---
source_file: Guide 8.pdf
doc_ref: GUIDE 08
title: Fire Safety Duties for Building Owners and Managers
type: guide
currency: Current as of July 2026
disclaimer: General information, not legal advice
publisher: Priority First (priorityfirst.co.uk)
---

# Fire Safety Duties for Building Owners and Managers

**Standfirst:** Four pieces of legislation now shape fire safety in occupied buildings. If you own, manage or control premises, you are almost certainly a Responsible Person under at least one of them — and the duties are specific, dated and enforceable.

Fire safety duties are no longer a single document to be reviewed once a year. They are a live regime, dated and scaled by building height, with a regulator that now sits outside the HSE.

## 01 · The legal framework at a glance

| Instrument | What it does |
|---|---|
| Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 | The foundation. Places duties on the Responsible Person: fire risk assessment, precautions, maintenance, training and review. |
| Fire Safety Act 2021 | Clarified that in multi-occupied residential buildings the structure, external walls (including cladding and balconies) and flat entrance doors are within the Fire Safety Order. |
| Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 | In force since 23 January 2023. Practical, dated duties for multi-occupied residential buildings, scaled by height. |
| Building Safety Act 2022 | Created the higher-risk buildings regime, the Accountable Person role, the golden thread and the Building Safety Regulator, and strengthened the Fire Safety Order (including via section 156). |

## 02 · Who is the Responsible Person?

In a workplace, the employer. In other premises, the person with control — typically the owner, landlord or managing entity. There can be more than one Responsible Person in a building, and in mixed-use buildings there usually are; the law requires them to cooperate and coordinate.

> You cannot contract the legal duty away, though you can and should use competent persons to deliver the work.

## 03 · The 2022 Regulations: duties by building height

The duties stack. Each band carries everything below it, plus its own additional requirements:

- **All heights — multi-occupied residential:** Provide residents with fire safety instructions and information on fire doors.
- **Over 11 metres — fire door checks:** Quarterly checks of fire doors in common parts, and annual best-endeavour checks of flat entrance doors.
- **18m or 7 storeys + — high-rise buildings:** Provide external wall information and electronic floor plans to the fire and rescue service. Install and maintain a secure information box. Provide wayfinding signage visible in low light. Carry out monthly checks of firefighting lifts and key firefighting equipment, reporting faults.

## 04 · Higher-risk buildings and the regulator

Buildings at least 18 metres or 7 storeys with 2 or more residential units are higher-risk buildings under the Building Safety Act, with registration, an Accountable Person, a safety case and golden thread duties.

> The Building Safety Regulator became a standalone body under the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on 27 January 2026, having previously sat within the Health and Safety Executive — worth knowing, because older guidance still points at the HSE.

## 05 · What good looks like in practice

1. **A current fire risk assessment.** Suitable and sufficient, reviewed regularly and after any significant change.
2. **A live testing regime.** Weekly alarm tests, monthly emergency lighting function tests, fire door checks on the statutory cycle — all recorded. Our Annual Compliance Calendar in this library sets out the full schedule with standards references.
3. **Records that would survive an inspector's visit tomorrow.** What was checked, when, by whom, what was found, what was done.
4. **People who know the plan.** The evacuation strategy understood by everyone who works in the building, including contractors and front-of-house teams.
5. **Change control.** Fit-outs, use changes and works checked against the fire strategy before they start.

**Pull quote:** Fire safety fails in the gaps between contractors.

A building team that tests, checks, records and escalates as part of daily operations — rather than visiting quarterly — is the difference between paper compliance and a building that is actually safe.