According to Inside Housing, the call from the fire chief membership body came in response to the prosecution of a property managing agent following the death of a woman in a tower block fire in August 2012.
Sophie Rosser, 23, died following the fire in Meridian Place in London’s Docklands where she lived on the fifth floor. She was found unconscious by firefighters and treated at the scene by London’s Helicopter Emergency Medical Service before being taken to hospital, where she later died.
London Fire Brigade (LFB) carried out an inspection of the building following the fire and discovered several serious fire safety failures, including:
Parc Properties Management Limited (PPML), the managing agent for Meridian Place Management, was ordered to pay £40,000 at Southwark Crown Court on 19 March after pleading guilty to two offences under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order (RRO) 2005.
Vance Miller, who conducted a fire risk assessment for PPML at Meridian Place in 2008, also pleaded guilty to one offence under the RRO, and was fined £2,000 with £5,000 costs.
According to Inside Housing, the Hackitt review, set up post-Grenfell, is considering a recommendation to introduce a duty holder who would have ultimate responsibility for fire safety in a building, in order to ensure that fire safety responsibilities are taken seriously.
This could be the building owner, but in situations where the ownership of the building is complex, it would be someone based in the UK. The duty holder would need to work with residents, including leaseholders, and a regulator would oversee their work to ensure they are meeting their responsibilities.
Fire safety experts have reported significant confusion about who the responsible person required in law for fire safety is in privately-owned buildings where there may be a freeholder and owner(s) as well as a property management company.
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Whilst I understand the confusion it really should not be there. The RRO established that a “Responsible Person” be appointed from Hand Over and is just that, the person responsible for ensuring safety in the building through risk assessment. The contractor is obliged under regulation 38 to provide the RP with all relevant information. We should not be reinventing wheel here, just seeing that it is understood and followed