Buildings change hands, managing agents change, and the fire safety record is supposed to go with the building. This guide sets out what has to pass over, and how a practice that holds the record makes itself the continuity.
The amendments made to the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 by section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022, in force from 1 October 2023, put handover on a legal footing. In broad terms, an outgoing Responsible Person must give the incoming one the fire risk assessment and related fire safety information, Responsible Persons who share a building must take reasonable steps to identify each other and cooperate, and the full assessment and the fire safety arrangements must be recorded in the first place so that there is something to hand over. For higher-risk buildings, the Building Safety Act adds the golden thread: the accountable person has to keep the building's safety information current and available.
The reality on most handovers is a long way from that. The current assessment is in the previous managing agent's inbox. The action plan was never tracked, so nobody knows which findings were closed. The fire door records are in a contractor's spreadsheet. The new Responsible Person either starts from scratch, which costs money, or assumes the building is as the last report described it, which costs more.
The assessment practice is usually the one party with a complete view, and that is both an opportunity and an exposure. The practice that can hand over a clean record makes itself indispensable to the incoming Responsible Person, who often becomes a client. The practice that cannot gets drawn into arguments about what was known and when, on behalf of a client it no longer acts for.
Anchor the record to the building rather than to the client. Every assessment, every review, every action with its evidence and closure, the fire door register and its inspection history, certificates for the alarm and the emergency lighting, and the correspondence that went with all of it, attached to the building. Clients come and go as engagements on that record; the building's history stays in one place.
Handover is then a pack generated from the building record at a date: the current assessment and the fire safety arrangements, the action plan with what is open and what was closed and on what evidence, the state of the door register, the certificates, and the log of changes reported since the last assessment. The pack records who it was produced for, on whose authority, and when. The incoming Responsible Person starts from the truth rather than from a filing cabinet.
The record belongs to the Responsible Person, not to the practice, so the practice needs authority to release it. That belongs in the engagement terms from the start: what the practice holds, what it will hand to a successor, and on what authority. Agreed at instruction it is routine; negotiated at the point of a dispute it is not.
Follow these steps so that a change of Responsible Person is a pack generated from the record, not a search through old email.
Set the record up so that the building is the parent and everything else hangs off it: engagements with each client over time, assessments, reviews, actions, door records, certificates, correspondence. A new client on an existing building inherits the history rather than starting a new file.
Define the pack once: the current assessment and arrangements, the action plan with status and evidence, the review history, the door register and its last cycle, certificates, the change log, and the names of the other Responsible Persons in the building. The pack is a document generated from the record, in one versioned template, and the practice can add to it over time.
Agree at instruction what the practice holds, that it will provide the record to a successor Responsible Person on request, and on whose authority. Record the authority on the engagement. Where an outgoing client wants to restrict release, record that too, so the practice knows its position before anyone asks.
When a change happens, generate the pack from the building record as at that date, send it from the case, and record who received it, on what authority and when. The outgoing client, the incoming one and the practice then all hold the same thing.
In a multi-occupied building there are usually several: the owner or freeholder, the managing agent, and each employer with control of part of the premises. Record each one on the building with their contact details and what they are responsible for, and update the record when any of them changes. The Order expects them to identify each other and cooperate; the practice is often the only party that knows who they all are.
For buildings in the Building Safety Act regime, the accountable person has to keep the building's safety information current and be able to share it. The practice's record is a source for that, not a substitute. Agree the formats and the cadence with the accountable person, and export from the record rather than maintaining a second copy.
The question comes after an incident, a sale or a dispute, long after the engagement ended. A building record that is complete and dated answers it; a client folder that was archived when the client left does not.
The last thing the practice does for a departing client is generate the handover pack and record it. It protects the practice, it serves the building, and it is the start of the relationship with whoever comes next.
The fire risk assessment belongs to the Responsible Person. The practice holds it and has its own copy for its own protection. Keep the distinction in the engagement terms and in how release requests are handled.
If the outgoing client did not report changes, declined reviews or left actions open, the pack should say so plainly. The incoming Responsible Person is entitled to the gaps as well as the documents.
Cooperation between Responsible Persons is a duty under the Order. The practice that keeps the list of who they are, and tells each of them what affects them, is doing something nobody else in the building is doing.
Residential buildings over 18 metres have to provide the fire and rescue service with building plans and other information, including through a secure information box on site. The practice's record is usually the best source for keeping its contents current.
Set turnaround targets for write-up, QA and issue, and timings for review reminders.
The law does not give a number, which is why practices get asked the question so often. This guide sets out what the Order requires, what triggers a review, and how a practice keeps hundreds of review cycles running without one slipping.
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fire safetySince October 2023 a Responsible Person may only appoint a competent person to help with their fire risk assessment. This guide sets out how a practice evidences competence for every assessor and every building, and how it checks reports before they go out.
Bring us a building with a history and we will show you what it looks like as one record: the engagements, the assessments, the actions and the pack that goes to whoever comes next.
