Today (12th April 2023) the Government opened its portal allowing Principal Accountable Persons (PAP) responsible for high rise residential buildings to register these with the regulator and provide initial information. The principal accountable person is the person or organisation who owns or is accountable for the building’s safety. If the building has more than one accountable person (AP), the PAP is the one who is accountable for the external walls and structure of the building.
A high-rise residential structure has at least 7 floors or is at least 18 metres in height and has at least 2 residential units.
Initially the amount of information that is needed relates to the basic elements about the building, its height, the number of floors, number of units, age etc. as well as information about the PAP and other APs. Following on from registration PAPs will also be required to provide further. More in-depth information relating to the building, its use, its structure including specific details relating to the construction of the external walls and any attachments to the external façade. In addition, you will have to provide information relating to the energy supply and fire and structural safety systems.
All of this information will also help PAP’s when they start to assess the building’s risks and as part of the safety case report.
Failure to register an existing high-rise building before the 30th September 2023 could result in legal action being taken by the Regulator against a PAP which could result in substantial fines.
For support on safety cases and registration, click here to contact us.