Fire Safety Act 2021: What You Need To Know

The Fire Safety Act 2021 introduced a number of changes to the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (“RR(FS)O”), the most important of those (for conveyancers) being the amendment to article 6. Article 6 describes the extent to which the RR(FS)O applies to domestic premises. Originally it did not apply to domestic premises at all, except for communal areas in blocks of flats. The result of article 1 of the Fire Safety Act however is that it now covers “the building’s structure and external walls and any common parts”, “all doors between domestic premises and any common parts”, “doors or windows in the external walls” and “anything attached to the exterior of the walls (including balconies)”.

All of this means that all blocks of flats, including those with no common parts (such as maisonettes and converted houses) are within the scope of part 2 of the RR(FS)O, so that the freeholder (being the “responsible person”) must comply with part 2.

The main practical implication is that, under article 9, freeholders of buildings previously not subject to the RR(FS)O must now carry out a Fire Risk Assessment on the building and must “regularly” review it. It is not clear how often it needs to be reviewed, but probably only if there is a change to the building or its use, or to legislation surrounding building safety, or if there is new science which highlights new dangers.

Failure to comply is a criminal offence but also might impact the insurance cover for fire, as an insurer might argue that an adequate fire risk assessment might have highlighted a risk which could then have been prevented.

A number of conveyancers have been slow to catch up with this change in legislation, a problem which is compounded by a lack of understanding/acceptance from those professionals who actually carry out the assessments, so that a buyer’s conveyancer’s request for an FRA to be carried out and supplied is often met with the resistance, but the law is clear.

If no assessment is carried out, and none will be carried out, a buyer’s conveyancer ought in the first instance to ask the seller’s conveyancer to ascertain from the buildings insurer whether the lack of an assessment will impact the cover, and will need to report to the buyer and (if applicable) lender client accordingly.

If acting for a purchaser of the freehold reversion (including where the buyer will be taking a share in the freehold either in his own right or by acquiring a share in the company that owns the freehold) a conveyancer should advise on the potential criminal liability that his client will face in his capacity as landlord.

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