Resident Engagement

At the heart of the Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA) is a requirement that landlords (identified as the Principal Accountable Person (PAP) or the Accountable Person (AP)) communicate with residents and listen to their concerns in an open and transparent way, providing the ability forresidents to be actively involved in decisions that may impact their safety. The starting point is a requirement for each PAP to develop and implement a Resident Engagement Strategy (RES).

The resident engagement requirements have been included in the Act in response to serious failures in the way that the Grenfell tenant management organisation (TMO) failed to engage with residents in the years leading up to the Grenfell Tower tragedy and the impact this had on the night of the fire.

The challenge today for landlords and their property managers is that the resident engagement requirements are extensive and challenging to deliver, and although the risk of a fire or structural failure occurring in a building is extremely low, the potential consequences of a failure to meet the requirements of the Act can be extremely serious for resident outcomes, and for the PAP. Failures can potentially result in a range of actions from enforcement notices to unlimited fines or criminal prosecution. It would consequently be foolhardy to ignore the requirements.

The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) has demonstrated, through extensive feedback provided in relation to Resident Engagement Strategies (RES) submitted to them, that they require these to mirror the exacting requirements set out in Sections 89, 91-94 and 96 of the BSA and the secondary legislation detailing the operation of these provisions. It therefore has to be assumed that once a RES has been drafted, the BSR will be looking to the PAP to meet the deliverables it has set out in the document.

So, what does the BSA require of the PAP and how challenging is it to deliver compliant resident engagement?

The PAP is required to develop and implement a Resident Engagement Strategy (RES), with a number of key requirements that must be included in the document, including:

• Consultation - Identify which building safety decisions residents will be consulted on and how their feedback will be obtained and used.

• Feedback - Detail the processes for collecting and addressing the concerns of residents and include ways that they can provide feedback, for example being able to raise a safety concern and escalate concerns via a complaints procedure.

• Information Provision - Outline the types of safety information to be shared and the methods of communication to be used.

• Regular Reviews - The PAP must review the RES at least every 2 years or more frequently if there is a change in circumstances.

• Distribution and Accessibility - The RES must be distributed to all residents over the age of 16, in a way that caters for their individual preferences and needs.

Translating these requirements into practice is proving to be challenging for many PAPs and their property managers. Many of those attempting to comply are delivering resident engagement across multiple platforms, resulting in some confusion for residents and potential compliance breaches for PAPs and APs. The challenge is compounded by the requirement to engage with residents in a way that caters for their individual preferences and needs. In many cases, this means delivering engagement in multiple languages which is both costly and difficult to meet.

To help PAPs and property managers deliver compliant resident engagement simply and effectively, Charles and his team have developed ItBox a landlord platform and resident app that brings all the RES requirements together in a single easy to use product: key features include:

• Generating a bespoke RES for each building.

• Providing the ability for users to translate content into multiple languages.

• Recording a resident engagement golden thread.

• Providing a reporting dashboard allowing the PAP to see which residents have engaged which enables targeting of those that have not.

The team at ItBox are all former property managers who have seen and understood a problem and developed a solution for it —a tech platform and app that makes it easy for landlords and property managers to deliver compliant Building Safety Act resident engagement.

If you’d like to learn more, contact charles@itboxhub.co.uk