351.This section aims to ensure that the people with key responsibilities for the safety of regulated buildings are cooperating and coordinating with each other to help ensure the overall safety of the building.
352.All accountable persons for a regulated building must, so far as possible, co-operate and co-ordinate with each other when carrying out their duties under the Act and regulations made under it (subsection (2)).
353.If the regulated building contains a relevant HMO (defined in Part 2, section 78), accountable persons for the building must co-operate and co-ordinate with the duty holders (defined in section 79) for the relevant HMO when carrying out their duties under the Act and regulations made under it (subsection (3) and (4)). Section 91(4) places corresponding duties to co-operate and co-ordinate on duty holders.
354.An accountable person for a category 1 building must also co-operate with any special measures manager (see section 109) for the building, for the purpose of the manager carrying out their functions under the order (subsections (5) and (6)).
355.If a manager has been appointed under an order under section 24 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 to carry out “building safety functions” in relation to a regulated building, the accountable persons for the building must cooperate with the manager for the purpose of the manager carrying out their functions under the order (subsections (7) and (8); “building safety function” is defined in subsection (9)).
356.An accountable person for a regulated building must also co-operate with “responsible persons” under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, where that responsible person is responsible for premises that form part of the regulated building, or that are in the same structure or set of structures as the regulated building and lie (wholly or partly) above or below the building (subsections (10) and (11)).
357.This means, for example, that the accountable persons for a regulated building would be under a duty to co-cooperate with the responsible person for a shop that was below the building (see explanatory notes to section 3 and 4 which set out the meaning of “building”), for the purposes of the responsible person carrying out their duties under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (S.I. 2005/ 1541) (“the FSO”).
358.Section 121 amends the FSO to place corresponding duties to co-operate on responsible persons.
359.Subsection (12) provides that references to an accountable person in this section includes persons treated as an accountable person under section 36.
Commentary on Sections Part 1 - Safety of Buildings Containing Two Or More Residential Units Co-operation and Co-ordination Section 68 - Co-operation and co-ordination: duties of accountable persons