What is a higher-risk building?
A higher-risk building is a building that meets the criteria in the Building Safety Act regime, bringing it within the Building Safety Regulator's remit and the additional duties that come with it.
Whether a building qualifies turns on defined criteria about its height and its use. Establishing that is the first question for any residential portfolio, because everything else in the regime follows from the answer.
The criteria differ between the occupation phase and the design and construction phase, which is a distinction that catches people out when a building is being worked on.
Buildings outside the definition are not unregulated — the fire safety duties that apply to residential blocks apply regardless. The definition decides which regime, not whether there is one.
In practice
A portfolio where two blocks are in scope and nobody is certain which.
Scope depends on defined criteria about the building, and getting it wrong in either direction is expensive — unregistered if in scope, or applying a regime that does not bind.
It is a question of fact about each building rather than a judgement about risk.
Establishing it for a portfolio is the first piece of work, not the last.
What goes wrong in practice
- A portfolio never assessed against the criteria, so nobody knows which buildings are in scope.
- Assuming a building outside the definition carries no equivalent duties.
- Using the occupation criteria when the building is in construction, or the reverse.