The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) was warned about the financial health of Assent Building Compliance more than four months ago, Construction News can reveal.
A source with knowledge of the company attempted to contact the regulator in the summer, urging it to look into Assent’s financial strength, but did not receive a response.
In an email sent on 30 June, seen by CN, they said: “Assent BC are in serious financial difficulty”, and warned that the possible demise of subsidiaries and registered building control approvers (RBCAs) LB Building Control and Oculus would cause “significant disruption and damage to the industry and profession on a scale not seen since Aedis”.
Building inspection firm Aedis Regulatory Services went into liquidation in 2019.
Assent announced this week that it had ceased trading and on Thursday (6 November) the Official Receiver was appointed to wind down the companies, issuing a notice with information for employees, creditors and subcontractors.
Thousands of local building control applications overseen by Assent’s subsidiaries and around 10 assessments that LB Building Control was carrying out for the BSR now need to be taken over by new inspectors.
The June email said: “I strongly recommend an investigation is launched as a matter of urgency [into the state of the firm].”
The source, who was open with their identity in communications with the BSR, said the only response they received was to be told that their email had been forwarded to a different department.
They said that they received no follow-up questions, enquiries or requests for information from the regulator.
“I did not receive anything further,” they said.
“I was only trying to do what was right. I exactly foretold what would happen and yet – here we are.”
When registering as RBCAs, companies are required to demonstrate that they are financially viable “with a structure and resource model sufficient to effectively deliver your functions”, according to the assessment criteria for the profession, which are overseen by the BSR.
When contacted by CN about the issue, a BSR spokesperson said the regulator does not comment on matters relating to individual concerns raised with them.
The BSR re-sent a general statement issued on Wednesday (5 November) which said: “We are working to confirm the exact number, but we are currently aware of 10 HRB [higher-risk building] projects still held by [Assent subsidiaries] LB or Oculus under the pre-HRB transition model.
“We have asked the registered building inspectors [RBIs] involved in these projects to get in touch with us directly.
“We appreciate the importance of continuity and intend to secure resources to limit any delays. We have also asked RBIs who were working with us on the framework to contact us directly.”
This is not the first time that concerns have been raised in relation to the BSR’s oversight of the financial health of RBCAs.
Last year, the BSR was criticised after AIS Surveyors, also known as Approved Inspector Services and Building Control Special Services, went into liquidation just over a month after the new BSR-led registration scheme for RBCAs came into effect on 6 April 2024.
Companies House records showed the central London firm had issued two moratoriums to protect it from creditor action in 2023, once in July and once in December.
“It beggars belief [the BSR] thought AIS were in a good financial state in April and they went under the following month,” a building control expert said at the time.
The issue, and that of Assent BC failing to register as an RBCA as had been expected, caused the regulator to send an email alert urgently warning that work on an estimated 50 higher-risk projects needed to stop until it could validate applications for the schemes.
The moves were later blamed for worsening the BSR’s backlog of schemes.
LB Building Control nevertheless won a place on a higher-risk building framework for the BSR five months later.
Thursday’s notice from the Official Receiver appealed urgently for employees to contact it to return company cars or IT equipment, and asked for those owed money by the company, including subcontractors, to register as company creditors with proof of the debts owed.