Fire safety regulations and protections

Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022

Background to the regulations

In 2017, at Grenfell Tower, a high-rise block in West London, a tragic fire resulted in the deaths of 72 residents. This was the most serious loss of life in a single fire in the UK since World War 2.

The government immediately ordered a public inquiry into the fire. In October 2019, the Grenfell Tower Inquiry published the findings of Phase 1 of the inquiry.

The findings included many important recommendations to prevent such a tragedy from ever happening again. The government introduced new regulations that would bring the recommendations into force.

These regulations take the form of the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 and extend duties imposed by the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.

The regulations

The regulations apply regardless of whether the flats are subject to a long (for example 99 years) lease or are rented.

The regulations also apply to both flats that are used to accommodate the general public or a particular group of people. Such as in the case of sheltered housing for older people.

The Fire Safety (England) Regulations impose duties on the Responsible Person (link through to RP question) for any building which:

• contains two or more sets of domestic premises
• contains common parts through which residents would need to evacuate in the case of an emergency

The regulations apply to:

• parts of the building that are used in common by the residents of two or more domestic premises - for example communal corridors and stairways
• flat entrance doors
• the walls and floors that separate any domestic premises from other domestic premises - for example plant rooms
• parts of the building that are used in common by the occupants of two or more domestic premises
• plant rooms and other non-domestic areas of the building - such as tenant halls, offices, laundries, gymnasia and commercial premises
• external walls of the building - including doors or windows within an external wall, and attachments to an external wall such as balconies

Further guidance is available in the form of a video produced by the National Fire Chiefs Council explaining the regulations.

Leaseholder protections

Building owners must make their buildings safe. This includes fixing historical building safety defects - both in their contracts with you, and in law.

If you are the owner of a leasehold property, your lease will specify what you are legally liable for in respect of the costs for maintenance and repair.

Any provisions relating to historical safety defects will now be overridden by the applicable provisions in the Building Safety Act 2022.

The Act imposes new legal obligations on developers and building owners to protect leaseholders from paying for all, or some of, the costs of remediating relevant historical building safety defects.

This might include costs to replace unsafe cladding systems on the external walls of their building, or internal issues such as inadequate fire doors or alarm systems.

The deed of certificate is how you can demonstrate that you qualify for protections under the Building Safety Act.

The Insurance Broker Pledge relates to buildings insurance policies for residential buildings over 11 metres or 4 storeys with fire safety issues that have been made known to the insurance broker

More information is available on the government website.

Who is responsible for carrying out fire safety risk assessments in my building?

The law does not specify who can carry out a fire risk assessment. It states that the person must be competent enough to complete a ‘suitable and sufficient’ assessment of that building.

Responsibility for a fire risk assessment in your building could be with:

• the owner - also known as the freeholder
• a residents’ management company
• a Right to Manage company
• a managing agent

According to the law, a "responsible person" oversees fire safety in the shared parts of a building.

For blocks of flats or large houses in multiple occupation (HMO) this is usually the freeholder or management company.

They give some of these responsibilities to a managing agent. This can include arranging or reviewing fire risk assessments.

The responsible person, or agent, may carry out the fire risk assessment themselves or employ someone else to do it.

Page last updated: 27 February 2024