Yesterday (21st September 2023) the Building Safety Regulator issued its “Charging Scheme” following the passing of the Building Safety (Regulator’s Charges) Regulations 2023 on the 6th September 2023. This Charging Scheme comes into force on the 1st October 2023.
The new Charing Scheme means that during the various phases of design, construction and on-going management of higher risk residential blocks, clients (as defined under the CDM regulations) and Principal Accountable Persons (PAP) will be required to pay the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) charges for various applications, assessments or inspections that are required under the Act.
The result of the Charges being applied by the BSR means that applications for Building Assessment Certificates, or notifying the BSR of a change to the Safety Case Report are going to have to be paid in order that a decision from the BSR is given.
The charges for Registration of a relevant building were already set back in April 2023 at £251 and the Regulator has made it clear that they will not register a building until the charge has been paid.
The most notable Charges outlined within the new Scheme for PAPs include:
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The assessment of a Building Assessment Certificate (BAC) application for any in-scope buildings - including the costs to BSR of carrying out any inspections required in connection with the application, and of establishing whether or not to grant the certificate. |
These charges are triggered when the BSR directs the PAP to apply for the BAC. |
£288 charge with the application PLUS, £144 per hour worked by BSR staff. PLUS, any costs to the BSR incurred from relevant authorities and other third parties (such as external advisors including fire engineering support, local and fire and rescue authority support). |
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The review of a Safety Case Report as may from time to time be required by BSR (i.e., not necessarily connected with the BAC process above. |
These charges can be triggered when or if the BSR calls in a Safety Case Report or with the PAP notifying the BSR that they have updated the safety case report. |
£144 per hour worked by BSR staff. PLUS, any costs to the BSR incurred from relevant authorities and other third parties (such as external advisors including fire engineering support, local and fire and rescue authority support). |
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The investigation of a PAP and/or Accountable Person (AP) |
These charges are triggered when the BSR becomes aware of a potential non-compliance by the PAP and/or AP(s), which could be by a variety of internal and external sources, for example: intelligence (including, for example, from complaints and reports), mandatory occurrence reporting (MOR) criteria, poor performance issues, near-misses, and whistleblowing. |
£144 per hour worked by BSR staff. PLUS, any costs to the BSR incurred from relevant authorities and other third parties (such as external advisors including fire engineering support, local and fire and rescue authority support). |
No guidance or information has been issued relating to the amount of time the BSR will take to complete their work, although earlier impact assessments, (now withdrawn and removed from the gov.uk website) suggested that an application for a BAC could take over 70 hours to complete.
It is therefore vital that PAPs:
- ensure that their BAC application documentation including the Safety Case Report and the Resident Engagement Strategy are as robust as they can be, are complete, i.e., contain as much information and justification as possible and meet all the guidance issued by the Regulator.
- ensure that they are supported by the right type of systems both technology and management and ensure that access to the evidence is as easy as possible to reduce the amount of time each application could take. and
- ensure that they budget for these charges.
Where a charge is payable to the BSR it is payable either:
- as an upfront cost with the application; or
- within 30 days from the date of the payment request.
Payments to the BSR may need to be completed before any decision or certification is given.
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