London Fire Risk Assessments are duty bound to ensure our clients are up to date with any changes in Fire Safety Legislation.

Fire Safety Act -Addendum – Updated 18 May 2022

The Fire Safety Act clarifies the parts of a premises that under the Fire Safety Order (FSO)

The FSO applies to all non-domestic premises in England and Wales. These include multi-occupied residential buildings such as blocks of flats although individual flats are excluded.

Responsibility for complying with the FSO falls on the Responsible Person which may be the freeholder, Management Company or Managing Agent depending on local arrangements. Check if you are a Responsible Person using the self-assessment identification guide

The new legislation clarifies that where a building contains 2 or more sets of domestic premises, the FSO applies to:

the building’s structure and external walls (including windows, balconies, cladding, insulation and fixings) and any common parts

all doors between domestic premises and common parts such as flat entrance doors (or any other relevant door)

The Fire safety Act came into force on 16 May 2022.

The Act clarifies the Fire Safety Order to make it clear that Responsible Persons must consider these parts when conducting Fire Risk Assessments. If you contract out this work, you must make sure that those engaged to complete the Fire Risk Assessment include those elements detailed above, as your are responsible for complying with the FSO and liable for any necessary remediation.

As a Responsible Person you are responsible for overseeing the removal or reduction of fire hazards in your building and for implementing reasonable measures to ensure the safety of all residents, those employed to work in the building and visitors to the building.

Fire and rescue authorities can issue enforcement notices if they decide that Responsible Persons or Duty Holders have failed to comply with any provisions of the FSO. They can prosecute or serve alteration or prohibition notices if they identify that failing to comply with those provisions puts people at risk of death or injury from fire.

This guide has been issued under Article 50 of the Fire Safety Order.

If you would like more information or would just like to discuss the updated Fire Safety Act then contact London Fire Risk Assessments.

Alternatively if you would like to book a Fire Safety Risk Assessment confident in the knowledge we are up to date with Fire Safety changes then call 0781 8888626 London or 07824 185293 Manchester or click here.

Changes to Fire Safety Regulations which will ‘hit the streets’ on 12th May 2022!

Our Fire Risk Assessments carried out on Premises with Two or more Residential Dwellings now include provision for the additional information required by the Fire Safety Act and Fire Safety Regulations 2020 which was introduced on the 19th of March 2020 by the Home Office in the form of a new Fire Safety Bill to improve Fire Safety in certain Residential Premises.  

This bill received Royal Assent on the 29th of April 2021 and is known as the Fire Safety Act 2021 (FSA 2021) and is due to ‘hit the streets’ around 12th May 2022.

The additional information required includes the Building’s structure and External Walls and Communal parts.  

It includes all doors between a Domestic Premises and the Communal parts, External Walls and doors and windows in those walls, and anything attached to the Exterior Walls, including Balconies. 

The additional information required also concerns the provision of a Secure Information Box, Internal Plans of the Building, Lifts and Firefighting equipment. Other considerations include Wayfinding Signage, Information to Residents which includes information in regards to Fire doors and the requirement for Fire door checks by the Responsible Person, including checking the presence and operation of Self-Closing devices. 

We are announcing this, not only to assure our Clients that we are keeping up with the changes in Fire Safety Regulations but that we are, in this instance, ‘ahead of the game’. Call 0781 8888626 for more information alternatively click here

Some London Flats, Maisonettes and Houses which are not Private, Individual Dwellings and are sub-let may be required to have an Additional Licence for their London Borough!

If your property is in the following London Boroughs – Barnet, Brent, Camden, Ealing, Enfield, Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith & Fulham, Haringey, Harrow, Havering, Hounslow, Kingston upon Thames, Lewisham, Newham Redbridge, Southwark, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest, as from November 2020, there are additional licensing schemes in place.

The Housing Act 2004 gives Local Authorities the power to introduce additional HMO licensing schemes, enabling them to require the licensing of what is termed as HMO’s, Houses in Multiple Occupation, that do not meet the criteria for mandatory licensing.

On 12th February 2019 Haringey Council designated the whole Borough to be subject to additional HMO Licensing. The scheme became operative on 27th May 2019 and effectively extends licensing to all HMO’s in the borough by requiring the licensing of HMO’s occupied by three or four persons, and Section 257 Houses in Multiple Occupation.

A Section 257 House in Multiple Occupation is a Building converted into self-contained Flats where the works of conversion do not comply with the Building Regulations 1991 or subsequent regulations in force at the time of conversion, (or which has not been retrospectively upgraded to comply) and where less than two thirds of the flats are owner-occupied.

As a Premise which is licenced, these “traditional” HMO’s and the identified 257 Houses, require a Fire Safety Risk Assessment

This is not a scheme to generate more business, but London Fire Risk Assessments felt we had an obligation to identify this because, if the property is required to have, what is termed as an Additional or Selective License, and there is a failure to comply it is a criminal offence that can result in prosecution and a Fine, or Civil Penalty, of up to £30,000.

Information has been collected from London Property Licensing www.londonpropertylicensing.co.uk/additional-licensing

If you wish to discuss this further with one of our Fire Safety Risk Assessors then call us now on 0781 8888626 or click here