The Fire Safety Act 2021 and the Building Safety Act 2022 are the most significant changes to fire safety law since the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. Both have been phased in over several commencement orders, and a lot of landlords are still working out exactly which duties apply to which buildings.
Here's a clean summary of the position for landlords of commercial premises and the common parts of residential blocks.
The baseline: the RRO and the Responsible Person
Article 9 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires every Responsible Person to carry out, and keep reviewed, a suitable and sufficient Fire Risk Assessment of the premises. The Responsible Person is the employer in a workplace, the person in control of premises in any other case, or the freeholder/Right to Manage company for the common parts of a residential block.
The RRO is the engine that everything else attaches to. Both the 2021 and 2022 Acts amend it rather than replace it.
What the Fire Safety Act 2021 clarified
The 2021 Act made explicit that the RRO applies to the structure, the external walls and the flat entrance doors of multi-occupied residential buildings. This was already widely assumed, but Grenfell exposed enough ambiguity that Parliament wanted it spelled out.
Practical consequence: cladding, insulation, balconies and any external wall feature now sit clearly within the FRA scope on residential blocks. If your assessment pre-2021 didn't include them, it's out of date in scope as well as in time.
What Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022 changed
Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022 came into force on 1 October 2023 and made four practical changes to the RRO. First, the FRA must now be recorded in writing in full for all regulated premises, regardless of size. Previously, very small premises could rely on a less formal record. Second, the Responsible Person must now demonstrate they have considered the competence of any person they engage to carry out the FRA. Third, identifying particulars of the Responsible Person must be made available to other duty holders. Fourth, the Responsible Person must take reasonable steps to identify any other Responsible Person with whom they share or have sharing arrangements.
For a typical commercial landlord, the practical impact is: written FRA on every property, document the assessor's competence in your file, and know who else has duties on the same building.
Higher-risk buildings and the Building Safety Regulator
If your building is a higher-risk building (HRB) — at least 18 metres tall or seven storeys, with at least two residential units — the Building Safety Act 2022 imposes a separate, much more demanding regime on top of the standard RRO duties. HRBs require a Safety Case Report, registration with the Building Safety Regulator, and a defined Accountable Person regime.
Most pure commercial property won't qualify. Mixed-use blocks with residential units above commercial ground floors very often do. If you don't know whether your building is in scope, that's the urgent first call.
Type 1 to Type 4 FRAs for residential blocks
For residential blocks, FRAs are scoped using the PAS 79-2 typology. Type 1 is non-destructive inspection of common parts only, and is the default scope for the vast majority of blocks. Type 2 adds destructive sampling of common parts where there's reasonable suspicion of compartmentation issues. Type 3 covers common parts plus a non-destructive sample of flats. Type 4 is fully destructive across common parts and flats and is only justified where specific concerns exist.
The temptation post-Grenfell has been to default to Type 4 on every block. That's usually overkill and very expensive. A competent FRA assessor will recommend the minimum scope that genuinely addresses the risk profile of the building.
Penalties: not theoretical
Failure to carry out a suitable and sufficient FRA is a criminal offence under the RRO. Conviction on indictment carries an unlimited fine, and where failures have placed people at risk of death or serious injury, custodial sentences of up to two years apply to the Responsible Person personally. Recent prosecutions following Grenfell-era enforcement have seen six-figure fines on freeholders and managing agents.
Insurance and lender enforcement is, in practice, a more frequent trigger. A current FRA from a competent third-party-certified assessor is now standard pre-completion paperwork on commercial sales and refinances.
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