In January the First-tier Tribunal made a Remediation contribution order under s124 of the Building Safety Act. It has also made a Remediation order under s123, requiring:
- a “relevant landlord” (s123(3) of the BSA)
- to remedy, by a specified time, “relevant defects” (s120(2))
- having arisen in connection with “relevant works”, being works relating to the construction or conversion of the building within the “relevant period” of 30 years (ending on 28 June 2022) (s120(3); and
- which have caused, and continue to cause, a “building safety risk” (s120(5))
- in two blocks that were “relevant buildings” (over 11m tall with more than two dwellings: s117(2)).
In its decision, the Tribunal noted, amongst other things, that:
- it is important for any remediation order to be sufficiently precise so that the respondent can know what it must do to remedy the relevant defects (and for court enforcement purposes);
- although no standard or benchmark for work was specified in the Building Safety Act, in this case it was persuaded that the remediation works must comply with the Building Regulations applicable at the time the remedial work is carried out and, at the very least, a post-Works Fire Risk Appraisal of External Walls (FRAEW) pursuant to PAS 9980:2022 should not prevent a satisfactory Form EWS1: External Wall Fire Review from being issued;
- the Tribunal is a “no costs” jurisdiction (so that a party cannot recover its costs in pursuing the remediation order) save where a party has acted unreasonably in the conduct of proceedings.
The Tribunal also made an order under section 20C of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 that 80% of the landlord’s costs of the proceedings should not be passed on to non-qualifying leaseholders through the service charge (the qualifying leaseholders being protected against such costs payments by paragraph 9 of Schedule 8 to the BSA).
See: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/ media/64d9ebc63fde6100134a51a9/Combined_ Decision__Remediation_Order_2-4_Leigham_ Court_Road_FINAL.pdf
