When you take your car in for its MOT, you know the engine, brakes, tyres and electricals are being checked to keep you safe on the road. The same kind of systematic check is now required for occupied higher-risk buildings in England under the Building Safety Act 2022 – specifically, the duty in Section 83.
Higher-risk buildings are currently defined as residential buildings at least 18 metres or 7 storeys high, with at least two residential units.
This is not about a one-off inspection. It is about ongoing vigilance. At Property Inspect, we believe the building risk assessment under Section 83 is best thought of as a structured health check for your building – designed to catch hidden hazards early, prioritise remedial action, and keep stakeholders safe and compliant.
- at regular intervals
- when there is reason to suspect the assessment is no longer valid
- or when directed by the Building Safety Regulator
In plain terms: your building has to be assessed, and then regularly reassessed.
What the “health check” looks like in practice
A robust building risk assessment should be systematic and evidence-based. Here are the main steps you should cover:
- Inspect stairwells and escape routes
These are critical evacuation routes and key to fire spread control. Are handrails secure? Are doors self-closing? Is signage clear? Have obstructions crept in over time? - Check structural cracks or signs of movement
Whether concrete or steel framed, look out for cracks at junctions, deflection, spalling, corrosion – even minor signs may point to deeper issues. - Survey communal spaces and plant rooms
Plant rooms house services that may aggravate fire or structural risk. Are service penetrations sealed, insulation intact, hydrants and extinguishers in place? - Assess fire-compartmentation and structural fire resistance
The overlap between structural risk and fire spread risk means you can’t check one and assume the other is covered. Guidance emphasises that these assessments often inform each other. - Assign a risk score and prioritise action
You’ll identify and score risks (e.g., high, medium, low) based on likelihood and consequence. A cracked balcony support may be high priority, whereas a cosmetic crack may be lower. The key is having a documented basis for prioritising repairs or mitigation. - Identifying the risk is step one.
Taking proportionate steps to control or remediate it is what demonstrates compliance in practice. - Document everything – it isn’t just for compliance
Under the Act, being able to demonstrate you’ve taken “all reasonable steps” is critical. The risk assessment must be “suitable and sufficient” for enabling the Accountable Person to comply with duties under Section 84.
One of the major misunderstandings we encounter is thinking: “We did the risk assessment once, job done.”
But Section 83 makes clear the duty is ongoing:
- at regular intervals – the building evolves, use changes
- whenever the Accountable Person suspects the assessment is no longer valid – after refurbishment, an incident, or major occupancy change
- at the direction of the regulator
In our experience, clients who treat the risk assessment as a periodic health check rather than a static report are better placed to manage “what-if” scenarios, avoid surprises, and present a clear audit trail.
Once you view it as a system, not a task, you benefit from early detection, more efficient maintenance spend, and stronger resident trust.
Some issues are critical, some less so. Risk scoring helps you decide where to act next:
- High risk: imminent threat of structural failure or major fire spread – immediate action required
- Medium risk: potential failure or spread, but controls in place – plan for remediation
- Low risk: minor issue – monitor but not urgent
By attaching risk scores, you can allocate budget, schedule works, and justify decisions. You can also use the scores to communicate with stakeholders: residents, insurers, finance teams. When you show the logic behind prioritisation, you reduce resistance and drive action.
For example: if delaying action on a structural crack will raise the risk score and increase remediation cost later, the business case becomes clearer.
At Property Inspect, we support you in turning this legislative duty into a managed process. We provide tools and workflows that allow you to:
- set up inspection checklists (stairwells, façades, structural elements)
- assign consistent risk scores
- schedule recurring assessments
- track remedial work
- generate reports for regulators or auditors
Our aim is to make your building risk assessment efficient, auditable and future-proof. The best-run building safety programmes are ones where assessment becomes part of routine operations, not an occasional scramble.
With more sections of the Building Safety Act now in force (including Sections 83 and 84), the regulatory spotlight is firmly on those managing occupied higher-risk buildings. The new regime emphasises accountability, documentation, and evidence of reasonable steps – not just ticking check-boxes.
Building safety can no longer be managed “as and when”. The expectation is continuous:
assess → prioritise → act → review → reassess
- Schedule your first full risk assessment under Section 83 as soon as reasonably practicable
- Use a structured approach: divide your building into zones (stairwells, plant, façades, flats, comms rooms)
- Develop your prioritised action list and update it as works complete
- Build a system for recurring assessments (e.g., annual review plus event-triggered reassessment)
- Leverage digital tools so inspection data and documentation feed into your golden thread
- Communicate clearly with stakeholders – transparency builds trust
Think of the duty under Section 83 as an ongoing safety discipline. Buildings change. Risks evolve. The assessment process must keep pace.
If you would like to see how Property Inspect can support your risk-assessment regime, we’d be glad to walk you through a practical, technically robust approach.
