The draft Fire Safety Bill had its second reading in the House of Lords on Tuesday night (17 Nov 2020)
The content of the new Fire Safety Bill is fairly well known across the property management sector. In most cases, the impact on day to day operations (not external wall assessments) was thought to be fairly benign.
However, the three groups of opposition amendments to this Bill could be more of a problem for Responsible Persons (property managers) than previously thought.
Let’s assume the amendments will survive the third Lords reading on the 24th November and the final Commons vote.
These amendments are so important because the Fire Safety Bill will bring forward activities that you might have planned for Building Safety Bill compliance at a later date. In addition, they relate to all residential blocks and not just your High Rise properties.
Here is a quick overview and analysis of the key amendments that could have a material impact on property managers:
Amendment 8
Duties of owner or manager
The relevant authority must by regulations amend the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (SI 2005/1541) to require an owner or a manager of any building which contains two or more sets of domestic premises to:
(a) share information with their local Fire and Rescue Service in respect of each building for which an owner or manager is responsible about the design of its external walls and details of the materials of which those external walls are constructed;
(b) in respect of any building for which an owner or manager is responsible which contains separate flats, undertake annual inspections of individual flat entrance doors;
(c) in respect of any building for which an owner or manager is responsible which contains separate flats, undertake monthly inspections of lifts and report the results to their local Fire and Rescue Service if the results include a fault; and
(d) share evacuation and fire safety instructions with residents of the building.
Extract from Fire Safety Bill on Hansard
This amendment (proposed by Labour) was passed by 269 to 250 votes. It seeks to implement the key recommendations of the Grenfell Inquiry (Phase 1) recommendations. The Government had previously committed to do these but later voted them down in the House of Commons.
As yet we are not sure whether the Fire and Rescue Services would be ready to receive or act upon the receipt of this information.
New requirements on the Responsible Person
- Data sharing with local Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) with regard to the external wall design and materials
- Annual flat entrance door inspections
- Monthly lift inspection with any faults to be reported to FRS
- Evacuation and Fire Safety instructions to be shared with residents
Key questions to ask yourself in response to Amendment 8
- Have you mapped your properties to FRS boundaries?
- What information do you hold regarding external wall design and materials?
- Do you need to commission external wall surveys to replace or validate information?
- How will you collate and organise this information digitally?
- Do you have enough time to get this work done?
- Do you have a Fire Door inspection programme?
- How many Fire Doors will you need to inspect?
- Do you have the resources to inspect the Fire Doors?
- How will you gain access to inspect Fire Doors?
- How many properties have lifts?
- Do you have a monthly lift inspection process?
- Who will conduct the lift inspections?
- How will you communicate faults to the local FRS?
- Have you written Evacuation and Fire Safety instructions for each block?
- How will you communicate (and evidence) this to residents?
- What process do you have in place to review these instructions?
Amendment 10
Public register of fire risk assessments
(1) The Secretary of State must, by regulations, make provision for a register of fire risk assessments made under article 9 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (SI 2005/1541) (risk assessment).
(2) Those regulations must provide that the register is
(a) publicly available, and
(b) kept up-to-date.
(3) Regulations under this section are:
(a) to be made by statutory instrument; and
(b) subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.
Member’s explanatory statement
This new Clause would enable prospective and current renters, leaseholders and owners to check the fire safety status of their home, by accessing a public register similar to the EPC register.
Extract from Fire Safety Bill on Hansard
This amendment (proposed by Liberal Democrats) was passed by 284 to 267 votes. It seeks to provide residents with the legal right to access the Fire Risk Assessment for their home. There was a question by the Earl of Lytton about the potential implications of full ‘public accessibility’ of FRA’s. He stated concern about the sensitive nature of the information that could be contained within them.
This amendment is very light on detail at present, so this is our best guess of how we think it might play out.
New requirements on the Responsible Person
- Fire Risk Assessments are uploaded to the public register within prescribed renewal date boundaries. Detail to be determined, but HRBs will require an FRA every 12 months (max) under the Building Safety Bill
- Produce an EPC style summary document or data submission that can be easily understood and compared with other properties
Key questions to ask yourself in response to Amendment 10
- Do you have ‘suitable and sufficient’ FRAs in place for all properties?
- Do you have a process in place to make sure all FRAs are reviewed or replaced by agreed due dates?
- Do your FRAs contain sensitive information that would need to be redacted prior to public sharing?
- Are your FRAs written in such a way that they can be understood by a non-technical reader?
- Do you routinely track the progress of priority actions contained within the FRA?
- How would you manage increased reporting of fire-related defects from residents?
Amendment 13
Prohibition on passing remediation costs on to leaseholders and tenants
(1) The owner of a building may not pass the costs of any remedial work attributable to the provisions of this Act on to leaseholders or tenants of that building.
(2) Subsection (1) does not apply to a leaseholder who is also the owner or part owner of the freehold of the building.
Member’s explanatory statement
The purpose of this new Clause is to prevent freeholders passing on remediation costs to leaseholders and tenants, such as through demands for one-off payments or increases in service or other charges.
Extract from Fire Safety Bill on Hansard
This amendment (proposed by Liberal Democrats) was passed by 275 to 262 votes. It will require significant work to implement. Some see this as an establishment of principle with minimal chance of becoming law. However, this amendment will be a key and material risk for many property management companies.
Key questions to ask yourself in response to Amendment 13
- What implications could this amendment have on your organisation?
- What is your potential liability for financial exposure based on the ownership structure of each block?
- What costs could you foresee as a result of the new legislation and results of external wall inclusion?
- What public position do you want to take on this important issue if leaseholders ask you?