occupied buildings to the new Building Safety Regulator.

Once a building is called, companies have 28 days to submit. So, we strongly advise you to be prepared and tackle this in advance.

Assessing building safety is a complex interplay between fire and structural risk management and will require a competent person to conduct such an assessment.

After a building has been registered, the BSR will periodically assess performance through the Building Assessment Certificate process. Once directed to apply for a Building Assessment Certificate, your PAP must send a suite of documents, the ‘Golden Thread of Information’ which includes the Building Safety Case and Report, to the regulator to show how building safety risks are being managed.

The regulator will examine these documents and may send an inspector to the building to verify the details. If satisfied, the regulator will issue a Building Assessment Certificate for the building. A Building Safety Case report should be reviewed regularly as a live document but will last for up to five years initially.

The Building Safety Regulator proposes to follow a hazard-based approach to prioritising assessments within tranches that reflect the potential to cause harm to people and the consequences of an incident, were a serious fire or structural failure to occur. Buildings with multiple hazard factors are likely to be assessed earlier in each tranche.

Dependant on the height of your building and number of dwellings, it envisaged that you could be called within the 1^st or 2^nd year.

Prioritisation factors will be considered in combination and might include, for example, presence of a single staircase and no sprinklers, previous refurbishments that crossed multiple floors such as replacement heating, the hazards from mixed-use of a building (e.g. commercial businesses), and the type of external wall system.

The BSR’s final approach to tranching will be set out in its Strategic Plan. This plan will be subject to consultation and will be published soon. The matrix below came from the GOV.UK guidance ‘Building Assessment Certificate - transitional arrangements for existing buildings factsheet‘, updated 5th April 2022 but withdrawn on 25th July 2022. 

Introducing the AP and PAP will lead to a safer and more transparent industry, with the Government hoping it will drastically improve the level of compliance and accountability in relation to the safety of high-risk buildings.