One of the requirements under the Building Safety Act 2022 is for the Accountable Person (AP) to provide a ‘Golden Thread’ of Information which means keeping vital, up-to-date safety information about how a building has been designed, built and managed. A Pre Occupation Assessment is an important part of this Golden Thread’ and will help the AP in managing their responsibilities.

When a purpose built new block of flats is nearing the build complete stage there can often be pressure on the building owner to maximise occupancy levels. This means owners or tenants could move into the building as quickly as possible following the handover which will ‘trigger’ the legal requirement for the FRA to be completed. Sometimes however, fire proofing standards for new buildings during construction are not ‘completed properly’ and as the building has already become occupied then there could be a Fire risk to life as well as to the building.

The Pre Occupancy assessment would be completed as near to ‘hand over’ as possible allowing sufficient time for any remedial works to be completed.