Question:
The council are selling a leasehold property under the Right to Buy Scheme. The property contains two flats, one on the ground floor and one on the first floor. There are no communal areas contained within the property. The solicitors who are acting for the buyer have asked the council to provide a fire risk assessment for the property. I was advised by the leaseholder team that this is not a requirement because there are no communal areas. Please could you advise?
Answer:
Based on the information provided, a fire risk assessment is required. As noted in the extracts below the external walls need to be considered as part of the communal areas to include any cladding systems and structures such as balconies. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order, as amended by the Fire Safety Act 2021 states the following:
Where a building contains two or more sets of domestic premises, the things to which this order applies include -
(a) the building's structure and external walls and any common parts;
(b) all doors between the domestic premises and common parts (so far as not falling within sub-paragraph (a)).
(1B)The reference to external walls includes—
(a) doors or windows in those walls, and
(b) anything attached to the exterior of those walls (including balconies).
It goes onto state the “premises” includes domestic premises other than premises consisting of or comprised in a house which is occupied as a single private dwelling, therefore it is applicable to maisonettes and flats.