Building Safety Act – Building Liability Orders

As is now well documented, the Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA) received Royal Assent on 28 April 2022, implementing widespread amendments that have been described as the biggest change to building safety regulation in a generation. A number of its provisions came into force two months thereafter, on 28 June 2022. Amongst these was one of the more controversial measures introduced by the BSA, the Building Liability Order.

In this article, we consider Building Liability Orders in more detail, including the rationale for their introduction, the potential subjects of a Building Liability Order, the test that the court will apply in deciding whether to make a Building Liability Order, and their impact on the historic legal doctrines of privity of contract and separate legal personality.