The Building Safety Act for landlords: what applies to your property and what to do

The Building Safety Act 2022 affects most landlords in England through four routes: it protects many leaseholders, including buy-to-let landlords, from paying for historical fire safety defects in blocks of 11 metres or more; it tightened fire risk assessment duties for anyone responsible for the common parts of a building with two or more homes; it created a registration and safety regime for higher-risk buildings of 18 metres or seven storeys; and it gave leaseholders and others new routes to make those responsible pay for repairs. Which of these applies depends on what you own, not on whether you own it personally or through a company.

If you let a house with no shared parts, very little of the Act reaches you directly. If you let a flat in a block, own the freehold of a converted building or run an HMO, at least one part almost certainly does. This guide takes each in turn, then sets out what is changing under the government’s 2026 remediation Bill.

Which parts apply to which landlords

You own a leasehold flat in a block 11 metres or taller: the leaseholder protections apply, and you should have a leaseholder deed of certificate ready.

You own the freehold of a block or converted building with two or more flats: the fire safety duties apply to the common parts, and if the building is 11 metres or taller you have landlord’s certificate duties and limits on what you can recover through the service charge.

You run an HMO with shared areas: the fire safety duties apply to those shared areas.

You own or manage a building 18 metres or seven storeys tall with two or more homes: the higher-risk building regime applies, usually to the freeholder or management company rather than to individual flat owners.

You let a single house: the Act changes little for you directly, though the wider repair and safety rules for rented homes still apply.

Leaseholder protections in blocks of 11 metres or more

Schedule 8 of the Act limits what a landlord can charge leaseholders through the service charge for historical safety defects in buildings at least 11 metres high or with at least five storeys. A leaseholder with a qualifying lease pays nothing towards remediating unsafe cladding, and their contribution to other historical defects is capped at £10,000, or £15,000 in Greater London, spread over ten years. Some pay nothing at all, depending on the flat’s value and the building owner’s net worth on 14 February 2022.

A buy-to-let landlord qualifies if they owned no more than three UK properties on 14 February 2022, even though none was their home. You prove it with a leaseholder deed of certificate, and if your landlord asks for one and you miss the eight-week reply deadline, the lease can be treated as unprotected. Landlords with four or more properties on that date lose the cap on their rental flats, but still cannot be charged where the building owner or a company connected to it caused the defect.

Lenders still ask for an EWS1 form on many affected blocks, so the protections help with the bill but not always with a remortgage or sale. Our guide to freeholder vs leaseholder explains how the rest of the costs in a block are split.

Fire safety duties for buildings with common parts

Section 156 of the Act amended the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 from 1 October 2023. The Fire Safety Order applies to the common parts of any building with two or more homes, including blocks of flats, converted houses and the shared areas of HMOs, and the person in control of those areas, usually the freeholder, the managing agent or the HMO landlord, is the responsible person.

Since October 2023 the responsible person must record the whole fire risk assessment in writing, not just its significant findings, whatever the size of the building. They must also record who carried it out, record the fire safety arrangements, keep a UK address on file, and pass the records on to anyone who takes over responsibility. In any building with two or more homes, they must give residents clear information about the fire risks identified, the measures in place and how to contact the responsible person, and they must cooperate with any other responsible person in the same building.

The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, made under the separate Fire Safety Act 2021, sit alongside these duties. In any block with two or more flats, residents must be given fire safety instructions and information about fire doors, and in buildings over 11 metres the responsible person must check communal fire doors every three months and make best endeavours to check flat entrance doors every year. If you run an HMO, these duties sit on top of your licensing conditions, not instead of them.

Higher-risk buildings of 18 metres or more

A higher-risk building has at least two homes and is at least 18 metres tall or has at least seven storeys. Every occupied higher-risk building must be registered with the Building Safety Regulator, and since October 2023 a new one cannot be occupied until it is. Each must have an accountable person, normally the freeholder or the company responsible for the structure and common parts, who must assess and manage building safety risks, keep the building’s golden thread of safety information, prepare a safety case report, run a resident engagement strategy and handle safety complaints.

These duties rarely fall on someone who owns one flat in the building. If you let a flat in a higher-risk building, you and your tenant are residents for these purposes: you must give reasonable access for safety work, and your tenant must not interfere with fire safety equipment such as doors, alarms and sprinklers. Tell your tenant about these rules at the start of the tenancy.

Making those responsible pay

The Act gave the First-tier Tribunal power to make a remediation order, requiring a landlord to fix a relevant defect by a set date, and a remediation contribution order, requiring a developer, landlord or connected company to pay towards the cost. Leaseholders, councils, fire authorities, the regulator and, since 2023, management companies can apply. It also extended the time limit for claims under the Defective Premises Act 1972 to 30 years for work completed before 28 June 2022, and to 15 years for work completed after.

What is changing: the 2026 remediation Bill

The government introduced the Building Safety (Remediation of Unsafe Cladding etc) Bill in the House of Commons on 14 October 2026. As introduced, it would create a legal duty to assess, mitigate and remediate unsafe cladding on buildings of 11 metres or more, placed on the parties with repairing obligations, with criminal penalties for failing to comply and an offence of obstructing someone assessing or fixing a building. It would let councils or Homes England do the work and recover the cost, set up a register of buildings over 11 metres, and remove the time limit for applying for a remediation contribution order.

The Bill is still going through Parliament and may change before it becomes law. For freeholders of affected blocks, it turns remediation from a funding question into a legal deadline. For leaseholder-landlords, the practical effect should be faster works and fewer stalled sales. A separate Building Safety Levy on new residential developments took effect on 1 October 2026 to help fund remediation; it is charged on new residential development, which can include conversions that create new homes, rather than on homes that already exist.

What to do now

From working with landlords who own leasehold flats, we find the Act causes most trouble when a landlord discovers it in the middle of a sale or remortgage, with a lender, a buyer and a building owner all asking for documents at once. Each of these steps takes minutes now and saves weeks later.

Check the height and storey count of every block you own in. If it is 11 metres or five storeys, the leaseholder protections and certificates apply; if it is 18 metres or seven storeys, it should appear on the Building Safety Regulator’s register.

Complete a leaseholder deed of certificate for each qualifying flat, and keep the Land Registry title and your count of UK properties on 14 February 2022 with it.

If you control common parts, make sure the fire risk assessment is recorded in full, names the assessor and is shared with residents in the form the law now requires.

Keep every certificate, fire risk assessment, EWS1 form and remediation letter in one place. August’s compliance checklist and document storage keep them alongside the rest of each property’s records.

Frequently asked questions

Does the Building Safety Act apply to my buy-to-let house?

Mostly not. The leaseholder protections and the higher-risk building regime only apply to multi-occupied buildings, and the Fire Safety Order duties only apply where there are common parts. A single house let to one household is covered by the other safety rules for rented homes, such as gas, electrical and smoke alarm requirements.

Does the Building Safety Act apply in Wales and Scotland?

The leaseholder protections and the higher-risk building regime apply in England. Wales has passed its own Building Safety (Wales) Act 2026, and Scotland runs a separate system. The fire risk assessment changes in section 156 amended the Fire Safety Order, which covers England and Wales.

Can I pass remediation costs on to my tenant?

No. The Tenant Fees Act 2019 limits what you can charge a tenant in England to rent and a short list of permitted payments, and service charges or remediation bills are not on it. Any cost you bear as a leaseholder comes out of your rental income.

What is the difference between an 11 metre and an 18 metre building under the Act?

Eleven metres, or five storeys, is the threshold for the leaseholder protections and for extra fire door checks. Eighteen metres, or seven storeys, makes a building with two or more homes a higher-risk building, which must be registered with the Building Safety Regulator and have an accountable person.