For premises covered by the Fire Safety Order, the Responsible Person must record the fire risk assessment in full and the fire-safety arrangements. In practice, managing agents should also retain the inspection, testing, servicing and remedial records needed to demonstrate how the building is being managed.
The fire risk assessment and fire-safety arrangements
Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022 strengthened the recording duties under the Fire Safety Order. Responsible Persons must record the fire risk assessment in full, including all findings, and record the fire-safety arrangements for the premises.
Inspection, testing and servicing records
Keep the evidence that supports the management system: fire-door checks and surveys, emergency-lighting tests, fire-alarm servicing where applicable, smoke-control maintenance, suppression-system records and other relevant inspection or maintenance documentation for the building.
Remedial work and completion evidence
An invoice alone may show that a contractor attended, but it does not always establish that a previously identified defect has been satisfactorily resolved. Where appropriate, retain completion records, updated certificates, photographs, contractor reports or other evidence that allows the action to be reconciled with the FRA or inspection report.
Resident information and management records
Keep copies of the fire-safety information issued to residents, the current fire action notice or evacuation instructions and records showing when information was provided or reviewed. Routine common-part inspections and access attempts for required door checks should also be recorded.
Make the record usable
A portfolio does not need an elaborate system to keep good fire-safety records, but records should be easy to retrieve and linked to the correct property. A simple building-level fire-safety file or digital record with current documents, superseded records and an action log is usually more useful than certificates scattered across emails.