Fire safety for small blocks of flats: a checklist for directors

If you're a director of a residents' management company or right to manage company, or a freeholder, you're likely to be the "responsible person" for fire safety in your block's shared areas. You have legal duties even if the block is small and everyone is a volunteer. Here's a checklist.

Are you the responsible person?

Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the responsible person is whoever has control of the shared areas of the building, often the freeholder or the management company. In a block of flats, the Order covers the shared areas, the building's structure and external walls, and the front doors of flats that open onto the shared areas. The Fire Safety Act 2021 made this clear.

The checklist

1. Get a fire risk assessment of the shared areas. It must be suitable and sufficient, carried out by someone competent, and kept under review, especially after changes to the building.
2. Act on what it finds. Put the recommended fire precautions in place and fix the problems it identifies.
3. Keep fire safety measures working. Fire doors and their closers, any fire alarm, emergency lighting and fire safety signs must be kept in good working order.
4. Give residents fire safety instructions and fire door information: to every resident when they move in, and at least every 12 months. Display the instructions in the shared areas.
5. Keep escape routes clear. Stairs, corridors and entrances should be free of rubbish, bikes, prams and furniture. Fire services warn against storing or charging e-bikes and e-scooters in shared areas.
6. Check fire doors if your building is over 11 metres: the fire doors in the shared areas at least every 3 months, and flat front doors at least once a year (best efforts). Keep a record.
7. Work with others. If someone else controls part of the building, such as a shop or office on the ground floor, co-operate and share fire safety information with them.
8. Use competent people. For fire risk assessments, fire door inspections and repairs, use people with the right training and experience.
9. Keep records: your fire risk assessment, checks, repairs, and what you gave residents and when.
10. Hand over properly. When directors change, pass on the records and the dates when things are next due, so nothing is missed.

What changes with the size of your building

• Under 11 metres: the 3-monthly and yearly fire door check duties don't apply, but you must still keep fire doors working and give residents the information.
• 11 metres or more: the 3-monthly and yearly fire door checks apply.
• 18 metres or more, or 7 or more storeys: extra duties for high-rise buildings apply.

How Resident Fire Safety helps

Resident Fire Safety takes care of item 4. It produces the resident leaflet and the notice for your shared areas, keeps a record of which flats have received it, and shows you when the next pack is due.

This checklist is general information, not legal or fire safety advice for your building.

Sources: Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, Fire Safety Act 2021

Common questions