Beyond the Fire Risk Assessment: 5 Common Fire Safety Order Blind Spots for Building Managers

Most commercial landlords, employers, and facilities managers across England and Wales know the fundamentals of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (RRFSO). Since replacing old-style fire certificates in October 2006, the legislation has required the designated “Responsible Person” to take a proactive, risk-based approach to building safety.

However, commissioning an initial fire risk assessment is only the starting line. When local Fire and Rescue Authorities conduct scheduled audits or investigate complaints, enforcement action frequently stems from day-to-day management gaps rather than a complete absence of paperwork.

To help you move from basic awareness to robust compliance, here are five common blind spots that catch Responsible Persons off guard—and how to address them before an inspector visits.

1. Assuming a Standard Fire Risk Assessment Catches Everything

Under Article 9 of the FSO, carrying out a “suitable and sufficient” fire risk assessment is a strict legal requirement. Yet many building controllers assume that once an assessor has walked the corridors, every aspect of the building’s fire strategy has been verified.

While a standard assessment evaluates day-to-day hazards, escape routes, and active systems like alarms and emergency lighting, it rarely looks inside the fabric of the building. Hidden defects, such as unsealed service penetrations above suspended ceilings, breaches beneath raised floors, or degraded fire-stopping inside risers, often go completely unnoticed during a visual walkthrough. Because the FSO legally requires passive fire protection to be kept in “efficient working order and in good repair,” relying solely on a general risk assessment can leave you exposed. Commissioning a dedicated passive fire protection survey is the only reliable way to verify that your compartmentation walls, floors, and ventilation fire dampers will actually contain smoke and flame in an emergency.

2. “Silent Degradation” in Passive Fire Protection

Active fire systems, such as smoke detectors and alarms, usually alert you when a fault develops. Passive fire protection measures, the built-in barriers designed to hold back fire and protect escape routes, degrade silently.

Two of the biggest culprits are routine building works and everyday occupant habits:

• Uncontrolled maintenance and cabling: When IT contractors or electricians run new cables through a compartment wall without properly fire-stopping the gap, the integrity of that fire barrier is immediately compromised.
• Compromised fire doors: Fire doors rely on intact intumescent seals and working self-closing devices to function. If a door is wedged open for convenience or damaged by heavy foot traffic, your building’s entire fire strategy is undermined.

Treating passive fire protection as a “fit and forget” feature is a major compliance risk. It requires a planned inspection regime and dated maintenance records just like your alarm system.

3. Grey Areas Around Shared Control in Multi-Let Buildings

In a single-occupier office or warehouse, identifying the Responsible Person under Article 3 is straightforward: it is usually the employer or building owner. In mixed-use developments, shopping centres, or multi-let office blocks, control is often fragmented between freeholders, managing agents, facilities managers, and individual corporate tenants.

Under the FSO, multiple parties can hold Responsible Person duties simultaneously depending on which areas they control. Crucially, the law requires all of these parties to cooperate and coordinate with one another. If a tenant assumes the managing agent is maintaining the stairwell fire doors, and the managing agent assumes the tenant is checking them, both parties can face scrutiny. Responsibilities across shared spaces, plant rooms, and boundaries should always be agreed upon and documented in writing.

4. Overlooking Newer Residential Rules (2021 and 2022 Updates)

If your portfolio includes blocks of flats or mixed-use buildings containing two or more domestic premises, compliance requirements have expanded significantly following the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 report.

Two critical updates now sit alongside the original 2005 Order:

• The Fire Safety Act 2021: Commencing in May 2022, this confirmed that FSO duties in multi-occupied residential buildings explicitly cover the building’s structure, external walls (including cladding, balconies, and windows), and all individual flat entrance doors opening into common parts.
• The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022: In force since January 2023, these regulations introduce strict, height-based obligations. All multi-occupied residential buildings must display fire safety instructions, install wayfinding signage, and give residents fire door guidance. If the building is over 11 metres, Responsible Persons must carry out and record quarterly checks on communal fire doors and annual checks on flat entrance doors. High-rise buildings (18 metres+ or at least seven storeys) must also maintain an annually inspected secure information box and share floor plans and external wall details with the local Fire and Rescue Service.

5. Treating the Assessment as a One-Off Paper Exercise

The FSO does not set a rigid calendar deadline for reviewing your fire risk assessment, which leads some businesses to file it away and forget about it. However, the law dictates that assessments must be reviewed regularly and whenever there is reason to suspect they are no longer valid.

You should trigger an immediate review following:

• A structural refurbishment or layout alteration
• A change in how the building is used
• A significant shift in occupancy levels
• A near-miss or fire incident on the premises

Remember that Fire and Rescue Authorities do not wait for a fire to happen before taking action. Depending on the severity of a breach, inspectors can issue an Alterations Notice, an Enforcement Notice (requiring fixes within a minimum of 28 days), or an immediate Prohibition Notice that shuts down part or all of your building. Under Article 32, ignoring a notice or failing in your core duties where people are placed at risk of death or serious injury is a criminal offence carrying unlimited fines and potential imprisonment.

Take Control of Your Building’s Fire Integrity

Maintaining compliance under the Fire Safety Order requires looking beyond the surface. Since 2016, Meritas has supported building owners, occupiers, and facilities managers across the East of England with specialist passive fire protection services. From intrusive fire compartmentation surveys to thorough fire door inspections and fire damper assessments, we provide clear remediation roadmaps that give you full confidence in your building’s compliance.

Contact the Meritas team today to arrange a survey or discuss your premises’ fire safety requirements.