Fire Safety in blocks of flats | Relevant Legislation Pt 1 - Building Regulations

It can seem an onerous and somewhat tedious task to keep up to date with fire safety legislation that may affect your premises, but far from being a waste of time, it can prove invaluable to the owners and managers of blocks of flats to know how the law relating to those buildings can impact upon continuing fire safety. Certainly, the awareness can help to save lives and avoid the loss of property and revenue.

This blog aims to assist by bringing together the relevant legislation, as of March 2014. The first part looks at the Building Regulations 2010.

During construction

While a block of flats is designed and constructed, the Building Regulations 2010 lay down the requirements for fire safety measures. However, once the block is finished and is occupied, the relevancy of that legislation is no longer valid and fire safety becomes the remit of the Housing Act 2004 and the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.

The Building Regulations 2010 has various requirements affecting blocks of flats during construction including:

Means of Escape
Structural Fire Precautions
Smoke Control
Facilities to assist the fire service

After Construction

The Building Regulations apply to new building work, which can be as straightforward as a new build of a block, but can also relate to an extension added to a block and any 'material alterations'.

The Responsible Person must decide if any building alteration constitutes a material alteration as this requires approval by the building control body. Any alteration which affects the requirements of the Building Regulations, above, e.g. structural alterations, smoke control arrangements, means that it should be considered a material alteration.

Often, minor alterations and building works can result in a contravention of the Building Regulations and should these not be checked by Building Control, can result in serious consequences to the building in case of fire, or at the very least prosecution.

In practice, it is often a wise decision to submit any structural changes, door replacements or minor building works to Building Control for approval.

One of the most common contraventions found is that of replacing a fire resistant, self-closing door at a flat entrance, with one that does not meet requirements. This can place other residents at risk through the potential for fire spread from a fire in that flat to communal areas or other flats.

Residents of the flats must be made aware of the importance of not undertaking unauthorised repair or replacement works, as they cannot be expected to fully research and understand the complexities of fire safety legislation and the fire prevention and evacuation procedures in place within the block.

Although there is currently no requirement in the building regulations for upgrading or retro-fitting new fire safety measures to an older property, it is expected that they should not be made any worse during the course of building works in the premises.

In fact, for 12 months after work has been carried out, there exist powers to require unauthorised material alterations to be rectified if a breach was found to have resulted.

For work that has been carried out in the past, without approval, an application can be made to the local authority Building Control to 'regularlise' unauthorised work which was undertaken after 1985. This means that if the work is found to be satisfactory, approval can retrospectively be granted.

Next week's blog will look in more detail at the Housing Act 2004 and the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. If you would like to get a head start on that, links to the legislation can be found below.

Useful fire legislation links:

Approved Document B (Fire safety) – Volume 2 - Buildings other than dwelling houses (2006 edition incorporating 2010 and 2013 amendments)

Housing Act 2004 

Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 

If you would like to speak to someone about legislation affecting fire safety in blocks of flats, or you would like to know more about the Complete Fire Safety Management system and how it can help make your blocks of flats meet all legislative requirements, please call Peter Gyere on 020 8668 8663

Our aim, at Complete Fire Safety Management, is to make the process of becoming fire safe, straightforward and, to use our expertise in fire risk assessment and fire safety management to guide you through each step, resulting in your premises meeting all legal, insurance and ethical fire safety considerations.