Our Asset Management team was the first in the industry to put in place a swift and compliant process for supplying Landlord and Leaseholder certificates to adhere to strict government legislation.
The Building Safety Act 2022 was introduced in response to the Grenfell Tower Disaster. The aim is to make homes safer by providing residents and homeowners with increased rights, powers, and protections. Qualifying leaseholders can receive financial protection from the costs associated with remediating relevant historical building safety defects.
The Act also created new obligations, enforcement measures and provisions for the Building Safety Regulator, the Accountable Persons and the management of building safety risks. These included the introduction of the Leaseholder Deed of Certificate and Landlords Certificates, which are bound by prescribed timescales.
At the time of inception, our team had no precedence to follow as we were the first movers in the industry. This meant that the team, with legal guidance, had to dissect and interpret the government legislation to ensure we followed the guidelines set out to avoid potentially huge repercussions.
We also needed to ensure that we were set up to recognise and record any ‘trigger’ for a Landlord Certificate. This includes being made aware of a new relevant defect, notified of a sale, or via a formal request from the leaseholder. We liaised with managing agents, Right to Manage Companies, Resident Management Companies, developers, and relevant landlords, to put in place measures to ensure we were immediately made aware of any triggers.
We recognised that it was also crucial to ensure we had everything in place for the actual delivery of the service.
Ensuring compliance, fully understanding the process, and delivering multiple Landlord Certificates to leaseholders has been a challenge – especially as the team were trailblazers in the industry.
However, the result has been a huge success with over 700 Landlord Certificates supplied and over 1,000 Leaseholder Deed of Certificates received, reviewed and processed. We have complied with our clients’ obligations under the Act to ensure leaseholders are protected from potential costs of remediation, that they are able to sell their property without issue, and Government legislation has been fully followed.