Nicholas Roberts explores the practicalities of assigning responsibility for fire safety in long leasehold flats
- Legislative reform on fire safety is likely to be introduced in response to the Grenfell Tower disaster.
- Technical legal difficulties arise when deciding who is responsible for what.
- Under the ‘light touch’ regulations introduced in 2005, risks are usually exposed by an independent risk assessment, which does not have the status of a statutory authority.
The tragedy at Grenfell Tower has focused attention on the fire risks involved with multi-storey blocks of flats, and it seems likely that stronger legislative measures will be introduced to address the fire safety issues. This may, therefore, be an appropriate time to consider some of the ways in which the current legal provisions relating to fire safety measures are either failing to address the problems of long leasehold flats, or make it difficult for those with the responsibility for managing flats to make recommended changes. The problems seem to originate from two main sources:
- Any survey of fire precautions will rightly
