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<p>The Building Safety Act 2022 protects leaseholders in buildings above 11 metres
in height or with at least five storeys from costs associated with historical building
safety defects. A leaseholder qualifies for the protections if, on 14 February 2022,
the property was their principal home, or if they owned no more than three UK properties
in total. The protections automatically transfer to future buyers if a lease is sold.</p><p>Those
responsible for historical building safety defects must pay to put them right. That
is why, where the building is owned by the developer of the building, or the building
owner is linked to the developer, then no costs related to historical defects can
be passed to any leaseholders; including commercial leaseholders. If the building
owner is not linked to the developer, commercial leaseholders can be charged for their
full share of remediation works, as per the terms of their lease.</p><p>Qualifying
leaseholders will be fully protected in law from cladding costs. In addition, the
costs for remediation of non-cladding defects and interim measures like waking watches
are subject to a firm cap. Once the leaseholder caps have been reached, landlords
will be unable to demand further contributions from leaseholders. Landlords will be
required to provide detailed evidence to leaseholders that they are entitled to pass
on costs. The Government is clear that landlords who attempt to continue charging
leaseholders once the caps have been met will be breaking the law and we will not
hesitate to use all possible levers to hold rogue actors to account.</p><p>The Government
has agreed with 45 residential property developers that they will fix life-critical
fire safety defects, including cladding, in all buildings above 11 metres that they
had a role in developing or refurbishing in the past 30 years. Where a responsible
developer cannot be identified, grant funding from either the Building Safety Fund
or the new 11-18 metre remediation fund will cover the costs of fixing unsafe cladding.</p>
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