Building Safety Act and maintenance contractors: what changes for records

Which buildings are higher-risk

Section 65 of the Act defines a higher-risk building, for the occupied-building duties in Part 4, as "a building in England that (a) is at least 18 metres in height or has at least 7 storeys, and (b) contains at least 2 residential units." GOV.UK's guidance adds that buildings used entirely as a hospital, care home, secure residential institution, hotel or military barracks are excluded from the in-occupation regime, and that a mixed-use building with at least two homes is in scope if it meets the height or storey test. Storeys below ground level and roof-top plant rooms are not counted.

The definition is wider for building work. GOV.UK's guidance on building control approval says that, for that purpose, a higher-risk building is one of at least 7 storeys or 18 metres that has at least 2 homes or is a hospital or a care home.

Most of what a maintenance contractor services is not a higher-risk building: offices, schools, shops, warehouses and low-rise flats are outside Part 4. The competence duties for building work, below, apply more widely.

Competence for all building work in England

Part 2A of the Building Regulations 2010 was added by the Building Regulations etc. (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2023, in force from 1 October 2023. It applies to "building work", which regulation 3 defines to include "the provision or extension of a controlled service or fitting in or in connection with a building" and the material alteration of one. A controlled service or fitting is one on which Part G, H, J, L or P of Schedule 1 to the Regulations imposes a requirement (reg 2).

• Before using anyone, a person proposing to use someone to carry out building work "must take all reasonable steps to satisfy themself" that the other person meets the competence requirement, or is in training and supervised (reg 11E(2)).
• Competence itself means "the skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours necessary" for an individual, and "the organisational capability" for a business, to carry out the work in line with all relevant requirements (reg 11F(1)).
• A contractor must not start building work unless satisfied the client is aware of the client's duties (reg 11L(1)), and must ensure their building work complies with all relevant requirements, give each worker under their control appropriate supervision, instructions and information, and report concerns about related work to the principal contractor (reg 11L).
• For work on a higher-risk building, the person appointing must also ask whether a serious sanction has occurred in the last 5 years, such as a conviction under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (reg 11E(2)(b) and (8)).

Routine servicing, where nothing is provided, extended or materially altered, is not in regulation 3's list of building work. Replacing a boiler or extending a hot water system can be. If you subcontract that work, your checks on the subcontractor are part of meeting regulation 11E: see subcontractor documents to check.

Higher-risk buildings: what the accountable person must keep

The accountable person is the person who holds a legal estate in possession in any part of the common parts or, without holding an estate, is under a repairing obligation for them (s72). A building can have more than one accountable person; one of them is the principal accountable person. Section 84 requires them to take "all reasonable steps" to prevent a building safety risk materialising and to reduce the severity of any incident. A building safety risk is a risk to people from "the spread of fire" or "structural failure" (s62).

Section 88 requires the accountable person to keep prescribed information and documents. The list is in Schedule 1 to the Higher-Risk Buildings (Keeping and Provision of Information etc.) (England) Regulations 2024. Two entries come straight from maintenance work. Both are limited to maintenance planned to comply with section 84(1), that is, to manage the risk of fire spread or structural failure. A routine boiler or booster set service is not in them unless the accountable person relies on it for that purpose:

• The planned schedule: "the schedule of any maintenance and repairs that are planned in relation to any equipment, device or materials" by or for the accountable person to comply with section 84(1) (Schedule 1, para 10(a)).
• The records: "a record of any maintenance of and any repairs undertaken to any equipment, device or materials" planned for that purpose, "where no more than 7 years have passed since the day on which the record was created" (Schedule 1, para 26(b)).

The standards for keeping that information are in regulation 7 of the Higher-Risk Buildings (Management of Safety Risks etc) (England) Regulations 2023. The information must be kept electronically so it can be transferred without loss or corruption, be accurate, be intelligible with any key needed to read it, be accessible promptly on request, be secure from unauthorised access, and "only changed in accordance with procedures which record the person who made the change and the date of that change". Regulation 7(2) sets the same electronic, accessible, secure and change-recorded standards for documents, such as the maintenance records.

These duties are the accountable person's, not the contractor's. In practice the accountable person can only meet them if the contractor's visit records arrive in a form that fits those standards: dated, signed, legible, electronic and not quietly edited afterwards.

Mandatory occurrence reporting

Section 87 requires the accountable person for an occupied higher-risk building to report prescribed safety occurrences to the regulator, and the principal accountable person to run "an effective mandatory occurrence reporting system". That system is defined as one "for the giving of information to accountable persons" (s87(6)), and regulation 6 of SI 2023/907 requires it to enable "the reporting and recording of incidents and situations by individuals" to the accountable person. A safety occurrence is an incident or situation relating to the structural integrity of, or spread of fire in, the building that, if not remedied, would be likely to present a risk of a significant number of deaths or serious injury to a significant number of people (reg 6(5)). The accountable person decides whether a report meets that test, notifies the regulator as soon as reasonably practicable and sends a full report within 10 days of the occurrence coming to their attention.

For a contractor, this means knowing the reporting route for each higher-risk building you visit. If an engineer finds something that could lead to fire spread or structural failure, such as a breached fire-stopping seal around pipework in a riser, it goes to the accountable person through that route, not only onto a job sheet.

Building work in an existing higher-risk building

GOV.UK says building control approval from the Building Safety Regulator is needed before "building work to an existing HRB, unless it consists only of exempt work, competent person scheme work, fibre optic cabling work or emergency repairs". Exempt work includes "most repairs, replacements and maintenance work (except heating systems, oil tanks, fuse boxes and glazing units)". Replacing a hot water storage system is exempt only for some systems under 15 litres. So replacing a heating system or a calorifier in a higher-risk building is not exempt. It needs a competent person scheme that covers it, or approval. GOV.UK advises asking the scheme provider whether it covers building work on higher-risk buildings.

An emergency repair can go ahead without prior approval, but GOV.UK says the regulator must be notified "by the end of the first working day after the repair work starts", and a regularisation certificate applied for afterwards. A copy of the emergency repair information must go to the responsible person under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 as soon as the work starts. GOV.UK gives a breakdown in plant equipment as one example of when an urgent risk may need an emergency repair.

Worked example: a 12-storey block with a commercial ground floor

A contractor holds the planned maintenance contract for the communal plant in a 12-storey block of 80 flats with shops on the ground floor: two gas boilers on a communal heating system, a cold water booster set and a pumped drainage station in the basement. The building is over 7 storeys with more than two homes, so it is a higher-risk building.

• Planned schedule: the contractor sends the accountable person the annual visit plan for each item and asks which items, if any, the accountable person relies on to manage fire spread or structural failure. Only those form part of the schedule in para 10(a). Fire-stopping where the plant room pipework passes through walls is a likely candidate; the boiler and booster set services on their own are not.
• Visit records: each completed record goes to the accountable person as a signed PDF on the day of the visit. Records for the items in the schedule are the ones the accountable person must keep for 7 years under para 26(b).
• A boiler replacement: this is heating work, so it is not exempt. The contractor checks with its competent person scheme whether it covers work in higher-risk buildings before quoting the timescale. Under regulation 11E the client must be satisfied the contractor is competent, and must ask about serious sanctions in the last 5 years.
• A find on site: while servicing the booster set, the engineer sees that a pipe penetration through the plant room wall has lost its fire-stopping. The engineer photographs it and the office reports it the same day through the building's occurrence reporting route.

Who does what

• The accountable person manages building safety risks, keeps the golden thread and reports safety occurrences to the regulator.
• The client for building work makes arrangements for compliance, checks competence before appointing, and applies for building control approval where needed.
• The maintenance contractor carries out building work in line with the Building Regulations, supervises its workers, provides records the accountable person can keep, and reports concerns through the building's reporting route.
• The engineer records what was found and done, with photos, and raises anything affecting fire spread or structure straight away.

What to record

• Building, plant item and location, so a record can be matched to the accountable person's list
• Date, engineer and signature on every visit record
• What was inspected, tested and replaced, with readings and results
• Defects found, how urgent they are, and who they were reported to and when
• For building work: the competent person scheme used, or the building control approval reference
• Any correction made after the record was issued: who made it, when and why

Keeping records in Field Suite

• Records that do not change: once a form is completed it cannot be reopened. A correction is made as a new revision with a written reason; the original is marked as superseded and both stay on file.
• Record check: each completed form carries a short code printed in its footer, made from its contents when it was signed, so a changed copy can be spotted.
• Equipment history: each item of plant has its own page with its job history, so a building's records can be gathered by item.
• Contracts: visits that repeat every set number of months, created as jobs before they are due. The contract's visit lines set out the planned schedule.
• Faults with photos: the engineer records what was found and how urgent it is; urgent faults alert the office at once.

See planned maintenance software, read about pumping station maintenance, or book a demo.

Field Suite is job management software. It does not keep the accountable person's golden thread. The Act, its regulations and the regulator's guidance decide what each dutyholder must do.

Questions

Does the Building Safety Act apply to every building I maintain?

The Part 4 duties apply only to higher-risk buildings in England. The competence duties in Part 2A of the Building Regulations apply to all building work in England.

Is a maintenance contractor an accountable person?

Not by being a contractor. An accountable person holds a legal estate in the common parts or is under a repairing obligation for them (s72).

Do I need approval to replace a boiler in a higher-risk building?

Heating system work is not exempt, so it needs building control approval from the regulator unless it is done under a competent person scheme that covers work on higher-risk buildings, or it is a genuine emergency repair notified to the regulator.

How long are maintenance records kept?

The accountable person keeps records of maintenance planned to comply with section 84(1) where no more than 7 years have passed since the record was created. How long you keep your own copies is set by your contract.

Sources

• Building Safety Act 2022, section 62 (meaning of building safety risk). https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/30/section/62
• Building Safety Act 2022, section 65 (meaning of higher-risk building). https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/30/section/65
• Building Safety Act 2022, section 72 (meaning of accountable person). https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/30/section/72
• Building Safety Act 2022, section 84 (management of building safety risks). https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/30/section/84
• Building Safety Act 2022, section 87 (mandatory reporting requirements). https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/30/section/87
• Building Safety Act 2022, section 88 (keeping information about higher-risk buildings). https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/30/section/88
• Higher-Risk Buildings (Keeping and Provision of Information etc.) (England) Regulations 2024, Schedule 1. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2024/41/schedule/1
• Higher-Risk Buildings (Management of Safety Risks etc) (England) Regulations 2023, regulation 6. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2023/907/regulation/6
• Higher-Risk Buildings (Management of Safety Risks etc) (England) Regulations 2023, regulation 7. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2023/907/regulation/7
• Building Regulations 2010, regulation 2 (interpretation). https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2010/2214/regulation/2
• Building Regulations 2010, regulation 3 (meaning of building work). https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2010/2214/regulation/3
• Building Regulations 2010, Part 2A (dutyholders and competence). https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2010/2214/part/2A
• Building Regulations etc. (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2023, regulation 1. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2023/911/regulation/1
• GOV.UK, Criteria for determining whether a building is a higher-risk building during the occupation phase (updated 28 May 2025). https://www.gov.uk/guidance/criteria-for-being-a-higher-risk-building-during-the-occupation-phase-of-the-new-higher-risk-regime
• GOV.UK, Building control approval for higher-risk buildings (updated 1 October 2026). https://www.gov.uk/guidance/building-control-approval-for-higher-risk-buildings

Last checked: 5 November 2026 against the sources above.

Checked in detail: Building Safety Act 2022 ss62, 65, 72, 84, 87 and 88 (commencement notes), SI 2024/41 Schedule 1 paras 1, 10 and 26, SI 2023/907 regs 6 and 7, Building Regulations 2010 regs 2, 3 and Part 2A (11E, 11F, 11L) and SI 2023/911 reg 1 on legislation.gov.uk; GOV.UK higher-risk building criteria (updated 28 May 2025) and building control approval for higher-risk buildings (updated 1 October 2026).

Field Suite is job management software for UK building services firms, not a consultancy. Your own risk assessments, contracts and advisers decide what applies to your work. Spotted a mistake? Email info@fieldsuiteapp.com and we correct it.