The accountable person and principal accountable person: duties explained

In the occupation regime, responsibility for a higher-risk building's safety sits with the accountable person (AP) and, where there is more than one, the principal accountable person (PAP). This page explains who they are and what they must do. These are occupation-regime roles; the design and construction regime uses different dutyholders — client, principal designer, principal contractor.

Who is the accountable person?

An accountable person is an organisation or individual who owns, or has a legal obligation to repair, common parts of the building — typically freeholders, landlords, management companies or resident management companies.

Principal accountable person: where a building has more than one accountable person, one is the PAP — the one responsible for the building's structure and exterior. There is one identifiable PAP per building; it is usually an organisation (a commonhold association, local authority or social-housing provider), occasionally an individual. The PAP has additional whole-building duties. Where the PAP is an organisation, it must ensure BSR has an appropriate single point of contact; the other accountable persons retain responsibility for the parts of the building for which they are accountable.

Legal duty — Building Safety Act 2022, Part 4 · BSR guidance, "Safety in high-rise residential buildings: accountable persons"

The duties

Register the building with the Building Safety Regulator before people live there (the PAP).
Assess and manage building safety risks — the spread of fire and structural failure — and be able to show how.
Prepare and revise the safety case report (the PAP) and submit it when BSR directs.
Keep the golden thread of building information up to date.
Operate a mandatory occurrence reporting system — notice as soon as you can, then the full report within 10 calendar days of identifying the occurrence.
Prepare and update a resident engagement strategy and run a complaints system for building-safety issues.
Apply for a building assessment certificate when directed by BSR — the BSR's approach to this changed on 9 July 2026 (see the pillar guide).

Legal duty — Building Safety Act 2022, Part 4

How Complys helps today

Several of these duties are, at heart, about keeping the right records current and being able to produce them. Complys today helps an accountable person keep structured documents and evidence with owners and review dates, and track certificate and inspection expiry so nothing lapses — alongside wider property, fire and block management compliance. It does not currently provide a dedicated safety-case, golden-thread, occurrence-reporting or building-assessment-certificate module; a dedicated workspace of that kind is a potential future Complys product.

Accountable person duties — FAQs

Can an individual be the principal accountable person?

The principal accountable person is usually an organisation — a commonhold association, local authority or social-housing provider — but an individual can be the principal accountable person in some circumstances.

What if there are several accountable persons?

Each accountable person is responsible for the parts of the building for which they are accountable. Where there is more than one, one of them is the principal accountable person — the one responsible for the structure and exterior — with additional whole-building duties; where the PAP is an organisation, it must ensure BSR has an appropriate single point of contact.

Is the accountable person the same as the CDM principal contractor?

No. These are different regimes and different roles. The accountable person and principal accountable person are occupation-regime roles; the client, principal designer and principal contractor are the design and construction dutyholders. Do not conflate them.