The 10 Step Guide to HRB Compliance Mastery

Seventy two.

The Grenfell Tower tragedy in 2017 was the largest single loss of life in a fire on mainland Britain, since the Hillsborough incident in 1989. Seventy two people loosing their lives, who were guilty of nothing more than getting ready for bed that evening.

Much has been written since, about the social, political and the commercial motives surrounding the root causes which led to that fateful evening in West London, and some interesting parallels you could argue from the Hillsborough enquiry. And it will continue to be, and should be, yet another stark reminder of what can happen when safety is relegated down the pile.

We have also seen new legislation enacted as an attempt to drive a cultural change, in attitudes across all those involved with the design, construction and management of the Built Environment.

But, how can we ensure this does not happen again?

We know legislation alone will not guarantee safety. But it provides a minimum benchmark to be adhered to. If this standard is picked up and championed to 'raise the bar' for safety and the crucial bit- ensuring the ongoing safety is enshrined in to day to day safety culture, then we are moving in the right direction.

We also know, from the H&S at Work Act that safety culture is not a one person operation. Nor is it just a policy document on a shelf. And this is some of the limitation of just seeing this as a 'compliance process'. It needs to matched with addressing building safety, and at the top of the list- life safety.

We talk, and obsess, about Building Safety. I'd propose that we are looking at this the wrong way round. We should be focusing on LIFE SAFETY, of those people in the building- and this is the key concept to unlock to understand the Safety Case culture for HRBs. In turn you will then make buildings safer, and in turn address compliance. Simply, and sometimes i see people blindly follow compliance, it is often not proportionate, nor pragmatic, nor addressing risk holistically (with life safety reasoning at the fore)- this is where we see dogmatic reports citing compliance against 'British Standards Guidance'...... It's now time to shake the tree and allow common sense to prevail in how the information is interpreted, and justified.

And that, comes down to a healthy dose of- Competency. (And that is a whole other debate!).

That said, the Building Safety Act (BSA) has now set out prescriptive requirements for those involved with occupied High Rise(Risk) Buildings in England and the timeline to comply is tight.

So what's the issue? Why do Companies appear to be dragging their heals and why has this not all been resolved you may ask- safety first- remember Grenfell.

Well, to put it bluntly- we have inherited a mess. (the reasons for which are many- and would require much longer word count that available here- Peter Apps' book 'Show Me the Bodies' is an excellent synopsis).

Also, the guidance and release of secondary legislation has been disjointed, sometimes contradictory and at breakneck speed, with little consultation or consideration for how this really sits against other significant legislation (such as the Landlord and Tenant Act, for one). Ask a property lawyer..... we are still waiting for any real case precedent to set the direction through several ambiguous areas (who/how do you serve cost for remediation to an apartment door in a high rise, for instance?).

So, how do we drive this forward? Sure, there are enough pieces of the jigsaw puzzle available to see the general direction of travel intended, however there is the risk for some of suffering from paralysis of action by 'awaiting the detail', or 'fear of getting something wrong'. Certainly, trying to digest and interpret the swirling releases by the DLUHC and Gov.uk is becoming a full time job in itself- and that's if you are fortunate to locate them when you search their Website!

So, in an attempt to provide some clarity amidst the chaos, here is my suggestion as to a 10 step plan which will provide you reassurance for ensuring your HRB is compliant with the current form of the BSA:

1) Get it measured!

Don't assume anything. (I find myself saying this a lot, as well as wishing i had royalties on the word 'caveat').

More importantly, get it independently measured, by a qualified chartered surveyor. By doing so you are transferring out the risk, and they will have the professional indemnity insurance and competency to provide you with a comprehensive survey report in line with the Government criteria. This will be a wise move as you may soon receive scrutiny from the local FRS as they police what they understand to be HRBs or the Council serving you Section 235 Notices requesting a series of documentation.

If you are able to support your response with an independent report, it will really help. You may even be able to demonstrate that this is NOT a HRB.

The Government estimate there are some 12,000 HRBs in England and that 12% of those are 7 storeys, yet not 18m in building safety height. Personally, i would suggest this figure is much higher, and how the 'number of storeys' is calculated is not always that straight forward- do any of your buildings have top floor duplexes for instance? Is the internal floor space 50% of any of the floors below?

Dependent on the answer to that question determines if you should be counting that as a storey or not- which may give you a 7 storey or a 6 storey building- a HRB or not an HRB. Small margins- BIG deal! Do NOT assume.

2) Establish what are the HRBs and their rating

Hang on, you've just said that? So you may think, but nothing is straight forward when interpreting the BSA.

Yes, you now understand based on height measure or by virtue of being 7 storeys if you have a qualifying HRB.

2a) Next however is to look deeper and determine if you have a stand alone structure or is the HRB connected to other buildings? If so, how? Potentially what you thought was one connected structure equating one HRB is in fact- following the HRB (Descriptions and Supplementary Provisions) Regs 2023- deemed to be two separate structures and therefore you now have 2 HRBs.

This guidance criteria was only released by Gov.uk on 21 June 23 so may not have been factored in if you were surveying your potential HRBs in 2022. (Don't assume).

2b) Establish the Tier Rating of each HRB (Tier 1-5)- this will give you a prioritisation if you have a large portfolio. It will also be the methodology approach the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) will use when reviewing HRBs- with Tier 1 first in line for scrutiny.

3) Establish who are the APs and the PAP

New roles and Terminology- and acronyms. Get used to them.

Really important to establish who the Accountable Persons (APs) are for the HRB and this will require a review of the lease arrangement. Also, who is the PAP (the Principle Accountable Person).

Establishing who is the PAP is key. They are ultimately accountable for the compliance of the HRB, and just like Highlander 'there can be only one'- and no, it's not optional.

This refers to a corporate entity rather than an individual as such. What's surprising is the number of 'Resident Management Companies' (RMCs) who are finding themselves in the unenviable position of PAP. And, beware Managing Agents, as if you are the embedded agent you are probably the PAP.

And, where there are a number of APs and no one is sure 100% who is the PAP..... then it's real important to clarify the interpretation of the BSA with external legal advice (however buyer beware- they are reading and interpreting the same doumented legislation as you- and are also navigating this bag of spaghetti of legislation).

4) Open Comms Channels between APs and PAP

It's good to talk.

Convene a video call with all parties and have an open and frank discussion. It does really help- you may find the others are also grappling with interpreting the legislation and have differing views on where they see themselves in the picture.

Don't forget to invite the managing agent, as they need to be involved in this process once the PAP is 'crowned'- after all who knows the buildings as well or has access to all the day to day paperwork and maintenance reports?

You may feel hesitant- What if they think we don't know everything? Believe me- we are all trying to figure this out and they will be grateful you've taken the lead- there are no silly questions. Suck up any Corporate or individual ego and just have a chat- it will be enlightening for all concerned- and on the back of it you'll all form a relationship, based on trust and openness which will serve you well as you journey through this.

5) Will they PAP alone?

Once a clear PAP has been established, decide if they will require the assistance of the Managing Agent and any specialist third party.

Consider:

a) Competency and skills of those you are engaging with. Ask questions about their experience and qualifications in fire safety and structural building knowledge.

b) Adequate PI insurance is in place. If you're an RMC PAP you may want to review/increase from the standard £1m Directors Insurance to £5m

c) If you're the PAP and you are going to engage outside assistance to assist you in meeting the compliance elements of the Building Safety Act, have a clear agreement in place - sign this- and have clear scope of works*

*Worth highlighting that this is not something intended for that the PAP duties can be contracted out. This is not the same as instructing a risk assessment- receive a report- pay the invoice- thank you- Hurray, i'm now a compliant PAP. The PAP is ultimately accountable and in the spirit of the BSA needs to have an intimate and knowledgeable involvement of what is happening.

Can a Company who know nothing about your HRB provide you a one off price and deliver a resident engagement strategy for instance? Will that price include the continual engagement with residents, not to mention the ongoing management of your safety management system, for the life of the HRB and as long as you are the PAP? Are you sure?

6) Check you have all the Fire Safety England Regs in place

Back on the 23 January 23 a new set of prescriptive regulations were released- aimed at tightening up some areas form the Fire Safety Order 2005 and bringing in to force some of the recommendations from the Grenfell enquiry.

Whilst applicable in some degree to occupied residential buildings of all heights- in England- the significant relevance was for those deemed HRBs:

Regulation 4- Install a secure information box in each HRB. There is one Company that has a monopoly on this, and they do offer a great product, however, there are much cheaper alternatives which serve the purpose and may be more proportionate. A search on Amazon will show some viable alternatives especially if you want to install this internally in the entrance lobby, near the fire alarm/AOV panel would be best and ensure it is clearly visible on entry.

It does not have to be externally applied.

It does need to be 'secure'. So no velcro bag for this.

Think about how you, a risk assessor or the Fire Rescue Service (FRS) can get access. Could you get one with a hasp and apply an FB14 padlock? All front line fire appliances, and firefighters carry an FB14 key. A key in a break glass box is another option- although you'll be forever replacing it!

It's aim is to contain ONLY information appropriate for operational firefighting- there is a prescriptive list and your local FRS can provide you a paint by numbers guide on what they need and crucially how to layout the information.

Despite some opinions to the contrary, it should NOT contain all your 300 pages of O&Ms, architects plans and service history and testing records. Store this somewhere else,

This is a clinical and specific set of plans and key assets, laid out ideally in A3. Laminate them- you'll instantly make friends with your local FRS if you do.

If you track PEEPS also consider an A4 laminated 'flash card' that relates to the PEEP on the main A3 plan. Huge practical benefit for operational crews, and works well when tested in high rise drills.

Regulation 5- Confirmation of the Design and Makeup of the External Walls- You may have had a FRAEW or prior intrusive survey by a fire engineer undertaken. This should be sufficient for the detail you'll need

Regulation 6- Annotated floor plans for the information box and digital version- upload to the local FRS. This can often be a challenge if plans are not available and you may need to get a new survey unless you can request from the Developer. The Fire Strategy is the key document to ask for as this will contain a lot of the pertinent detail you'll need.

Speak with your local FRS as some are undertaking their own CAD design capture to load to their Operational Risk Database- they can share them with you (and save you a lot of heartache- and leaseholder cost). As we mentioned before- its good to talk.

Regulation 7- Monthly checks of key firefighting assets- Ensure everyone understands what are key firefighting assets, and confirm which you have in the HRB. How are you tracking this and can you evidence who and when this was done each month?

Where possible i'd recommend having an annual SLA in place with regular outsourcing to a competent third party provider to again outsource the risk. Have the remaining monthly checks undertaken by a competent inhouse person following a standard checklist and recording this.

Regulation 8- Install wayfinding signage- needs to be 'visible in low lighting' and two tone sign so the numbers stand out. Photoluminescent is advisable i'd suggest, and positioned in the correct locations as per the guidance.

First though check the existing signage in the block- it may satisfy the requirements. If you're unsure invite the FRS for a walk around and discuss.

You should have emergency lighting in a HRB so make sure this is working and maintained. They have battery back ups should there be a power outage.

If you do need to install new signage to meet the wayfinding criteria then photoluminescent could be the better option.

However, walk the building and check the layout of corridors and lifts- if you have an open stairwell you may only need one set of signage per level.

Beware of Duplex level flats? Does number 65 on the 6th floor also have an entry door on the 7th floor?

Also, do you have more than one stairwell? (i know the 2nd staircase questions is a hot potato topic right now)- consider how you would differentiate two floor 9s? Look at creating a STAIRWAY A and a STAIRWAY B with this additional sign on each level in the stairwell. (Preference would be to have Stairwell A as your primary stairwell- the one with the dry riser closest to it, and this is reflected on the plans in the Secure information box)

Regulation 9- Fire Safety info to residents- on at least an annual basis. A number of ways you could tackle this- an anniversary letter, along with notice on the main lobby noticeboard. You may have a Portal. You may have a newsletter that you send out. Use them all.

Consider the differing needs of your residents. Are there multiple languages? What about large type? Braille? QR codes are great for people to deep dive for more detail or report fire door issues, however not everyone is that tech savvy.

You may think this is a simple letter- job done. But, looking at this closer this is the start of you considering your resident engagement strategy.

Then we look at PEEPs. In my experience we've been offering a widespread and successful PEEPS programme for over 12 months now- providing an 'opt in' process where we offer free consultations and a person centred risk assessment. With their agreement we also signpost them to our partners at the local FRS for a free home fire safety visit. The Fire Service get to address one of their P1 priority demographic, the resident is super happy and reassured- and often just pleased that someone is listening to them, and we get to actually really understand some of our residents and the issues in the building.

It's good to talk.

Regulation 10- Fire Doors!- Communal and apartments front doors- Quarterly checks of all communal doors and annual checks of apartment front doors

A real necessity and one of the - often overlooked- critical elements of the passive fire safety system of the building.

I could write a lot about my frustrations with the state of fire doors, and this also includes modern HRBs, constructed since Grenfell. Often the products are amazing- fire door sets are highly engineered systems, but invariably compromised by poor installation and a lack of suitable maintenance.

Consider an external third party survey for the first 'check', and then some form of competent person in-house completing the visual check, following a checklist for the other 3 quarterlies. This will keep costs down but gives you a thorough independent review to start with.

A challenge when you come to remediation as the question of the 'Leaseholder Protection Regulation' which needs to be considered and early engagement with Developers is advised so you can open the discussion about remediation in line with their Developer Pledge commitment.

For apartment front doors (which access in to the communal areas)- we face one of the bigger conundrums of the BSA-

a) the Fire Safety Act (FSA) 2021 amended the Fire Safety Order to make the apartment front door now deemed 'common parts', along with the exterior of the building. This was a direct recommendation from the Grenfell enquiry to provide more accountability and scrutiny of these areas- and hence they are now required to be considered when you have your standard Type 1 FRA undertaken also- for buildings of all heights.

Fantastic you may say- however..... sadly, this is at odds with the Lease agreement which states that the front door of the apartment belongs to the owner. So, inadvertently the FSA has made the demised owner a Responsible Person (RP). The plot thickens.

b) Charges for remediation on a flat door can not be charged back through the service charge

c) For buildings over 11m in height, if defects on fire doors are deemed to be 'as built' fire safety defects (i fail to see how a 25mm threshold gap can be due to wear and tear) if the managing agents addresses them and charges that cost through the service charge they will be in breach of the leaseholder protection regulation, under statue law which is therefore a criminal offence- as perverse as that sounds

And Regulation 11..... which appears to have now vanished form the Gov.uk website- however is the requirements to provide digital information to the FRS.

Fire Services are now looking to issue Enforcement Notices if these areas can not be evidenced, so do not delay. Or, if you are struggling do reach out to them and ask for their assistance and demonstrate you have a plan in place to address these areas. Early engagement will serve you well. Be open and have a plan.

7) Register the HRB with the BSR

Now this is where it gets exciting, as the new Regulator - the BSR- who operates under the HSE, has set out an ambitious timeline for compliance and one that is important for you if you are the PAP:

7a) Register the HRB on the BSR Portal- and pay £251 at point of submission

Takes 1-2 hours to collate and submit

7b) Upload the Key Building Information (KBI) on the BSR Portal

Takes 5- 15 hours to collate and submit. Advisable to keep an excel template of your submission and get the signoff from the PAP before you submit.

This method also allows you to undertake a gap analysis against the required information for multiple HRBs and locate of undertake surveys to seek out the missing information.

But here is the kicker:

Both are required by 30 September 2023 for occupied HRBs in England

8) Compile the Safety Case

If you've followed the steps above you'll already have the building blocks and much of the detail for the Safety Case.

However, this is NOT a singular one off piece of work. It is also NOT the purpose to achieve a completely risk free building- they don't exist.

The purpose is to create a living and breathing safety management system, which addresses the risks of two areas- 1- the risk of fire spread and 2- structural integrity.

There are also additional areas which will need to be created such as a mandatory occurrence reporting system and a complaints escalation procedure along with the resident engagement strategy.

At the heart of this is how the information is managed so that it always feeds in the most up to date 'status' of those two managed risk areas- such as your new maintenance report, your latest risk assessments findings. A so called 'digital golden thread' must be maintained.

There are some great SaaS platforms out there that can help and certainly consolidate and give you dashboards to manage all the information. Are they a necessity? No, they're not actually.

Beware the snake oil sellers.

The Digital Golden Thread does not have to be a singular platform, and it's unlikely it will be, given the complexity of information you'll be tracking and managing.

However you do need to figure out how you intend to manage, track and, if needs be, share information relating to your Safety Case/HRB.

You may feel that employing a dedicated Safety Risk SaaS platform is the way forward. Just do some digging first to understand how you're current IT systems, databases can link. There will no doubt be an ongoing cost.

Open APIs can assist. And don't be afraid of beginning in Excel whilst you make a decision- Microsoft excel does what it says on the tin, and if formatted correctly can easily be integrated in to your new platform.

Do some thinking on how consideration for the residents will be kept informed and enfranchised in the process. This should be a two-way learning channel and not just a policy doc to be written, it has to be a workable solution. Resident meetings? Utilise the RMC as the conduit? Ensure meetings are minuted and then shared... all takes time and that equates a cost to factor in. But this is a mission critical piece of the Safety Case and how it will become effective is embedded the Safety Case.

This is a sizeable piece of work and requires planning and thought and risk management methodologies employed. And also, 'keep it real'- how are you going to communicate 'SAFETY' ? Could you use a 5 start rating system based on set criteria? Be great if we could get this as a standard... we know it works and is understandable at a glance across food/hygeine, across online reviews, across financial products- why not the 'state' of a HRB?

This will also be intimate and specific to the HRB and the people who live in it.

9) Create the Safety Case Report

Not the same as the Safety Case. Although i hear the two terms often used interchangeably.

This is like the 'Executive Summary' of the Safety Case.

It is the high level report that will be submitted to the BSR as and when the call in your HRB for review, for which the gates will swing open from April 2024. The PAP will then have 28 days to submit the Safety Case REPORT to the BSR.

At the moment we understand the BSR will charge for their time to review the SCReport. The sums mentioned range form £10k-£15k dependent on the complexity of the HRB to the standard of the SCReport.

They will look to call in Tier 1 HRBs first throughout 2024. This could well be impacted by their ability to recruit and to also fulfil their wider remit of assuming the role of building Control from 1st October 2023.

With the Gateway 2 and Gateway 3 stages coming in to play the BSR will have their hands full.

I personally expect more revision to occur in Autumn 2023 along with more secondary legislation. And surely that eyewatering charge has to be looked at, especially if the PAP turns out to be the RMC- this is a thinly veiled case of the Government directly charging the very Leaseholders they said would NOT suffer more financial burden of making these HRBs safe.

10) Successful receipt of the Building Assessment Certificate

If the BSR are satisfied that your Safety Case Report demonstrates an effective safety management system is in place for your HRB and the risks are being managed, they will issue a Building Assessment Certificate which the PAP will be required to display in the HRB.

For new HRBs under construction and moving through to practical completion at Gateway 3 stage the onus will be on the Developer to demonstrate compliance. With an anticipated 12 week review period, and no occupation allowed until BSR sign off on new HRBs, from next year, the regime is arriving, and fast.

Change nothing, nothing changes.

So, there you have it: A 10 step plan for compliance.

I hope it proves helpful for you in offering a structure to address compliance. I've tried not to make it too 'legal speak' and hopefully digestible- to do some myth busting- and offer some practical remedies as well.

There are plenty of links to further detail on these points above at Gov.uk and at the HSE website.

I'd welcome any thoughts you have or suggestions or indeed hear about success stories that you have.