Residential
Fire Safety for Residential Buildings
Fire safety consultancy for residential buildings supports freeholders, RMCs and landlords with assessment and inspection duties. RiSKFiX provides fire risk assessments, fire door inspections and compartmentation surveys.
What are your duties?
- Suitable & sufficient fire risk assessment of every common part
- Quarterly inspection of communal fire doors and annual best-endeavours checks of flat-entrance fire doors in buildings over 11m (Article 24)
- Compartmentation kept in good order; breaches identified and remediated
- Wayfinding signage, secure information box and floor identification in higher-risk residential buildings
- Resident engagement and clear evacuation strategy (including the Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) (England) Regulations 2025, in force 6 April 2026)
How does RiSKFiX help?
- BS 9792:2025-aligned Type 1 to Type 4 fire risk assessments for blocks of flats and street properties
- Article 24 fire-door inspection programmes with photographic evidence per door
- Compartmentation and fire-stopping surveys with photographic findings registers
- Independent project management of remedial works carried out by third-party-certificated installers
- Portfolio-level reporting compatible with compliance and asset-management systems
Which standards apply?
- The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (as amended)
- Fire Safety Act 2021
- Building Safety Act 2022
- Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022
- BS 9991:2024
- BS 8214:2026
What does the assessment cover in a block of flats?
The Order applies to the common parts of buildings containing two or more homes, rather than a single private home. The Fire Safety Act 2021 clarified that its scope includes the structure, external walls and flat entrance doors. For freeholders and RMCs, deciding the assessment scope therefore means looking beyond circulation areas alone. BS 9792:2025 is the code of practice for fire risk assessments in housing.
Which assessment type should you arrange?
Type 1 is the usual starting point for purpose-built blocks: a non-destructive assessment of common parts, including a sample of flat entrance doors. Type 2 adds sampled opening-up of common-part construction where serious problems are suspected. Type 3 extends non-destructive assessment into a sample of flats, while Type 4 includes both flats and destructive inspection. Access inside long leasehold flats may not be available. Before destructive inspection, consider the risk of disturbing asbestos, including the asbestos register.
How should residents and access shape the programme?
Flat entrance door checks need access arrangements as well as an inspection schedule. In buildings over 11 metres, the Responsible Person must use best endeavours to check those doors annually, alongside quarterly common-part fire door checks. Keep the assessment, evacuation strategy and resident-facing instructions together when planning the programme. Inspection and survey findings inform decisions made by the Responsible Person with their Fire Risk Assessor; they are not a substitute for those decisions.
Which guides can help you plan?
What else should you know?
- For a block of flats, the Responsible Person is usually the freeholder or management company. A managing agent often arranges the assessment on their behalf; the Responsible Person should take advice on their own situation.
- In residential buildings over 11m in height, communal fire doors must be inspected at least quarterly and flat-entrance fire doors on a best-endeavours annual basis under Article 24 of the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022.
- Yes — we project-manage remedial works using third-party-certificated installers. Inspection and survey reports record findings; the Responsible Person decides next steps with their Fire Risk Assessor.
- No. The Order does not apply to a single private home, but does cover common parts of buildings containing two or more homes.
- Review regularly and after significant changes, such as alterations, changed occupancy or a fire. The assessment should set its review date; a review is not necessarily a new assessment.