Your landlord has a duty under the 2005 Fire Safety Order to ensure fire safety in the common areas of residential buildings containing flats. This includes the exterior wall system on the building. Your landlord should therefore take the appropriate action to dela with defective or unsafe cladding.
The Building Safety Act prevents a landlord form passing on the cost of remedying defective cladding to qualifying leaseholders. If the landlord was responsible for the defect, for example he was the developer, he cannot pass the cost on to any leaseholders, qualifying or not.
If your landlord was not responsible for the defective cladding, they may be eligible for funding from either the Building Safety Fund or the Cladding Safety Scheme to pay for remediation.
Your landlord, managing agent or persons responsible for maintenance and repair of the building can apply to one of these funds.
The schemes cover different types of buildings and circumstances.
Building Safety Fund
The Building Safety Fund was first opened in June 2020 and reopened for new applications on 28 July 2022.
It is administered by the Greater London Authority and now only deals with buildings over 18 metres in the Greater London area.
Cladding Safety Scheme
The Cladding Safety Scheme deals with applications for buildings over 11 metres in the remainder of the country and between 11 and 18 metres in Greater London.
Applications
Applications are made by the person or organisation primarily responsible for repair work at the property, who are known as the ‘responsible entity’. This is usually the building’s freeholder, head leaseholder, social housing provider, or managing agents.
Applicants should provide an assessment of the risks posed by fire spreading over external walls to identify what, if any work, is needed.
Assessments should be carried out according to the new PAS 9980:2022 code of practice, which sets out a method for fire safety professionals to use their expert judgement to assess risk and appropriate mitigations. This could include removal and replacement of aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding.
Please refer to the Building Safety Fund or Cladding Safety Scheme guidance for more information.
More information you might find useful:
- Cladding Safety Scheme – what is it and how can I apply
- What are the leaseholder protections in the Building Safety Act 2022?
- What is the Building Safety Fund?
- Building Safety Fund guidance: GOV.UK
- Cladding Safety Scheme – information for leaseholders and residents: GOV.UK
- More Frequently Asked Questions on fire safety
