Legal background Higher-risk buildings in occupation
Unlike the measures in design and construction, the more stringent building safety regime for higher-risk buildings in occupation is new and therefore does not require substantial amendments to current legislation.
	The Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 is amended to imply terms into leases for a term of seven years or more of dwellings in higher-rise buildings so that building safety measures, the associated costs and the related charges of the ongoing safety management of the building may be passed onto leaseholders and will not be reliant on the service charge provisions in each lease. The landlord makes a commitment to the leaseholder to carry out the necessary measures, and to observe the statutory requirements in relation to raising charges; and the leaseholder makes a commitment to the landlord to pay a fair share of reasonable charges and co-operate with the building safety regime.
	Further amendments being made to the existing section 20 consultation process in the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. These will set out additional steps the landlord must undertake when embarking on defined building safety remedial works. The landlord must take reasonable steps:
to ascertain whether any grant is payable in respect of the remediation works and if so to obtain the grant;
to ascertain whether all or any of the cost of remediation works may be met by a third party and if so to obtain monies from the third party; and
to ascertain whether any other prescribed kind of funding is available and to obtain such funding.
	These amendments are designed to offer further protections to leaseholders, ensuring that all other cost recovery avenues are appropriately explored first. This does not change the existing liability of leaseholders to pay for any building safety works.