The Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA) is part of the building safety legislation that was introduced in the wake of the 2017 Grenfell Tower disaster.
The government set this legislation to help protect leaseholders from the burden of remediation costs for historical safety defects.
The protection under the BSA only applies to “relevant defects “ in “relevant buildings”.
A relevant defect, broadly covers historical building safety defects, which cause a building safety risk from the spread of fire or collapse of the building or part of it, such as combustible cladding, or defective foundations, and must have created in the 30 years prior to the leaseholder protections coming into force, (meaning the defect had to be created from 28 June 1992 to 27 June 2022).
The definition of a relevant building is one that contains at least two dwellings and is at least 11 metres in height, or has at least 5 storeys, (whichever criteria is met first).
Leaseholders in 5 storey blocks may request a landlords certificate from LBI, however a certificate is only required if a landlord seeks to recover remediation costs relating to “relevant defects”, within the meaning of section 120 of the Building Safety Act 2022, from leaseholders in “relevant buildings”, defined in s117 of the Act.
If a property is in a “relevant building”, and any remediation costs relating to “relevant defects” are now not legally chargeable to the leaseholder of the property, given that any “relevant defects” would have arisen from “relevant works”, either undertaken or commissioned by the council.
Of course any other costs unrelated to “relevant defects” will still be chargeable, as per the terms of the lease.
I hope this helps. You can read further information here https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-building-safety-act
