The Building Safety Act 2022: What UK Trade Contractors Must Know About Liability and Documentation

The Building Safety Act 2022 was Parliament's legislative response to the Grenfell Tower disaster and the subsequent Hackitt Review, which identified systemic failures in how the construction industry designs, builds, and manages buildings. For trade contractors working on residential properties — whether new build or refurbishment — the Act extends their legal exposure in material ways, most notably through a significantly extended limitation period for claims relating to defective dwellings.

The Extended Limitation Period Under the Defective Premises Act

The most immediately practical change for trade contractors is the amendment to the Defective Premises Act 1972. That Act imposes a duty on those who carry out work in connection with the provision of a dwelling to ensure that the work is done in a workmanlike manner with proper materials, so that the dwelling is fit for habitation when completed. Before the Building Safety Act 2022, the limitation period for bringing a claim under the Defective Premises Act was six years from the date of completion. The BSA 2022 extended this to fifteen years for new dwellings completed after 28 June 2022, and retrospectively extended it to thirty years for dwellings completed before that date, subject to a further qualification that the thirty-year period cannot expire before June 2032. This means that a plumber, electrician, or builder who worked on a residential property in 2010 may still be liable for claims relating to that work if those claims are brought before June 2032. The practical implication is that documentation of work carried out on residential properties must be retained for far longer than was previously considered necessary.

Higher-Risk Buildings and the Competence Regime

The Building Safety Act introduces a new regulatory regime for higher-risk buildings, defined as residential buildings of eighteen metres or more in height, or with at least seven storeys, that contain at least two residential units. For contractors working on such buildings, the Act creates a formal gateway process: construction cannot begin until a gateway one approval (planning permission) has been obtained, and a gateway two sign-off from the Building Safety Regulator — a new body within the Health and Safety Executive — is required before construction commences. A gateway three sign-off is required before the building is occupied. Throughout the construction process, a mandatory golden thread of information must be maintained: a comprehensive digital record of the building's design, construction, and any subsequent modifications, which must be handed over to the building owner or responsible person on completion and kept up to date throughout the building's life. For trade contractors working on high-rise residential projects, this means that every significant piece of work, every product specification, and every design change must be recorded in a format that can be included in the golden thread.

Competence Requirements for Key Duty Holders

The Act establishes duty holders — the client, principal designer, and principal contractor — who bear primary responsibility for ensuring that work on higher-risk buildings meets the new standards. For trade contractors who are neither the principal designer nor principal contractor, the key requirement is competence: the Act and its secondary legislation introduce requirements that individuals working on higher-risk buildings must be competent to perform the roles they undertake. The Building Safety Regulator and industry bodies including CITB, CSCS, and the relevant trade associations are in the process of defining competence frameworks for different trades. For plumbers and HVAC engineers working on high-rise residential projects, this may mean demonstrating relevant qualifications, continuing professional development, and accreditation with a recognised body. Contractors who cannot demonstrate competence may find that they are unable to secure work on higher-risk buildings as principal contractors and clients apply the new standards.

Documentation Requirements for All Residential Work

Even for contractors working on ordinary residential properties below the higher-risk threshold, the extended limitation period under the Defective Premises Act means that documentation practices should be revised. A contractor who worked on a house in 2015 and is now faced with a claim relating to that work needs to be able to demonstrate what work was carried out, what materials were used, how the work was inspected, and whether it was carried out in accordance with the applicable building regulations and standards at the time. Retaining the original quote or contract, the signed completion certificate, photos of the finished work, product specification sheets for installed materials, and any warranties or guarantees provided to the client creates a documentary record that can be used to defend a claim. Without such records, the contractor is reliant on memory and whatever documentation the client may have retained, which is a far weaker position. Given the fifteen-year limitation period, contractors should now treat records for residential work as needing to be kept until at least fifteen years after practical completion.

Fire Safety and the Remediation Fund

One specific area of focus for the Building Safety Act is fire safety defects in existing residential buildings, particularly those relating to cladding and passive fire protection. The Act established a building safety remediation scheme funded partly by contributions from larger housebuilders, and created remediation orders and contribution orders that courts can make against developers and others responsible for defective work. For individual trade contractors who fitted fire-stopping materials or passive fire protection products that are now found to be non-compliant, the Act creates additional routes for liability to be pursued. This is particularly relevant to contractors who worked on residential high-rises during the period of widespread non-compliant cladding installation. Where such work was carried out, specialist legal advice should be sought on the extent of potential liability and what records should be collated and preserved.

Scottish and Welsh Law Distinctions

Building safety law is devolved in Scotland and Wales. Scotland has its own building regulations regime under the Building (Scotland) Act 2003 and its own response to the Grenfell Review, including amendments to the Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004. Wales has implemented its own higher-risk buildings regime through the Building (Higher-Risk Buildings Procedures) (Wales) Regulations 2023, which creates a similar gateway process to England but with some differences in the detail. Trade contractors working across the border — for example, a Herefordshire contractor who takes jobs in Wales — need to be aware that the specific procedural requirements may differ even where the underlying policy objectives are the same. The general principle that liability for defective residential work is extended and that competence must be demonstrable applies across all three jurisdictions.

How QuotCraft Supports Documentation Retention

QuotCraft stores all documents associated with a project — quotes, contracts, invoices, variation orders, completion confirmations, and uploaded site photographs — in a secure cloud archive linked to the individual client and project records. For trade contractors working on residential properties, this means that the documentary record of every job is preserved in a single location and remains accessible for as long as you maintain your account. The platform's photo upload feature allows site photographs to be attached to project records with a timestamp, providing the kind of contemporaneous visual record that can be invaluable in defending a claim many years after a job was completed. As the Building Safety Act's implications become clearer through case law and regulatory guidance, having a robust and searchable archive of past project documentation will become increasingly important for any contractor working in the residential sector.