Quick answer
The Building Safety Act 2022 protects many flat owners in England from the cost of fixing historic safety defects in taller blocks of flats. When you sell or buy a flat in one, the buyer's solicitor and lender ask for the landlord's certificate and the remediation position. We gather and check them.
Our charge for this work is "Dealing with Building Safety Act", £500 + VAT (£600 including VAT), added to our normal fee on a sale or a purchase. Your instant quote shows every line before you instruct us.
The short version
- The leaseholder protections cover flats in "relevant buildings" in England: taller blocks with two or more homes (the height test is below).
- A qualifying leaseholder pays nothing to fix unsafe cladding. Charges for other historic defects are capped, and are nil for many flats.
- On a sale, the landlord must give its landlord's certificate within 4 weeks of being told. It cannot charge you for it.
- Our "Dealing with Building Safety Act" line is £500 + VAT on each sale or purchase of such a flat, shown in your quote.
On this page
- What is the Building Safety Act 2022?
- Which flats does the Building Safety Act affect?
- Who pays for remediation under the Building Safety Act?
- What is a landlord's certificate, and how does it link to the deed of certificate?
- What is an EWS1 form, and do I need one?
- Can I get a mortgage on a flat with cladding issues?
- Selling a flat under the Building Safety Act: what happens?
- Buying a flat in a relevant building: what do we check?
- What does Building Safety Act work cost?
- Who oversees your matter
- What clients say
- Where we act
- Helpful guides
What is the Building Safety Act 2022?
The Building Safety Act 2022 is the law that changed how buildings are made and kept safe, mainly in England, and who pays to fix historic safety defects in blocks of flats. The protections cover defects from building work carried out in the 30 years before 28 June 2022 that cause a building safety risk (GOV.UK: definition of a relevant defect). GOV.UK has a summary of the whole Act.
| Part of the Act | What it does | Does it affect your sale or purchase? |
|---|---|---|
| Leaseholder protections (GOV.UK guidance) | Limits what qualifying leaseholders pay to fix historic safety defects, and sets up the landlord and leaseholder certificates. | Yes, for a flat in a relevant building. |
| Building Safety Regulator (GOV.UK) | Oversees the design, building and management of higher-risk buildings. | Not usually directly. It governs how the building is built and managed. |
| Building Safety Levy (GOV.UK guidance) | A charge on developers of new homes in England, from 1 October 2026. | No. Developers pay it, not people buying or selling a flat. |
When you buy or sell a flat, the part that matters is the leaseholder protections in Schedule 8 of the Act. A leaseholder is someone who owns a flat on a long lease. The protections took effect on 28 June 2022. The paperwork that goes with them is set out in the Building Safety (Leaseholder Protections) (Information etc.) (England) Regulations 2022.
Which flats does the Building Safety Act affect?
The protections apply to flats in a "relevant building": a building in England that is at least 11 metres high or has at least five storeys, whichever comes first, with at least two homes in it (section 117 of the Act).
- Height is measured from ground level to the floor of the top storey. Basements and roof-top plant rooms do not count.
- Storeys are counted from the ground floor up, so the ground floor is the first storey.
- A building the leaseholders own themselves is not a relevant building. That includes commonhold and blocks where the leaseholders bought the freehold together.
- The protections apply in England only, not in Wales.
From GOV.UK's definition of a relevant building, checked on 29 October 2026. Not sure about your building? Tell us the number of storeys when you ask for a quote, and we check.
Who pays for remediation under the Building Safety Act?
If your lease is a "qualifying lease", you pay nothing towards fixing unsafe cladding, and what you can be charged for other historic safety defects is capped. Remediation means the work to put a safety defect right. GOV.UK says a lease qualifies when all of these are true:
- It is a long lease, of more than 21 years, of a single flat in a relevant building.
- The leaseholder pays a service charge.
- It was granted before 14 February 2022. A lease that replaced or extended such a lease on or after that date, for example a lease extension, keeps the protection.
- On 14 February 2022 the flat was the leaseholder's only or main home, or they owned no more than three homes in the UK in total.
The protections pass to later buyers. If a flat qualified on 14 February 2022, whoever buys it later is covered too (GOV.UK leaseholder protections FAQ).
How much can a qualifying leaseholder be charged for non-cladding defects?
The cap depends on the value of the lease and where the flat is. Any charge must be spread over 10 years, and no more than a tenth of the cap can be charged in one year.
| Value of the lease | Greater London | Rest of England |
|---|---|---|
| Less than £175,000 | £0 | £0 |
| £175,000 to £324,999 | £0 | £10,000 |
| £325,000 to £1 million | £15,000 | £10,000 |
| More than £1 million but less than £2 million | £50,000 | £50,000 |
| More than £2 million | £100,000 | £100,000 |
Anything paid towards remediation since 28 June 2017, or since you became the leaseholder if later, counts towards the cap. For shared ownership, the cap is reduced in proportion to your share.
The value is not today's market value. It comes from the price paid, worked out with GOV.UK's method. A qualifying leaseholder also pays nothing for these defects if the building's owner on 14 February 2022, with its group, was worth more than £2 million for each relevant building it owned. And no leaseholder, qualifying or not, can be charged if the landlord was responsible for the defect or is linked to whoever was. A qualifying leaseholder also cannot be charged legal or other professional costs relating to liability for these defects (Schedule 8).
Caps from GOV.UK's leaseholder contribution caps and qualifying lease pages, checked on 29 October 2026. You can check your own position with GOV.UK's leaseholder protections checker. If a lease does not qualify, these caps do not apply to it.
What is a landlord's certificate, and how does it link to the deed of certificate?
They are the two documents that show whether a flat is protected. The leaseholder deed of certificate is a signed statement by the flat owner of the facts that decide whether the lease qualifies, such as whether the flat was their main home on 14 February 2022. The deed must be signed as a deed, witnessed by someone who is not a family member, and you can send one at any point without being asked. The landlord's certificate is the landlord's reply: whether it meets the £2 million test, whether it is linked to the developer, and so what it may recover.
- On a sale: once you tell the landlord you are selling, it must give you its landlord's certificate within 4 weeks.
- When the landlord asks you for a deed: its notice must give you at least 8 weeks to reply. You can ask for 4 more weeks, but only before the deadline.
- If you do not give a deed: the landlord can treat your lease as if it does not qualify.
- Cost: the landlord cannot charge you for sending a notice or a certificate.
Our guide to the leaseholder deed of certificate explains the deed in more detail: what it asks for and when to send it.
From GOV.UK's guidance on information leaseholders and building owners must give, checked on 29 October 2026.
What is an EWS1 form, and do I need one?
An EWS1 form is a one-page record, signed by a qualified professional, that a block's external walls have been checked for fire risk. EWS stands for external wall system. RICS (the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) publishes the EWS1 form so that building owners can show valuers and lenders the result.
The law does not require one. GOV.UK says an EWS1 form is not a government or regulatory requirement, nor a building or life safety assessment: whether one is asked for depends on the lender's policy. The form covers the external walls only. RICS says a form is valid for up to 5 years from its date, unless the external walls or attachments change significantly.
| Rating | What it means |
|---|---|
| A1 | The walls are unlikely to support combustion, and there are no attachments (such as balconies) with significant combustible materials. |
| A2 | As A1, but there are combustible attachments, and a risk assessment found no remedial work is needed. |
| A3 | As A1, but there may be costs of remedial work to attachments. |
| B1 | There are combustible materials in the walls, but the fire risk is low enough that no remedial work is needed. |
| B2 | There are combustible materials, and the fire risk is high enough that remedial work is needed. |
The building owner arranges an EWS1 form, not the flat owner. If a buyer's lender asks for one and there is none, we ask the landlord or managing agent what fire risk assessments exist.
Can I get a mortgage on a flat with cladding issues?
Each lender sets its own rules, so the buyer's lender decides what it needs. Many ask for the landlord's certificate and evidence of how any remediation is being paid for.
In December 2023, Virgin Money, TSB and Skipton Building Society joined other high street lenders in a statement. Subject to their normal policies, they will consider lending on flats in relevant buildings in England with building safety issues, where the building is being fixed by its developer, is in a recognised government scheme, or the leaseholder is protected by the Act, shown by a leaseholder deed of certificate (GOV.UK news, 18 December 2023).
We are not mortgage advisers, so we cannot say whether a lender will lend. Speak to your lender or a mortgage broker early, and tell them the building's height.
Selling a flat under the Building Safety Act: what happens?
- You tell us the flat is in a relevant building. Your quote then includes "Dealing with Building Safety Act".
- We tell the landlord you are selling and ask for its landlord's certificate.
- If you have not given a leaseholder deed of certificate, we help you complete it and gather the evidence it asks for. You sign it.
- We order the management pack, which covers service charges and planned works. Our guide to selling a leasehold flat and the management pack explains it.
- We send the certificates, any EWS1 form and the remediation information to the buyer's solicitor, and answer their questions from the documents.
Start early. The landlord's 4 weeks run from when it is told about the sale, so tell us as soon as you put the flat on the market. Our selling a house page explains the rest of a sale.
Buying a flat in a relevant building: what do we check?
- Both certificates, and whether the lease qualifies for the protections.
- What the landlord says it may recover from you, and any cap that applies.
- Whether remediation is planned, under way or finished, and who is paying for it.
- Any EWS1 form, and what your lender has asked for.
- The service charge accounts and any reserve fund set aside for building safety costs.
- The lease itself: its length, the ground rent and the service charge terms.
We report to you in writing before you exchange contracts. Our guide to buying a leasehold flat covers the other leasehold checks, and our buying a house page explains the purchase.
What does Building Safety Act work cost?
| What | Cost |
|---|---|
| "Dealing with Building Safety Act" | £500 + VAT (£600 including VAT), added to our normal fee on a sale or a purchase of a flat in a relevant building in England. A move with two such flats pays it on each side. |
| Our legal fee | Set by our leasehold scale (see our fees page) and shown in your instant quote. |
| "Dealing with Leasehold" | £150 + VAT, on every leasehold sale or purchase. |
| Landlord's certificate | Nothing. The landlord cannot charge you for it. |
| Management pack | Set by the landlord or managing agent, not by us. Your quote mentions it but leaves it out of the total. |
| Third-party costs (disbursements) | Listed separately in your quote, for example searches on a purchase. |
Set by the government, shown separately: Stamp Duty Land Tax and the HM Land Registry fee are not part of our fees. See GOV.UK for the Stamp Duty rates and HM Land Registry fees.
Our fees page explains how our charges work. Fees checked against our quote engine on 29 October 2026.
Who oversees your matter
Shah Ali
Senior Partner & Founder
Supervises our conveyancing team.
What clients say
Where we act
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Leicester office 3rd Floor, St George's House, 6 St George's Way, Leicester LE1 1QZ 0116 393 0334
Conveyancing in Leicester
Waterstone Chambers LLP, trading as Waterstone Legal, is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA No. 605949) and CQS accredited.
Helpful guides
This page is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice for your situation. Please speak to us before acting on it.