FAQ

Please see the advice from Leasehold Advisory Service. 

If you continue to have problems getting details from your freeholder or managing agent, contact fire-safety@towerhamlets.gov.uk, your local councillor or MP.

The EWS form must be completed by a fully qualified member of a relevant professional body within the construction industry.

They must have the expertise to identify the relevant materials within the external wall cladding and attachments. This includes whether fire resisting cavity barriers and fire stopping have been installed correctly.

The council cannot approve individual persons who can deliver the EWS1. They also cannot advise on who can and cannot complete the EWS1 form/ process.

 Only qualified chartered members of the relevant professional bodies such as IFE and RICS will have the necessary self-assessed competence and professional indemnity insurance to carry out this work

There are very few people in the UK who have the qualifications and experience to sign an EWS1 certificate.

There is very large number of buildings affected across the UK.
There can be long delays to appoint an appropriate person to do the survey and sign the certificate.  

In law, there are no specific time periods for how often fire risk assessments must be done or reviewed. It states that the responsible person for assessments in your building must review it ‘regularly’ to make sure it’s up to date.

The responsible person must review the fire risk assessment if:

- there’s reason to think it’s no longer valid (for example, if there has been a fire in the shared parts of the building)

- there have been significant changes since the assessment was done (for example, major building works or more people using the building)

The assessment itself might also have a recommendation of how often it should be reviewed or updated. Reviewing an existing fire risk assessment can take less time than carrying out a new assessment. So, reviews can be done more frequently.

The Local Government Association (LGA) has guidance on fire safety in purpose-built blocks of flats. For low-rise blocks of up to three storeys above ground, built in the last 20 years, fire risk assessments should be:

- reviewed every 2 years

- redone every 4 years

For blocks with higher risks (for example, because of the age of the building), or those more than 3 storeys high, fire risk assessments should be:

- reviewed every year

- redone every 3 years

In extreme cases (for the highest-risk buildings), the LGA advised a new fire risk assessment once a year.

Responsibility for a fire risk assessment in your building could be with:

- the owner (freeholder)

- a residents’ management company

- a Right to Manage company

- a managing agent.

In law, a ‘responsible person oversees fire safety in the shared parts of a building. For blocks of flats or large houses in multiple occupation (HMO) this is usually the freeholder or management company.

They give some of these responsibilities to a managing agent. This can include arranging or reviewing fire risk assessments.

The responsible person (or agent) may carry out the fire risk assessment themselves or employ someone else to do it.