The Building Safety Act and the smaller landlord

The Building Safety Act 2022 has a reputation as tower-block law, and most landlords with a couple of houses or a handful of flats have filed it under someone else’s problem. That instinct is half right.

The Act’s heaviest machinery really is aimed at high-rises and the people who run them. But parts of the regime reach much further down the market than most smaller landlords realise, and one of them can cost a portfolio landlord tens of thousands of pounds. Here is where the lines actually sit.

The part that genuinely is someone else’s problem

In England, the Act’s headline regime applies to higher-risk buildings: those at least 18 metres tall or with at least seven storeys, containing two or more residential units. These buildings must be registered with the Building Safety Regulator, which since 27 January 2026 operates as a standalone public body rather than a unit inside the Health and Safety Executive. Each one needs a principal accountable person, a safety case report and a resident engagement strategy.

If you let ordinary houses, or flats in a low-rise block, none of that chapter is yours. You will not be registering a building, appointing an accountable person or writing a safety case. That needs saying plainly, because plenty of smaller landlords have paid consultants to worry about duties they never had.

The 11-metre line, where the Act starts reading your name

The second regime is the one smaller landlords miss. The Act’s leaseholder protections apply to any relevant building of at least 11 metres or five storeys containing at least two dwellings. That is a far lower bar. A mid-rise block in an ordinary suburb clears it easily, and many buy-to-let flats sit inside one.

The protections shield leaseholders from the cost of fixing historic safety defects, broadly those created between 28 June 1992 and 27 June 2022. But they only shield you fully if your lease is a qualifying lease, and the test is where portfolio landlords come unstuck. The lease must have been granted before 14 February 2022, and on that date the flat must have been your only or principal home, or you must have owned no more than three dwellings in total.

Own four or more, and your leases in these buildings are generally non-qualifying. Cladding remediation is still protected for qualifying leaseholders, and non-cladding costs are capped for them, in most cases at £10,000 outside London and £15,000 inside it, spread over ten years. A non-qualifying landlord enjoys none of those caps and can be billed for non-cladding remediation through the service charge in full. On a block with serious defects, that is the difference between a nuisance and a five-figure invoice per flat.

There is paperwork even where there is no bill. If you sell or remortgage a flat in a relevant building, expect to complete a leaseholder deed of certificate, and your building owner owes you a landlord certificate setting out who carries the remediation liability. Conveyancers now treat both as standard, and missing certificates stall sales.

The fire duties that apply at any height

The third reach of the Act is the least noticed. Section 156 amended the Fire Safety Order from 1 October 2023, so the responsible person for any building containing two or more sets of domestic premises must now record a fire risk assessment in full, whatever the building’s height. A landlord who owns a Victorian house converted into three flats is squarely inside that duty for the common parts.

Sitting alongside it, the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 require fire safety instructions to be given to residents in all multi-occupied residential buildings, and in buildings over 11 metres they add fire door information for residents, quarterly checks of communal fire doors and annual checks of flat entrance doors.

What 2026 adds to the picture

Three changes are worth a diary note, and one is already live. Since 6 April 2026, responsible persons in higher-risk buildings, and in blocks over 11 metres without a stay-put strategy, must have evacuation plans in place for residents whose disability affects their ability to escape.

From 30 September 2026, new residential blocks over 18 metres will need a second staircase under amendments to Approved Document B.

And from 1 October 2026, the Building Safety Levy lands on new developments of ten or more homes. These are mostly developer and high-rise obligations, but they will feed through to service charges, insurance and valuations on the blocks where smaller landlords own flats.

One boundary worth knowing: everything above describes England. Wales began its own dutyholder regime on 1 July 2026 with local authorities as building control, and Scotland runs a separate system entirely, so cross-border portfolios need separate advice.

Three checks worth doing this month

First, know your heights. For every flat you own, establish the building’s storey count and height in metres, because 11 and 18 metres are now the two most expensive numbers in residential property.

Second, count backwards to 14 February 2022. How many dwellings did you own on that date? The answer decides whether your leases qualify for the cost protections, and it is the first question a buyer’s conveyancer will ask.

Third, if you own a converted house split into flats, the recorded fire risk assessment duty is already yours, whatever the height. It is the cheapest of these obligations to meet and the easiest for a council or insurer to check.

The Building Safety Act does not treat all landlords alike, and it was never meant to. The smaller landlord’s job is to know which lines apply, prove it on paper, and stop losing sleep over the parts that genuinely belong to someone else.

Bio: Stefan Gauci Scicluna, founder of Auren Institute and lecturer in management, writes on compliance, training and the UK and Malta regulatory environment.
Sources
• Building Safety Act 2022, legislation.gov.uk
• GOV.UK, criteria for being a higher-risk building during the occupation phase
• The Law Society, Building Safety Act 2022: key terms and definitions
• LEASE (the Leasehold Advisory Service), leaseholder protections guidance
• GOV.UK, Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022: fire door guidance
• The Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) (England) Regulations 2025, legislation.gov.uk
• GOV.UK, Building Safety Regulator establishment as a standalone body, January 2026
• RWK Goodman, Building Safety Act 2026: key developments