Recording the Building Safety Levy through Gateway 2, commencement and completion

Where the levy sits in the gateway regulations

SI 2025/1236, amended the same day by SI 2026/1034, inserted levy fields into the higher-risk building procedures in SI 2023/909. It did not amend the occupied-phase instruments. It is not an annual charge on an occupied higher-risk building, and it does not change how the regulator assesses whether a design meets the functional requirements.

The charging information is required where the higher-risk building work is major residential development: at least 10 dwellings, or at least 30 purpose-built student accommodation bedspaces, net of units already there (SI 2025/1236 reg.6), and the work provides dwellings or student bedspaces in a residential building. In that case the Gateway 2 application has to include the levy charging information, and that evidence also has to go to the collecting authority the same day (SI 2023/909 reg.4(1)(f), inserted by SI 2025/1236). If the application was made before 1 October 2026 and has not been resubmitted, or the work is not in that class, record why levy information was not required. Do not treat every Gateway 2 pack as levy-bearing.

An application made before 1 October that is invalidated or rejected, and then resubmitted on or after 1 October, can still be in scope. A variation of an application that was itself made before 1 October is not.

The commencement notice then carries whether levy information was provided or an exemption was recorded (SI 2023/909 regs 9(3A) to (3C) and 17(3A) to (3C)). A later change-control application for work that is itself major residential development can need the information again (reg.21(2)(g) and (3) to (6)). At Gateway 3, where levy information was required at application, the client’s statement has to show a notice of no charge that has not been cancelled, or that the levy has been paid in full (reg.40(1)(g) and (3A) to (3C)). The regulator withholds the completion certificate until the collecting authority confirms it.

What you can now record

These records are on every plan. They sit in project settings, next to the payment fields that were already there: liability, amount paid, payment date and receipt URL, readable in the client portal.

You can now also store the building-control application date and a free-text exemption reason. An advisory label follows those entries. If you have written an exemption reason, the label says the project is exempt and repeats the reason. If there is no application date, it asks you to record one rather than guess. A date before 1 October 2026 is labelled as submitted before the levy. A date on or after that day is labelled as “levy may apply”, unless you have marked the project not liable and have not given a reason, in which case it asks for the reason. The label never blocks a workflow and never calculates an amount. It uses the date you typed. It does not ask the regulator whether an earlier application was rejected. If you resubmit on or after 1 October, record that later date.

The Gateway 2 checklist includes “Building Safety Levy information included in the application, or exemption recorded”. The Gateway 3 checklist includes “Building safety levy liability statement (only where levy information was required at application)”. Neither item is a hard gate that stops you exporting a pack. The client remains the person named on those items. The submit dialog on Gateway 2 and Gateway 3 reminds you that the levy information has been required since 1 October 2026. The reminder is not a calculation.

A commencement notice record stores the notice date, your reference, whether levy information was provided, an exemption was recorded, or it was not applicable, an exemption reason, the date a levy liability notice was received, and notes. You can attach documents already on the project, such as the liability notice or a notice of no charge, from a search of that project’s documents. You still give the commencement notice to the regulator.

On a change request you can set a major-change flag yourself when the change meets the reg.6 test. The platform does not count dwellings or bedspaces. The flag is not the fuller classification of changes into recordable, notifiable and major. That wider classification is not what shipped.

The 14-day duty-holder notice is a different duty

SI 2023/909 reg.29(6) already required notice to the regulator within 14 days when the principal contractor, sole contractor, principal designer, or sole or lead designer changes. That clock did not start on 1 October 2026. The new log exists because teams were keeping the fact of the notice in email.

The log stores the role, the outgoing name, the incoming name, the appointment date, and the date the notice was sent. There is no document picker on that card. Saving the row does not send the notice.

What these records are not

They are not a calculator of the rate, the previously-developed-land discount, or the difference between a dwelling and purpose-built student accommodation. SI 2026/1034 corrected those rules. You still work them out with the collecting authority and with the guidance on GOV.UK.

They are not a payment channel. There is no integration with HMRC or with the collecting authority. They are not a filing channel. The application, the same-day levy evidence, the commencement notice, the duty-holder notice and the completion statement are still given by the duty-holder.

They are not golden-thread information. BSA s.58 is the levy. The golden thread remains BSA s.88, SI 2023/909 Part 4 during the works, and SI 2024/41 once the building is occupied. Keep the levy papers on the project. Do not file them as if they were the keep-list.

• Major residential development: at least 10 dwellings, or at least 30 purpose-built student bedspaces, net of units already there
• Gateway 2: levy charging information in the application, and the same evidence to the collecting authority the same day, where that test is met
• Commencement notice: record whether levy information was provided or an exemption was recorded, then still give the notice
• A resubmission on or after 1 October 2026 can be in scope even if the first application was not. Record the later date
• Gateway 3: the client’s liability statement, and no completion certificate until the collecting authority confirms it, where levy information was required
• Duty-holder change: 14 days under reg.29. The log is evidence that you sent the notice

Conclusion

The legal position on 1 October was already clear: qualifying applications can attract the levy, and a completion certificate waits on the collecting authority. The operational gap was that the evidence lived in inboxes. Record the application date you are actually relying on, keep the commencement notice and the duty-holder notice dated, and do not let a status label stand in for the notice you still have to give. The 1 October explainer is at threadsovereign.co.uk/blog/building-safety-levy-now-live. The gateway guide is at threadsovereign.co.uk/gateways.