A fire risk assessment that identifies serious findings is not a problem, it’s the system working. What you do with those findings determines whether you are legally protected or legally exposed. This article sets out what the findings mean, what the law requires, and what a clear path forward looks like. Understanding the Risk Rating…
The DALA Group is growing. This month, we’ve welcomed three new faces across our Projects, Surveys and Sales teams. Each brings experience that strengthens our ability to deliver for clients. As demand for our services continues to grow, investing in the right people remains a priority. Here’s a closer look at the latest additions to…
Most HMO landlords have had a fire risk assessment carried out. Fewer have asked what that assessment is actually measuring against. The answer, in most purpose-built HMOs, is nothing documented — and that gap has real consequences for compliance, liability, and the safety of the people living in the building. What a Fire Strategy Is…
We assess external walls for a living. We open up facades, inspect cavity barriers, test insulation, and report on whether a building’s external wall system is safe. And there is a pattern we see over and over again, even on buildings that are sometimes only a few years old. Missing cavity barriers. Compressed fire stopping.…
You already know something is wrong. Maybe a fire risk assessment flagged your external walls. Perhaps an EWS1 assessment came back as B2. Maybe lenders are refusing leaseholders mortgages, and they’re pointing the finger at you. Whatever the trigger, you are now facing the same question most freeholders and managing agents eventually face: what do…
The Building Safety Act 2022 is more than three years on from Royal Assent. The occupied higher-risk building regime has been live for over two years. Safety case reports are being called in and submitted as part of the Building Assessment Certificate (BAC) process, and Principal Accountable Persons are, to varying degrees of preparedness, getting…
Two instruments. Two drivers. One external wall. If you manage a residential building in England and Wales, understanding the difference between these could be the gap between legal compliance and legal exposure, or between a sale completing and collapsing. Start Here: The Legal Obligation Most People Miss Before the EWS1 form and before PAS 9980,…
The built environment has long been a male-dominated industry. But that’s changing, and the women in construction driving that change are worth listening to. In this episode of Beyond Four Walls, three members of The DALA Group team, Maddy Lawrence, Charlotte Howlings, and Davinia Potterton, have joined Jodie Fraser on Beyond Four Walls to speak…
For leaseholders in an affected building, the wait for cladding remediation to begin can feel endless. Years of uncertainty – unable to sell, unable to remortgage, living with a fire safety risk they didn’t create and can’t resolve themselves. By the time scaffolding finally goes up, most residents have been through more than most building…
The Remediation Bill gives the headlines two numbers: end of 2029 for buildings above 18m, and end of 2031 for buildings between 11m and 18m. The deadlines are new. The remediation programmes those deadlines apply to, for the most part, are not. Across England, residential buildings are already in active remediation under the Cladding Safety Scheme, the Building…