All buildings with two or more domestic premises
Regardless of height, the responsible person must:
- Provide residents with fire safety instructions, including the evacuation strategy and how to report a fire
- Provide residents with information on the importance of fire doors and their duty not to alter them
Buildings above 11 metres
In addition to the above, the responsible person must undertake quarterly checks of all fire doors in the common parts, and annual checks of flat entrance doors on a best-endeavours basis.
Best endeavours matters: where a resident refuses access, you must record the attempts made and keep trying. An empty record is a failure; a record showing three documented attempts is compliance.
High-rise buildings — 18 metres or seven storeys and above
High-rise residential buildings carry the full set of duties. These are the items fire and rescue services check first because they are the ones crews rely on during an incident.
- Provide the local fire and rescue service with up-to-date electronic building floor plans and a building plan showing the location of key firefighting equipment
- Install a secure information box on site containing hard copies of those plans and the responsible person's contact details
- Provide information about the design and materials of the external wall system, and report any material changes
- Carry out monthly checks of lifts intended for use by firefighters and of other key firefighting equipment, reporting faults out of service for more than 24 hours to the fire service
- Install wayfinding signage visible in low light or smoke, identifying floor numbers and flat numbers on every storey
Record keeping
Every check under these regulations must be recorded and the records kept available. Monthly lift and equipment checks, quarterly and annual door checks, resident information issued and when, and any faults reported to the fire service.
A digital logbook makes this manageable. Paper records spread across a managing agent's office are how buildings end up unable to evidence twelve months of monthly checks during an inspection.
Need help meeting these requirements?
Lumacore Group carries out fire risk assessments, fire alarm design and maintenance, fire door surveys and emergency lighting testing across Newcastle and the North East, with full digital compliance records.