The Penalties Of Non-Compliance With Building Safety Risks

Non-compliance with maintenance regulations isn’t just a minor oversight; it can lead to severe penalties that can disrupt operations, jeopardize your reputation and even the loss of life.  

At SFG20, the industry standard for building maintenance, it’s been our mission since 1990 to uphold compliance with both our legally up-to-date maintenance schedules as well as expert-backed educational resources.  

Don’t wait until it’s too late – this article will help you to familiarise yourself with what being compliant means, what the main risks of non-compliance are and what the penalties are from the BSR, as well as how you can achieve compliance with SFG20. 

What Does Being Compliant Mean In Relation To Building Safety?  

In basic terms, being compliant within the Facility Management industry is the adherence to a set of requirements or principles that will keep people safe, protect property and reduce risk. 

The highest level of compliance is Statutory Compliance. Statutory means something that is written in law, and therefore failure to carry out the instructions is an offence against the state. 

What Are The Risks Of Building Safety Non-Compliance? 

Prison Time 

In severe cases, non-compliance can result in imprisonment, with gross negligence manslaughter the worst charge that Building Owners and Facilities Managers can face, carrying a sentence of up to 18 years or more.  

Financial Penalties 

Organisations that fail to comply with building maintenance laws face substantial financial penalties including fines from the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) and further costs associated with rectifying non-compliance issues.  

In April 2024, directors of care company Care Pro (South East) Limited were fined £124,000 after pleading guilty to 12 fire safety offences under the Building Safety Act 2022. These offences included failures in firefighting and detection, general fire precautions, risk assessment, and maintenance duties.  

Contractual Breaches 

As maintenance contracts often include clauses requiring adherence to all applicable laws and regulations, failure to comply can result in disputes, legal action and financial liabilities for the parties involved. 

Reputational Damage 

Negligence can result in legal repercussions, which can severely damage your organisation's reputation and impact who wants to work for and with you. 

Psychological Damage 

Where negligence has caused injuries and/or fatalities, the psychological toll on the individual(s) responsible can cause significant stress and guilt, impacting mental health and job performance.  

As you can see, the risks of falling behind legislation are not to be taken lightly. If you'd like to learn more on this topic, make sure to read our detailed Top 5 Risks Of Non-Compliance article. 

What Are The Penalties Of Non-Compliance As Outlined By The Building Safety Regulator?

As part of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). the Building Safety Regulator's (BSR) Enforcement Policy Statement outlines their approach to enforcement when non-compliance, hazards, or serious risks are identified.  

The BSR’s enforcement actions are targeted towards those who are responsible for and best placed to control risks and ensure compliance, including clients, designers, contractors, landlords and accountable persons.  

This policy is applicable in England* and is part of the Health and Safety Executive's regulatory functions.  

The BSR emphasises that their enforcement methods are proportionate to the risks or extent of non-compliance and to the seriousness of any breach of the law, and that all regulators must adhere to this policy when enforcing the law.  

These enforcement methods include: 

• Providing written information regarding breaches of law  

• Verbal warnings 

• Requiring improvements in the way risks are controlled and managed 

• Requiring action to be taken to remedy non-compliance  

• Stopping certain activities where they create serious risks or where they do not comply with relevant requirements 

• Recommending and bringing prosecutions where there has been a serious breach of law  

• Seeking appointment of special measures managers when an appointed person for a higher-risk building fails to carry out building safety functions 

* Fire and Rescue Services (FRS), Local Authorities as building control bodies, Registered Building Control Approvers, Local Authority housing officers and the Office of Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) all regulate in buildings and residential properties and have their own enforcement policies and arrangements. 

What Are The Biggest Challenges Facing FMs And Building Owners When Trying To Achieve Compliance?  

If you don’t have the right resources, knowledge and competency in managing your estate and associated assets, this can all quickly snowball into non-compliance challenges.  

Below, we’ve listed the biggest compliance challenges in the Facility Management industry.  

Insufficient Record Keeping  

The most important aspect now in the post-Grenfell world is the Golden Thread of information.  

This means ensuring that you have detailed maintenance records showing both timings and the level of activity that WAS carried out, rather than what was PLANNED to be carried out.  

Loss Of Building Information 

If you change your provider and your asset information and maintenance requirements are incorrect or insufficient, the next provider may not have the skills and knowledge to manage the estate.  

This means that they may continue to ineffectively manage the assets in the same way as the previous provider. 

This is known as a hand-me-down or inherited maintenance programme, which may not be sufficient to ensure full compliance of the client’s estate. 

Time Restraints 

As a Facility Manager or Building Owner, it can feel impossible to juggle your day-to-day responsibilities with researching and keeping up to date with the latest legislation, not to mention translating this complex information into actionable tasks.  

The Penalties Of Using SFG20 Content Without A License 

In 1990, BESA recognised that the Facility Management industry didn’t have a standardised framework that organisations could follow in order to stay on top of their legal requirements.  

This is why SFG20, the golden standard for building maintenance speciation, was developed.   

Today, SFG20 remains the leading tool for staying on top of your compliance. However, it’s not sufficient enough to just have a historic copy of an SFG20 schedule such as a PDF.   

Ignorance is never a defence: you need an active SFG20 license to be able to prove compliance with SFG20 guidance in a court of law or HSE/BSR inspection or audit. 

The law is changing all the time, and with this comes renewed guidance. You’ll be able to find all of the latest, legally up-to-date maintenance schedules within our software counterpart Facilities-iQ, all developed and monitored by our full-time team of in-house technical experts. 

SFG20 empowers you and your team to:  

• Stay aware of and fully understand the extent of your legal obligations  

• Keep historic records of important information on both assets and the level of intervention that has been undertaken which can be safely shared both internally and externally  

• Create Maintenance Regimes which clearly demonstrate your processes and procedures to ensure compliance 

Nobody Is Safe From Non-Compliance Regulators 

Regulatory bodies are now tightening their grip on compliance, leaving little room for error.  

Being aware of and fully understanding your compliance responsibilities will not only help to safeguard your building and the welfare of others but also uphold accountability and allow you to mitigate any personal, reputational, costly and/or even fatal risks.  

At SFG20, you can trust in us to help you take back control of your compliance. To help you get started, we’ve created an Ultimate Guide To Compliance, packed with expert technical insights that you can take action from today.