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UK building and land safety, audits and compliance — practical notes, product releases and our reading of the regulations. Opinion and general information, not legal advice.

SAMRISK opinion and general information — not legal or professional advice.

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Satellite view of Headingley in Leeds, terraced streets with a high concentration of shared houses

Latest · Regulation and announcements

28 August 2026 6 min read

HMOs, the start of term, and the penalty that rose in May

Shared houses change hands in the last week of August, and the duties that follow the building do not pause for the handover. Here is what applies to every HMO whether it is licensed or not, what changed on 1 May 2026 when the maximum penalty went from £30,000 to £40,000, and what the record has to show.

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Satellite view of Redruth in Cornwall, a granite area of the south west where radon potential is high

27 August 20265 min readSite and land

Radon, and the three months that start now

A valid radon measurement takes three months, and the highest readings come when a building is shut up against the cold. Detectors placed at the end of August cover the heating season. Here is what the levels are, which duty applies to a workplace rather than a home, and what the record has to show.

Satellite view of Newcastle upon Tyne, a northern city with a large social and private rented housing stock

26 August 20265 min readRegulation

Excess cold, and the clock that starts on 30 November

Awaab's Law Phase 2 comes into force on 30 November 2026, and excess cold joins the hazards that carry statutory deadlines. It arrives a few weeks into the heating season, when reports cluster. Here is what the clock asks for, and what a landlord has to be able to produce.

Satellite view of the residential towers, balconies and multistorey car parks around Salford Quays and MediaCityUK, Greater Manchester

21 August 20267 min readRegulation and announcements

The Approved Document B rewrite, and the edition your building was built to

The Building Safety Regulator consulted on the biggest set of changes to England's fire safety guidance in years. It closed on 1 July and the proposals carry a target implementation date of 2 September 2029. Most of it applies to new work, which is exactly why the useful job for a manager is knowing which edition their existing building was designed against.

Satellite view of terraced streets in Selly Oak, Birmingham, an area with a high concentration of private rented housing

18 August 20267 min readRegulation and announcements

The landlord database, and the records it will ask you for

From late 2026 every private landlord in England has to register themselves and their properties on a government database, and hand over gas, electrical and EPC information as part of doing it. Letting or advertising an unregistered property carries a civil penalty of up to £7,000. The registration is straightforward. Finding the certificates is the part that takes time.

Satellite view of mature parkland trees and the surrounding residential streets at Sefton Park, Liverpool

18 August 20266 min readSite and land

Tree safety before the storms, and the record you can produce

The risk from trees is genuinely low, around a one in ten million chance of being killed by one in any year. That is exactly why the duty is about proportionate, recorded inspection rather than endless surveying. Storm season starts in September, and the walk round is worth doing in August.

Satellite view of Wembley Park in north-west London, a dense cluster of recently completed residential towers around the stadium

14 August 20267 min readRegulation and announcements

Gateway 3, and the records that decide when people move in

A higher-risk building can be finished, snagged and furnished, and still stand empty. Occupation waits on a completion certificate from the Building Safety Regulator, and that decision is made on paperwork rather than on brickwork. Freedom of information figures released this year show how long some of those decisions are taking.

Satellite view of Nine Elms in south London, a dense regeneration corridor of towers and construction sites along the south bank of the Thames

13 August 20267 min readRegulation and announcements

Construction products reform, and what goes into your buildings

The Construction Products Reform White Paper proposes a General Safety Requirement covering every construction product, not just the third of the market a designated standard reaches today. Most of the attention has gone to manufacturers and testing. The part that lands on whoever manages a finished building is quieter, and it is a records problem.

Satellite view of Easton in Bristol, long rows of Victorian terraced housing with rear gardens and back lanes

11 August 20267 min readRegulation and announcements

EPC reform, and the four metrics arriving in October

The single letter on an Energy Performance Certificate is being replaced by four separate metrics, with the government targeting October 2026 for the new-style certificate. For rented homes it matters more than a format change, because the EPC C standard landlords have to meet by 1 October 2030 is measured on two of those metrics rather than the headline grade.

Satellite view of Harehills in Leeds, dense rows of back-to-back terraced housing with rear yards and narrow service alleys

10 August 20267 min readRegulation and announcements

The new Decent Homes Standard, and the damp and mould criterion

The government confirmed the reformed Decent Homes Standard on 28 January 2026. It adds a fifth criterion for damp and mould, and for the first time it applies to privately rented homes as well as social ones. Compliance is required from 1 April 2035, which sounds distant until you look at what has to be evidenced by then.

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