What are my building owner's legal obligations?

Building owners must make their buildings safe. This includes fixing historical building safety defects - both in their contracts with you, and in law.

If you are the owner of a leasehold property, your lease will specify what you are legally liable for in respect of the costs for maintenance and repair.

Any provisions relating to historical safety defects will now be overridden by the applicable provisions in the Building Safety Act 2022.

The Act imposes new legal obligations on developers and building owners to protect leaseholders from paying for all, or some of, the costs of remediating relevant historical building safety defects.

This might include costs to replace unsafe cladding systems on the external walls of their building, or internal issues such as inadequate fire doors or alarm systems.

More information on building owner responsibilities can be found online.

Page last updated: 24 November 2023