Slaughter and May is advising the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (“DLUHC”) on the self-remediation terms to be entered into by major residential property developers and DLUHC (the “Self-Remediation Terms”).
The Self-Remediation Terms are a response to the Grenfell Tower fire, and they follow the public commitments certain developers made pursuant to the “Pledge Letter” in Q2 2022. Residential property developers who sign the Self-Remediation Terms will contractually commit themselves to, among other things:
- take responsibility for the remediation and/or mitigation of life-critical fire safety defects in buildings of 11 metres and above that the developer played a role in developing or refurbishing in the past 30 years; and
- reimburse various Government funds that were set up in response to the Grenfell Tower fire for the funding of certain remediation works.
DLUHC estimates that, under the Self-Remediation Terms, residential property developers will commit to more than £2 billion worth of repairs in aggregate.
The finalised Self-Remediation Terms were published by DLUHC on 30 January 2023, with DLUHC setting a six-week deadline for residential property developers to enter into the Self-Remediation Terms.
The Slaughter and May team was led by Jonathan Marks working closely with Senior Lawyer Amy Annan from the Building Safety and Inquiry Team at DLUHC.