Cladding Remediation and the Building Safety Fund: A 2024 Guide for Agents

Nearly seven years on from the Grenfell Tower tragedy, cladding remediation continues to dominate the agenda for managing agents, freeholders and leaseholders across England. Despite significant government intervention through the Building Safety Fund (BSF) and subsequent schemes, the pace and complexity of remediation remain a source of frustration for the block management sector. For managing agents, understanding the current funding landscape and their obligations under the Building Safety Act 2022 is no longer optional — it is a core competency.

Where the Building Safety Fund Stands Today

The Building Safety Fund was launched in 2020 to cover the removal and replacement of unsafe non-ACM cladding systems on residential buildings above 18 metres in England. It has since been supplemented by the Cladding Safety Scheme (CSS), which extends support to buildings between 11 and 18 metres, recognising that fire risk is not solely a function of height.

According to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), thousands of applications have been made to these schemes, but a significant proportion of buildings remain stuck at various stages of assessment, contractor procurement or works completion. Managing agents are frequently the ones fielding leaseholder queries about delays, and it is essential to be able to explain the process clearly: eligibility assessment, contractor appointment, works commencement, and practical completion each carry their own timelines and bureaucracy.

Agents should regularly check the Building Safety Fund portal status for buildings under their management and maintain clear audit trails of correspondence, as these records are increasingly scrutinised in tribunal proceedings and leaseholder disputes.

Leaseholder Protections Under the Building Safety Act 2022

One of the most significant shifts for managing agents has been the leaseholder protection provisions contained in the Building Safety Act 2022. These provisions fundamentally altered who can be charged for historical building safety defects, including cladding.

• Leaseholders in qualifying buildings are protected from costs relating to the removal of unsafe cladding entirely.
• Non-cladding defects (such as missing fire breaks or defective balconies) may still be recoverable from leaseholders, but only up to statutory caps, and only where the landlord meets the "contribution condition" tests.
• Landlords who are, or are associated with, the original developer cannot pass on costs to leaseholders at all.

Managing agents have a duty to correctly identify whether a building and its leaseholders qualify for these protections before issuing any service charge demands relating to remediation works. Getting this wrong can expose freeholders — and by extension, agents acting on their behalf — to legal and reputational risk. The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 has further reinforced transparency obligations around service charges, making accurate record-keeping even more critical.

The Role of Landlord Certificates and Deeds of Certificate

A crucial but often overlooked administrative step is the completion of Landlord's Certificates and Leaseholder Deeds of Certificate. These documents establish whether a leaseholder qualifies for protection and whether a landlord meets the contribution condition. Without them, remediation costs cannot lawfully be recovered from leaseholders in many circumstances.

Managing agents should proactively support freeholders in gathering the evidence required — including details of the freeholder's net worth, portfolio structure, and any developer connections — well before remediation works are scheduled. Delays in producing these certificates have, in practice, become a bottleneck that stalls entire remediation programmes, leaving buildings unsafe for longer than necessary.

Practical Steps for Managing Agents

Given the complexity, agents managing affected buildings should consider the following practical measures:

• Maintain a live remediation tracker for every building in the portfolio, noting fire risk assessment status, EWS1 outcomes, funding application stage, and contractor timelines.
• Communicate proactively with leaseholders — uncertainty breeds anxiety, and regular updates (even "no change" updates) reduce complaints and disputes.
• Engage early with fire engineers and PAS 9980 assessments to determine whether remediation is genuinely necessary or whether interim mitigation measures may suffice.
• Cross-check leaseholder protection eligibility before issuing any service charge demand connected to remediation.
• Keep thorough documentation for First-tier Tribunal purposes, as disputes over recoverability of costs are increasingly common.

This is precisely the kind of operational complexity where digital tools are proving invaluable. Platforms like WiseBlock allow agents to centralise building safety documentation, track remediation milestones, and maintain transparent, auditable records that can be shared instantly with leaseholders, freeholders and regulators alike — reducing the administrative burden that has historically slowed remediation programmes down.

Looking Ahead: The Building Safety Regulator's Growing Role

With the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) now fully operational under the Health and Safety Executive, higher-risk buildings face additional scrutiny through the new building control gateway regime and mandatory occurrence reporting. Managing agents of higher-risk buildings (those 18 metres or seven storeys and above, with two or more residential units) must now ensure a registered Principal Accountable Person is in place and that a robust Safety Case Report is maintained.

Industry commentary from sources such as the Arthur Online blog and MRI Software's UK blog has consistently highlighted that agents who invest early in digital compliance systems are better placed to meet these evolving regulatory demands, rather than scrambling to retrofit processes once enforcement action begins.

The direction of travel is unambiguous: greater transparency, stricter accountability, and less tolerance for delay. Managing agents who treat building safety compliance as a strategic priority — rather than a reactive burden — will be best positioned as the regulatory landscape continues to tighten.

Cladding remediation was never going to be resolved overnight, but with clearer funding routes, stronger leaseholder protections, and a more assertive regulator, the sector is slowly moving in the right direction. For managing agents, the task now is to ensure their processes, documentation and communication keep pace with the legislation.