UK registration deadline approaching for more than 12,000 High Rise Buildings

From 1st April it will be a legal requirement for Accountable Persons in control of existing High Rise Residential Buildings (of which there are approximately 12,500 in the UK), to register their building with the new Building Safety Regulator. The final deadline for registration is 1st October. Chapman Taylor's experienced technical team has prepared some guidance below.

Building owners and those responsible for the management of existing High Rise Residential properties will need, from April, to comply with the Building Safety Act requirements. We have prepared some guidance below that might be helpful.

The purpose of registration

The purpose of the registration is so that the Regulator can record the number and arrangement of these buildings prior to a more detailed assessment of their safety. The intention is to make those detailed assessments of all the buildings in order of their risk profile within the next five years.

Accountable Persons refers to the organisation or person who owns or is accountable for the building. They are legally responsible for repairing or maintaining common parts of a building, for example, the exterior and structure, corridors or lobbies.

New HRB Buildings which reach completion after 1st October 2023 will be required to register on completion and will be part of the new process for Gateway 3 of the Building Safety Act 2022 leading to a certificate allowing the building to be occupied.

Basic information required for registration

Building name, address, and postcode. There may be requirements to identify individual blocks and their details, and any associated uses such as commercial or community spaces.

Building height, in metres. From the lowest adjacent ground level externally.

Number of floors in the building, counting floors above any basement level. A basement does not count as a storey if some part of the basement ceiling is below adjacent ground level. Basements may be noted separately.

Who is the principal Accountable Person?

Who are the Accountable Persons?

Which parts of the building are they responsible for?

The year the building was completed (fully constructed).

For new builds, confirmation of your completion certificate.

Information on the Cladding / external wall materials was previously a requirement for registration in order to allow the Regulator to assess the risk priority for a detailed safety review of the building - it is not clear if this is still going to be a requirement.

The subsequent detailed safety assessment which will form a Safety Case Review on a building will need to include a wide range of information and it may be prudent for Accountable persons to start assembling this as soon as possible.

Chapman Taylor is a global practice of award-winning architects, masterplanners and interior designers with experience in every major industry sector. We design Residential High Rise buildings of all tenure types and have extensive design expertise working with Modern Methods of Construction, especially volumetric systems. Our schemes are designed to meet or exceed the requirements of new and developing legislation.

We intend to continue our current services as Principal Designer under the CDM regulations and start to offer the new Principal Designer Services under the Building Safety Act. Our experienced technical team which supports architectural teams across our UK studios is building greater expertise in Fire and Structural Safety and bringing that knowledge to our projects, including High Rise Buildings.

For further information please contact Peter Hegarty using the contact details that follow.