Fire Safety Act – More Regulations on their way

If you own a flat or maisonette in England that you rent out, then I am afraid you are going to have to read this article as a new set of regulations are coming into force on the 23rd January 2023.

These are the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 and although in the main they are designed to cover high rise blocks, there are a couple of sections that apply to domestic buildings with two or more properties in the same building with a communal area.

So, if you have a flat in a building with no communal areas then this won’t apply.

But if you do, then you’ll need pay attention to Regulation 9 and 10. These make it a requirement that fire safety instructions are clearly displayed in the communal areas and include information on how to evacuate the building safely.  If any of this changes the information will need to be updated.

Secondly, information about fire doors must be provided to any occupiers of the building (this will include your tenants). This needs to include how to report any faults with the doors, not to keep fire doors open when they are not being used and that they should not meddle with self-closing mechanisms.

With both of these regulations you have 12 months to comply.

Where the building is more than 11m then there are additional responsibilities including checking communal fire doors every three months, and individual flat doors every 12 months.

The regulations talk about these requirements being done by a responsible person. That person could be a Block Management agent, the freeholder, your letting agent or you as one of the leaseholders. If we are letting the property for you, we will be asking for this information so we can pass it onto any prospective tenants.

If you need any further advice on this, please do contact us.

14.12.22 – Updated guidance has now been released which you can read here 

Please note the date this article was published as the law may have changed since it was posted. You should always seek independent legal advice if you are intending to rely on any of the contents.