Reviewed by Bradley Askew, Solicitor (non-practising), England & Wales. Reviewed 21 June 2026.
The Fire Safety Act 2021 was the first substantive piece of post-Grenfell fire safety legislation. It amended the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 to clarify that the structure, external walls (including cladding), anything attached to the external walls (including balconies), and individual flat entrance doors of multi-occupied residential buildings fall within the responsible person's fire safety duty. The Act applies primarily to freeholders of multi-occupied blocks but produces consequences for buy-to-let landlords owning individual flats, HMO landlords, and the wider mortgage and insurance market through the EWS1 framework. This page covers what the Act amended, who is the responsible person, the fire risk assessment requirements, the EWS1 framework, the penalty regime, and the practical consequences for different categories of landlord.
What the Act did
The Fire Safety Act 2021 was the first substantive piece of post-Grenfell fire safety legislation to reach the statute book. It received Royal Assent on 29 April 2021 and most of its substantive provisions came into force progressively through 2022 and 2023. The Act is short — just five sections — but it produced far-reaching changes to the operation of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the principal fire safety statute for non-domestic premises and the common parts of multi-occupied residential buildings.
The Act's principal effect was to clarify (and substantially extend) the scope of the Fire Safety Order in multi-occupied residential buildings. Before the Act, there had been genuine legal uncertainty about whether the Order applied to the external walls of such buildings — including any cladding — and to individual flat entrance doors. The Grenfell Tower fire of June 2017 demonstrated the catastrophic potential of that uncertainty: combustible cladding on the external walls had been a substantial cause of the fire's spread, and the question of who was responsible for assessing it had been contested. The Act removed the doubt by amending the Order to expressly include external walls (and anything attached to them, including cladding), all common parts, and individual flat entrance doors within the responsible person's duty.
For landlords of flats — particularly leasehold landlords with freehold interests in multi-occupied blocks — the Act produced substantial new compliance obligations. The fire risk assessments these landlords commission must now expressly cover external walls, cladding systems, balconies, and individual flat doors. The cost and complexity of these assessments rose accordingly, and contested issues about who pays for any necessary remediation produced years of further legislation, regulation, and litigation.
What the Act amended
Section 1 of the Act inserted new provisions into the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. The amendments confirmed that, in any building containing two or more domestic premises, the responsible person's duties under the Order extend to:
- The structure of the building — including walls, floors, and roofs.
- The external walls — including cladding systems, insulation behind cladding, and any other materials attached to or forming part of the external walls.
- Anything attached to the external walls — including balconies and similar protruding features.
- Individual flat entrance doors — the doors between individual dwellings and the common parts.
The pre-Act position had been that the Fire Safety Order applied unambiguously to the common parts (corridors, stairwells, lobbies) but the position on external walls and individual flat doors was contested. The Court of Appeal had ruled in 2018 that the Order did not extend to external walls; the Act reversed that ruling for future application.
Who is the "responsible person"
The "responsible person" under the Fire Safety Order is the person who has control over the relevant premises. In multi-occupied residential buildings, this is typically:
- For freehold blocks: the freeholder, where they retain control and responsibility for the common parts.
- For blocks with a Right to Manage Company or Resident Management Company: the management company.
- For blocks managed by a managing agent: the managing agent (acting on behalf of the freeholder or management company), with the underlying landlord retaining ultimate responsibility.
- For purpose-built blocks owned by housing associations or local authorities: the social landlord.
The responsible person's duties are personal and cannot be entirely delegated. Where a managing agent acts, the agent typically performs the day-to-day duties — but the underlying owner remains liable for the agent's failures. This matters for buy-to-let landlords who own individual flats but have no direct responsibility under the Order: the responsible person is the freeholder or management company, not the individual flat owner. But individual flat owners do have a duty in respect of their own front door (since the 2021 Act expressly brought flat entrance doors within the regime).
The fire risk assessment
The Fire Safety Order, as amended by the 2021 Act, requires the responsible person to carry out and maintain a written fire risk assessment covering:
- Identification of fire hazards.
- Identification of people at risk.
- Evaluation, removal, or reduction of risks.
- Recording of findings and preparation of an emergency plan.
- Review of the assessment regularly and after any significant change.
After the 2021 Act, the assessment must expressly cover the structure, external walls, anything attached to them, and individual flat doors. For high-rise residential buildings (over 18 metres or seven storeys, brought into the scope of the Building Safety Act 2022 — see our Building Safety Act guide), additional information must be made available to the fire and rescue authority.
Fire risk assessments for buildings with cladding have become substantially more complex and expensive following the Act. An assessment of a multi-storey block of flats with non-traditional cladding or unusual external wall construction can cost £5,000-£20,000 — sometimes more for very tall or complex buildings. Section 21 of the Building Safety Act 2022 imposes specific requirements on these assessments through the External Wall System (EWS1) framework.
The EWS1 framework
The External Wall System (EWS1) form was developed by RICS, UK Finance, and the Building Societies Association in 2019 in response to the post-Grenfell concerns. EWS1 is a checklist used by qualified surveyors to assess whether a building's external wall system meets fire safety standards. The form produces one of two ratings:
- Rating A — the external wall system has been assessed as not requiring remediation. This rating is given where the materials and construction are demonstrably safe.
- Rating B — the external wall system has been assessed as requiring remediation. This rating triggers further investigation, potentially substantial works, and (where the building is high-rise) involvement of the Building Safety Regulator.
EWS1 is not strictly a statutory requirement — it is an industry-developed framework — but it has become the standard the mortgage lending market expects for properties in multi-occupied buildings of more than one storey. A property without an EWS1 form (or with a form rated B) is often unmortgageable. The framework has been substantially refined since 2019 and now covers buildings of varying heights with different inspection regimes.
Penalties under the amended Order
Breach of the Fire Safety Order, as amended by the 2021 Act, carries the same enforcement framework as the original Order:
- Civil penalties imposed by the fire and rescue authority. The Building Safety Act 2022 substantially raised the available penalty levels — civil penalties for serious fire safety breaches now run to unlimited amounts in some cases.
- Criminal prosecution for serious or repeat breaches. Convictions on indictment carry unlimited fines and (for offences causing death) custodial sentences.
- Prohibition notices requiring the immediate cessation of use of the premises until specified safety measures are in place.
- Improvement notices requiring specified remediation within a specified period.
Insurance consequences are also substantial. Buildings insurance for blocks with combustible cladding or other fire safety concerns has become difficult or impossible to obtain in some cases, with knock-on effects on mortgageability and saleability. Several major insurers have publicly stated that they will not insure blocks above certain heights or with certain types of cladding.
What this means for landlords
The Fire Safety Act 2021 has produced different practical consequences for different categories of landlord:
Freeholders of multi-occupied blocks face the most substantial new obligations. Fire risk assessments must now cover external walls; remediation costs where defects are identified can run to hundreds of thousands or millions of pounds; the Building Safety Act 2022 has produced a complex regime allocating liability for those costs between freeholders, leaseholders, developers, and the government. This is now one of the most fast-moving areas of property law.
Buy-to-let landlords owning individual flats face indirect consequences. They typically have no direct responsibility for the building's fire risk assessment but must comply with their own duty in respect of the flat entrance door (since 2021). Service charge increases reflecting the freeholder's assessment and remediation costs are common. Mortgageability and saleability are affected by the building's EWS1 status.
HMO landlords are typically subject to more demanding fire safety requirements through HMO management regulations and HMO licence conditions. The Fire Safety Act 2021 reinforces those requirements but does not fundamentally change them. See our HMO fire safety guide.
Single-household let landlords are largely outside the Fire Safety Order entirely (the Order does not apply to single private dwellings except in limited common-parts situations). Their fire safety obligations come from the smoke and CO alarm regime, the HHSRS, and contractual obligations under the tenancy agreement. The Fire Safety Act 2021 does not directly apply.