The Building Safety Act

We can help you navigate the complexities of the fast-developing building safety regime initiated by the Building Safety Act 2022 (the ‘Act’). Taking a joined up approach, that draws on expertise from across our Construction and Engineering, Real Estate, Real Estate Finance and Real Estate Disputes teams, we help you to understand relevant obligations under the Act and identify and mitigate risks associated with the building safety regime.

We act for a wide range of clients including construction companies, contractors, developers and funders. Our expertise includes:

• Helping construction companies understand how risks arising from the Act should be allocated under their contractual documents, including what roles they are being asked to take on under the duty holder regime and how this interacts with their insurance coverage
• Advising developers on historical liabilities in existing developments, and how their responsibilities under the Act affect the planning, management and works to residential buildings.  Our experts also provide advice on the regulatory requirements prior to the eventual occupation by, and sale to, occupiers and investors
• Advising finance providers on how the Act affects the delivery of developments and options for mitigating the knock-on effect on funding, and on how the Act may impact the recovery of their loan facilities in the event of developer or contractor insolvency.

Where needed, we can also tap into expertise from our network of industry experts, including barristers, surveyors and construction consultants.

Our Real Estate lawyers, based in Kent but acting for clients nationally, form one of the largest and most experienced teams in the region. We offer commercial advice and a London style service that helps you achieve your objectives as swiftly and cost effectively as possible.

We place an emphasis on understanding your commercial strategies and tailoring our services accordingly. We act for a wide variety of commercial clients including businesses, individuals, house builders and developers, pension funds, retailers, restauranteurs, charities, lenders, local authorities and other public sector organisations.

Our Real Estate lawyers practice in areas including:

• Acquisitions and disposals
• Portfolio asset management
• Commercial and residential development
• Real estate finance
• Agriculture & rural affairs
• Planning
• Construction
• Real estate disputes
• The Building Safety Act.

The size of the team and level of experience and expertise that we have, means that we can deploy specialist Real Estate lawyers at all levels, as appropriate. We can also draw on support from the firm’s very strong Corporate, Commercial, Employment and Private Wealth teams.