DIRECTOR GUIDE

Building Safety & Resident Engagement

Building Safety Act 2022 Compliance

Essential information for Directors of Right to Manage Companies / Residential Management Companies for High Rise Residential Buildings

Responsible Persons

A responsible person is defined within the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety Order) 2005 (FSO) legislation as the person who has control of a premises and is responsible for implementing fire safety measures. A responsible person includes:

Employers
Owners
Landlords
Managing Agents
Contractors with specific fire safety obligations.

If multiple parties have control of the premises, they all share the responsibility for fire safety.

Responsible Persons have an increased realm of responsibilities under the Building Safety Act 2022, and will have additional responsibilities in relation to Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) (England) Regulations 2025.

More information will be added to this resource once the appropriate guidance has been published by the relevant authorities.

Accountable Persons

‍Accountable Person (AP):

An AP is an organisation or individual who owns or has a legal obligation to repair any common parts of the building.

APs are responsible for assessing and managing the risks posed to people in and about the building from structural failure or the spread of fire in the parts of the building they are responsible for.

APs and the PAP cannot delegate their legal obligations to others.

APs and the PAP can employ an organisation or individual, like a managing agent, to carry out duties on their behalf. However, the APS and PAP remain accountable for ensuring that those duties are carried out and are liable for a building’s safety.

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Principal Accountable Persons

Each building must have one identifiable AP, known as the PAP.

The PAP is usually an organisation, like a commonhold association, local authority or social housing provider. In some circumstances, an individual can be the PAP.

For example, the individual is:

the owner of the building
named on the leasehold as responsible for the maintenance of common parts.

Where Jennings & Barrett or the Building Safety Regulator ask for a Single Point of Contact from amongst a team of APs, this is usually the PAP.

Learn More

Personal Emergency Evacuation Planning

From 6th April 2026, Responsible Person(s) must:

Take steps to identify residents who need Residential PEEPs;
Conduct a person-centered risk assessment;
Produce an emergency evacuation statement of what the resident should do in the event of a fire;
Inform the Fire & Rescue service of the plan in case they need to undertake evacuation (but only if the resident explicitly agrees to that information being shared)
Perform ongoing reviews of the person-centered fire risk assessment/emergency evacuation statement, and the building's emergency evacuation plans.

The legislation around residential PEEPs is changing. Jennings & Barrett's current process for accomodating the need for a PEEP is as follows for all high-rise residential units:

Leaseholders and residents are invited to complete Resident Profile Surveys, which ask them to declare any possible need for a PEEP or an alternative method of communication of fire procedures.
Where there is an indication that a PEEP may be necessary, a member of the Operations Team will follow up with that person to confirm that a PEEP is an appropriate step.
- Where the PEEP is deemed to not be necessary, the resident is requested to recomplete their profile survey and remove this request.
- Where a potential PEEP need is identified, the resident is asked to complete a follow up questionnaire, either over the phone or via a webform, to provide more details about their needs.
  - All residents completing this questionnaire will be referred to their local fire services' "home safety check" online tool.
  - If needed, we will arrange for their local fire service to attend the property alongside a J&B staff member with the appropriate skills in order to perform a person-centred risk assessment and begin the process of understanding their needs in regards to a PEEP.

View the Residential PEEP legilsation on Gov.UK

Resident Engagement Strategies

A Resident Engagement Strategy is a document that details to residents (your Leaseholder's tenants, as well as Leaseholders):

How to behave in an emergency;
How and who to report to when they have building safety concerns, or want to raise a building safety complaint;
What you will consult with them on, and how you will do this;
What you will notify them of, and how you will do this;
What happens regarding communication to residents when a reportable incident has taken place in the development.

All strategies must be:

Provided to all residents;
Carried out to an acceptable standard;
Open to consultation / input by residents;
Have version control, provision to include resident dates.

Accommodate health and communication needs/barriers appropriately;
Be accessible.

Be measurable for engagement levels with residents.

Find out more

Consequences of Failing to Fulfil Responsibilities

Accountable Persons, Principal Accountable Persons and Responsible persons must ensure that their responsibilities in regards to the safety of their premises and residents are fulfilled.

Consequences placed on these persons by relevant authorities for failing to fulfil responsibilities can include:

Placing relevant notices onto the development / responsible persons/persons with duties in respect to the premises, such as:
- Non-Statutory Notification of Deficiencies
- Statutory Notice Requiring Remedial Action
- Alterations Notice
- Prohibition Notice
- Simple or Formal Caution.
Significant financial penalties.
Prosecution where negligence leads to serious injury or death.

Enforcement should be proportionate to the circumstances that have prompted the Authority's action.

Reportable Incidents / MORs

Reportable incidents are building safety incidents that have caused, or if not remedied are likely to cause:

The death of a significant number of people
Serious injury to a significant number of people

and which involve at least one of the following:

Structural failure of the buildings
The spread of fire in the building.

When this is received, the following should occur:

1. Safety of all residents in and around the building is confirmed, if appropriate and possible;

2. Investigate the incident, identifying factors that caused the incident and whether it has previously been reported;

3. A report created to explain the causes of the incident;

4. Steps taken to rectify the cause of the incident, if appropriate and possible;

5. Communicate the incident to residents, making them aware of any consequences arising from the incident, including any changes that should be made to their own behaviour, and sharing the plan for resolution of the incident.

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Who pays for Resident Engagement costs?

From gov.uk:

The Building Safety Bill establishes new legal duties for landlords and building owners of high rise residential buildings of at least 18 metres or at least 7 storeys to keep their building safe. There will be a cost associated with some of these duties, which can be passed to leaseholders through the service charge.

Costs of fixing historical building safety risks are not generally included in costs that can be covered by service charges.
Costs relating to Resident Engagement Strategy preparation and Building Safety Case preparation / revision can generally be covered by service charges.
There may be lease terms that complicate this.
Leaseholders will have the right to challenge the reasonableness of building safety costs, in line with their existing rights to challenge their service charge costs.
The estimated average monthly cost to a leaseholder is estimated to be between £9 and £26 via the service charge. This will be increased for blocks with less units.
Where leaseholders require changes to be made within their units to assist with safe evacuations, these may be covered through a Disabled Facilities Grant. This grant, available via the local council of the Leaseholder/Block, must be agreed by the relevant authority before any spending occurs.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/building-safety-bill-factsheets/building-safety-charge-factsheet-for-landlords-building-owners#:~:text=or%20housing%20association.-,What%20does%20these%20costs%20cover?,are%20statutory%20protections%20for%20leaseholders.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/building-safety-bill-factsheets/impact-assessment-factsheet#what-are-the-benefits

https://www.gov.uk/disabled-facilities-grants

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