Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022
In May 2022, the Government announced the commencement of the Fire Safety Act and new regulations that deliver fire safety improvements in multi-occupied residential buildings (HMOs)
These new duties for building owners or managers include:
Ensuring that fire and rescue services have the information they need to plan their response to a fire in a high-rise building
Providing residents with fire safety instructions and information on the importance of fire doors
For buildings over 11m in height, annual checks of flat entrance doors and quarterly checks of all fire doors in the common parts
For more information, visit GOV.UK.
Ignoring these changes will lead to claims for redress and in extreme cases, a criminal prosecution – so do not take these responsibilities lightly.
Since the Grenfell Tower fire, various changes have been made to the rules around fire safety for blocks of flats. These are mainly concerned with the removal of dangerous cladding, which was what caused the fire at Grenfell to spread so quickly.
Owners of flats in buildings with cladding now require an EWS1 form to sell or re-mortgage their property. A professional assessor must check specific fire safety standards for the main construction of the building, including inspecting the cladding.
Only one assessment is needed per building – i.e. flats don’t need to be individually assessed – and the EWS1 form is valid for five years.
At the end of April 2022, the Building Safety Act was passed, which will fundamentally change how buildings are designed, built and managed and bring forward “the biggest improvements in building safety for a generation.” (DLUHC)
And on 28 June 2022 protections came into force under the Act for qualifying leaseholders of properties in a building above 11 metres or five storeys. As long you own no more than three UK residential properties:
You won’t have to pay to remove dangerous cladding
The amount you can be asked to contribute to fixing other historical building safety defects is firmly capped
Developers that have signed the Government’s Building Safety Pledge will pay to fix all life-critical fire-safety risks, including non-cladding defects.
Some of the key changes include:
A new Building Safety Regulator will be created, to facilitate building safety in higher-risk buildings
There will be a new Building Control Regime for higher-risk buildings of at least 18m in height or at least seven storeys, with a new system of registration and supervision of building inspectors and ‘approvers’
New provisions for assessing and managing safety in higher-risk buildings
The Landlord and Tenant Act will be amended so landlords are obliged to comply with their building safety duties and any special measures orders, and they will be able to recover the costs through building safety charges payable by leaseholders (with certain protections)
See GOV.UK for more information.
Need a fire risk assessment template? Download our useful landlord fire risk assessment template here
