LATEST NEWS & UPDATES

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BUILDING SAFETY 

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It has been announced by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) that a Fire Safety Reinsurance Facility has been set up to help to increase insurance market competition to cover properties affected by combustible claddings and other fire safety issues

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The Facility will operate through a reinsurance panel led by reinsurance giant Swiss Re and is expected to run for three to five years whilst the necessary works are undertaken to make buildings safe

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ABI have stated that Leaseholders should contact the person or company responsible for arranging their Buildings insurance cover, who can then discuss the facility with their broker or insurer

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CALL FOR EVIDENCE

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The Government has launched a Call for Evidence as to how the Building Safety Act Protections work where Lease is jointly owned (i.e. there is more than one named Leaseholder)

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The Call for Evidence includes the following statement:

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"How the protections currently work where a lease is jointly owned:

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• The law allows for properties to be owned by up to 4 separate individuals (which can include corporate bodies). Where a leaseholder owns other dwellings, the BSA extends the protections to include a person’s principal residence, and up to 2 other dwellings (in the UK).

• Where the lease is jointly owned, then the protections apply where any leaseholder owns no more than two additional dwellings in the UK.  However, where the same joint leaseholders own each dwelling, then the same cap will apply, i.e. there is a limit of up to two additional dwellings in the UK.

• If the additional dwellings are leasehold flats in relevant buildings, and in England, then the protections will extend to those dwellings.  Note that the leaseholder protections only apply to leaseholds in England, and, if the cap is exceeded, i.e. a leaseholder owns more than 3 dwellings in the UK, then only the principal dwelling will have the benefit of the leaseholder protections.

• This has the effect that two people who own their principal home jointly, but their other properties individually might own up to five dwellings (two each in addition to the principal) which qualify, but if they own all their properties jointly, they would only be permitted to have 3 dwellings which qualify and once that cap was exceeded, it is only the principal dwelling which gains the protections"

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If you are potentially affected by this, details as to how you can respond to the Call for Evidence can be found via this link:

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You will need to be quick!

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The call for evidence will only run from Thursday 21 March 2024 to Friday 5 April 2024

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SECOND STAIRCASES

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On March 29th the Government updated its guidance calling for second staircases in all new tall residential buildings over 18 metres in height from 30 September 2026

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