Information for residents on fire safety and remediation of buildings
This page brings together information leaseholders and other residents should be aware of on fire safety, and remediation of historic building safety defects – including who is responsible for paying for remediation works.
Applies to England
Introduction
This page brings together information leaseholders and other residents should be aware of on fire safety, and remediation of historic building safety defects – including who is responsible for paying for remediation works. It sets out the ways in which leaseholders are protected from historic costs through the Building Safety Act. These protections came into force on 21 July 2022. It also has useful links to information about related issues such as insurance and mortgages on properties in remediation schemes.
How fire safety is managed in multi-occupancy residential buildings
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (the Fire Safety Order) regulates fire safety in all non-domestic premises including the common parts of multi-occupied residential buildings. The Fire Safety Order places duties on “Responsible Persons”, usually the owner or manager of a multi-occupied residential building, to ensure that the premises are safe.
The Fire Safety Act 2021 clarified that the structure, external walls, and flat entrance doors of multi-occupied residential buildings are common parts within the scope of the Fire Safety Order and should be considered as part of a building’s Fire Risk Assessment.
The Building Safety Act 2022 is introducing further amendments to the Fire Safety Order to strengthen its requirements. There is a new duty on the Responsible Person to ensure that those they appoint to assist them in completing an FRA have the competence to do so. It also requires Responsible Persons to share fire safety information with residents of multi-occupied residential buildings.
Below are the links to further information on how the Fire Safety Order and its regulations will help manage fire safety in your multi-occupied residential building.
Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 factsheet
This factsheet provides information about the Fire Safety regulations to residents and other interested parties. It sets out the responsibilities of the Responsible Person and what will need to be presented to the local fire and rescue service to ensure a building is fire safe.
Fire Safety Order 2005 factsheet
This factsheet provides information on the Amendments to the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and how they will impact residents. The Fire Safety Order regulates fire safety in all non-domestic buildings and in the common parts of multi-occupied residential buildings. Under the Fire Safety Order, the responsible person must make a ‘suitable and sufficient’ assessment of the fire safety risks which exist and take general fire precautions to mitigate against these.
This factsheet includes the latest FAQs on Fire Risk Assessments (FRAs), what they are, and what residents may need to do. An FRA looks at the possible risk to people from fire and ensures that the chance of a fire happening in communal areas is minimised. It is a legal requirement for all blocks of flats.
How government is protecting leaseholders from building safety remediation costs
The government has introduced a set of laws referred to collectively as the ‘leaseholder protections’, which came into force on 28 June 2022. These laws grant qualifying leaseholders significant new protections from paying for historic building safety remediation costs.
Guidance on leaseholder protections
This link provides a plain English explanation of the implications of the leaseholder protections in the Building Safety Act 2022, how leaseholders will be protected and how remediation is being funded. This guidance explains the real-world implications of these legal changes, including:
- How leaseholders can tell if they are protected by the new laws
- How the changes in the law affect leases, including those where the terms of a lease would contradict the new protections
- The relevant protections where the building has a cladding defect that needs to be fixed
- The relevant legal protections where the building has a non-cladding defect that needs to be fixed
- How remediation costs will be paid for now that leaseholders are now protected
- The obligations placed onto the freeholder/owner, and what happens when these are not met.
Check if you are covered by leaseholder protections
This digital tool supports leaseholders in England to check whether they are protected from paying to replace cladding or to fix other historic building safety problems in their building.
Leaseholder deed of certificate
If you qualify for leaseholder protections, you must complete the leaseholder ‘deed of certificate’ to demonstrate you are a qualifying leaseholder. This will need to be completed and submitted to your building owner. This link provides you with information about the deed of certificate and how to complete it.
Leaseholder contribution caps and what they cover
The ‘Leaseholder Protections’ laws that leaseholders are only required to contribute towards remediation costs in limited, controlled circumstances where building owners can legally pass on a share of the non-cladding remediation costs to qualifying leaseholders, these contributions must be firmly capped however and will be spread over 10 years. This guidance provides an overview of how the contribution caps work and what interim measures such as waking watches also count towards these contributions.
Letter to freeholders on Leaseholder Protections from the secretary of state
In June 2022, the Secretary of State wrote to freeholders and made clear that the days of leaseholders being faced with large invoices for building safety repairs are over. The letter reminds freeholders that qualifying leaseholders now have protections, in law, from costs; and that they will be acting illegally if they attempt to circumvent them.
Leaseholder protections – frequently asked questions
This link covers many of the frequently asked questions around leaseholder protections, including information on Right to Manage and Resident Management Companies, buildings under 11 metres and interim fire safety measures such as waking watches.
How remediation work is being delivered
The government is on the side of leaseholders and residents. It is committed to ensuring that people are safe and feel safe in their homes, both now and in the future.
Developers have committed to remediate life critical fire safety works in buildings over 11 metres that they have played a role in developing or refurbishing over the last 30 years in England. Developers making this commitment have also agreed to reimburse any funding received from government remediation programmes in relation to buildings they had a role in developing or refurbishing.
The Building Safety Fund, a government programme, also protects leaseholders from the cost of addressing fire-safety risks caused by unsafe cladding systems on high-rise residential buildings (buildings over 17.7 metres). The BSF applies where eligible buildings do not have a funding solution, such as developer-led remediation, in place. A scheme for medium rise buildings (11-18 metres) is also being established.
In April 2022, developers signed a pledge committing to remediate life critical fire safety works in buildings over 11 metres that they have played a role in developing or refurbishing over the last 30 years in England.
Developer remediation contract: resident factsheet
This factsheet provides a summary of key information about the contract for residents living in buildings where developers have pledged to remediate historic fire safety defects.
List of developers who have signed the building safety repairs pledge
This link provides residents with a list of developers who have signed the pledge letter to date. Over 45 developers have now signed the pledge committing to remediate life critical fire safety works in buildings over 11 metres that they have played a role in developing or refurbishing over the last 30 years in England.
Developer remediation contract
On Monday 30 January 2023 the developer remediation contract was published. Developers have been asked to sign it within 6 weeks, by 13 March 2023.
This link directs leaseholders and residents to the starting page of the Building Safety Fund. It provides information on how the building owner can apply and any information they need, before applying. The Fund opened for new applications from eligible buildings without a funding solution in place on 28 July 2022.
Supporting information for residents in the Building Safety Fund
This link provides leaseholders and other residents on what has changed for the relaunch of the Building Safety Fund in 2022 and other issues, such as how to take action if building owners do not progress applications.
The Building Safety Fund Leaseholder and Resident Service
The Building Safety Fund Leaseholder and Resident Service enables leaseholders and other residents to check their building’s status in the Building Safety Fund application process. This increases transparency and helps people living in building understand the process and follow-up with the building owner if action is needed.
Pilot launch of the Medium-Rise Scheme (MRS)
The medium-rise scheme (MRS) is a fund for 11 to 18m buildings that will ensure that necessary external wall system repairs and mitigations can be funded where a responsible developer cannot be identified.
Mortgage lending
Government has taken action to resolve lending challenges that prevent many leaseholders in flats from selling and moving on.
On 18 December 2023, UK Finance and the Building Societies Association issued an update to this joint statement. The statement clarifies which mortgage lenders will lend on properties with building safety issues.
These are: Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide, NatWest, Santander, Skipton Building Society, TSB and Virgin Money. They have confirmed they will lend on buildings in England 11m+ in height that:
- will be remediated by the developers that built them or are in a government-funded remediation scheme,
- or the leaseholder is covered by the leaseholder protections described in the Building Safety Act, as evidenced by a Leaseholder Deed of Certificate.
See the How government is protecting leaseholders from building safety remediation costs section for further information on qualifying leaseholders.
What the EWS1 form is and how it is used
This link will direct you to the RICS frequently asked questions page for EWS1 forms. The requirement for an EWS1 form is determined by the lending policies of banks and building societies and is not a statutory or regulatory requirement.
Accessing a completed EWS1 form for your building
This link will direct you to the Fire Industry Association (FIA) EWS1 portal. This allows residents to search for EWS1 forms and download them for free, providing the EWS1 form has been uploaded to the portal by an assessor.
Contacting government about building remediation
When to contact us
Many buildings around the country are having unsafe cladding removed, getting other fire safety issues fixed, or waiting for those works to start. Collectively, we refer to this kind of work as ‘remediation’.
You should be able to find out from your managing agent or building owner whether your building has been checked, and whether it needs remediation. If it does, they should be able to tell you how those works will be done, and when they will start – or at least what they are doing to prepare for them. Building owners are responsible for making sure this happens and should keep you updated. If they are not providing that information, we would like to hear from you.
The government is taking action to make it easier for people to buy, sell or re-finance properties, even where buildings require remediation. If this is proving difficult, or if you are having difficulty getting insurance for your building, we want to hear from you, so that we can investigate and hold providers to account.
We also welcome wider enquiries and feedback.
Please provide the information below to correspondence@levellingup.gov.uk. They will direct your enquiry to the relevant team within the department who will review your correspondence and provide a written response.
We aim to respond within 20 working days.
Information you should provide
When writing to the department, it is always helpful to set out the circumstances affecting you as clearly as possible so we can understand how best to respond to your query or offer support. Therefore, please include the following details:
- your full address and postcode
- the height of your building or number of storeys (if known and relevant)
- an overview of the issues you are facing (please attach any relevant documentation)
- any previous correspondence reference numbers you have from correspondence with the department or our ministers
It may be helpful to include the following information, where relevant:
- your residential status, whether you own or rent the property
- the details of the contractor working on your building
- the owner of your building and their contact details
- your lender (or your buyer’s lender), for issues with mortgages
- your insurer, for issues with insurance
- the remediation route for your building:
- developer-led remediation (please include the name of your developer)
- the Building Safety Fund (please include your unique building code, if you have one)
- the ACM Cladding Remediation Fund
- the Cladding Safety Scheme
Related issues and further information
If you are looking for information about any other issues related to fire safety and remediation you may find the following links useful. Alternatively, you may benefit from seeking free initial advice via the Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE), the specialist advisory body funded by the department to provide assistance to leaseholders.
This link directs you to information about the Waking Watch Relief Fund. The government is running a £30 million fund to pay for the costs of installing an alarm system in buildings with unsafe cladding. Common alarms systems will enable costly Waking Watch measures to be replaced in buildings waiting to have unsafe cladding removed. You can also find out more information about how interim measures count towards leaseholder contributions in the ‘Leaseholder contribution caps and what they cover section above’.
The Financial Conduct Authority’s interim multi-occupancy buildings insurance review)
The Secretary of State for Levelling Up has asked the Financial Conduct Authority to look into the issues regarding insurance in buildings needing fire safety remediation. This link directs you to the letter from the Financial Conduct Authority to the Secretary of State for Levelling Up regarding the costs facing leaseholders and their review into insurance of multi-occupancy buildings.
LEASE the Leasehold Advisory Service
This link directs you to the LEASE website who provide leaseholders advice on the various different situations they can find themselves in. LEASE provide initial advice and guidance on residential ‘long leasehold’ (leases longer than 21 years) and also offer information that may support leaseholders regarding fire safety.
Last updated 18 December 2023 + show all updates
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Skipton Building Society, TSB and Virgin Money join lenders' statement.
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Added information on contacting government about building remediation.
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Added link to Developer remediation contract: resident factsheet.
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Added link to developer remediation contract.
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Update to mortgage lending information.
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Added link to the Pilot launch of the Medium-Rise Scheme (MRS) for 11 to 18m buildings.
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First published.