Fire safety and health and safety compliance are often discussed most loudly after something has gone wrong. A serious incident happens, questions are asked, responsibilities are scrutinised and suddenly there is urgency. But compliance should never be driven by tragedy. It should be driven by understanding, communication, and shared responsibility long before risk becomes reality.
In practice, many fire safety failures in leasehold buildings are not the result of indifference. They are the result of communication breaking down, particularly around risk that originates inside individual flats.
While managing agents and freeholders are responsible for the common parts of a building, a significant proportion of fire risk can begin within a demised flat. This is where clarity is often lacking and leaseholders may not fully understand how their own actions, or inaction, can place the wider building at risk.
Examples of negligent behaviour are rarely malicious, but they can be dangerous. These include disabling or removing smoke alarms, propping open fire doors, carrying out unauthorised electrical works, overloading sockets, storing combustible items on balconies, or installing non-compliant flooring that compromises fire compartmentation. We also see risks arising from poorly maintained appliances, unattended charging of e-bikes or lithium batteries, and alterations carried out without consideration of fire stopping or structural integrity.
When residents are unaware of how these issues affect not just their own home but the safety of the entire building, risk increases quietly and incrementally. And when those risks are not clearly explained, they are often dismissed as minor or inconvenient until something goes wrong.
This is where communication becomes critical.
Fire risk assessments, action plans and compliance notices are essential tools, but they lose impact when presented as technical documents with little context. Residents may feel overwhelmed or defensive and directors may struggle to balance enforcement with neighbourly relationships. Managing agents may also find themselves repeatedly raising concerns without the authority or engagement needed to resolve them.
The result is delay, not because people don’t care, but because they haven’t been helped to truly understand why action is necessary and what the consequences of inaction could be.
We also see a familiar cycle across the sector with intense focus on fire safety following major incidents, followed by a gradual loss of momentum. Budgets tighten, priorities shift, and compliance becomes reactive again. Yet residents continue to assume that their building is being managed safely and responsibly at all times.
True compliance is not about responding to headlines. It is about creating a culture where fire safety is openly discussed, consistently reinforced, and clearly understood by everyone involved. That includes being honest about risks that sit within individual flats, while supporting residents to address them sensibly and proportionately.
As an industry we must move beyond box-ticking and enforcement alone. It means helping people understand their role in keeping buildings safe, communicating risk without fear-mongering, and embedding fire safety into everyday decision-making.
