Landlords and building managers of taller residential blocks in England are now under a fresh legal duty to identify residents who may need help to escape during a fire, as the Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) (England) Regulations 2025 take effect.
The new regime introduces Residential Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans, or RPEEPs, for multi-occupied buildings with two or more homes that are at least 18 metres or seven storeys high, or above 11 metres where a simultaneous evacuation strategy is in place. For landlords, the shift is practical rather than cosmetic: they must take reasonable steps to identify residents who may struggle to evacuate without assistance, offer a personalised fire risk assessment, and where the resident agrees, put an individual evacuation statement in place alongside a building-wide plan.
RPEEP rules widen landlords’ duties on resident safety
Under the new rules, responsible persons – usually freeholders, landlords or managing agents – must keep evacuation arrangements under review and share limited resident information with fire services where consent is given. That means compliance now stretches beyond alarms, compartmentation and communal area checks into resident-specific planning.
In recent weeks, Residential Landlord reported on a Brent HMO landlord fined £392,000 after serious safety failings, while Harrow’s action against life-threatening hazards showed how fast enforcement can escalate when basic protections fall short. The latest evacuation rules add another compliance layer for landlords operating larger blocks or mixed portfolios.
Spencer Sutcliff, deputy commissioner at London Fire Brigade, said: “These changes are an important first step towards making sure everyone feels safe in their own home, especially those who might need extra support in an emergency.”
He added, “The responsibility for putting these arrangements in place sits with the Responsible Persons, and we’re ready to receive the information they share so we can use it to help us respond as effectively as possible in the event of an emergency.”
This follows Residential Landlord’s March coverage of Brent’s prosecution over severe HMO safety breaches, which underlined how regulators are moving from reactive enforcement towards closer scrutiny of landlord systems and management standards. RPEEPs push that trend further by testing whether landlords can demonstrate building-specific planning before an emergency happens.
What the new fire rules mean for landlords
For landlords with units in affected buildings, the immediate issue is figuring out who holds the legal duty and whether managing agents already have systems in place. In some blocks the responsible person will be the freeholder or management company, but portfolio landlords should not assume the obligation sits elsewhere if they are involved in management decisions or resident communication.
There is also a cost and administration angle. Landlords may need to review tenancy onboarding, resident communication and record keeping to make sure vulnerable occupiers are invited into the process without mishandling sensitive information. The risk is not only formal non-compliance, but confusion over who has done what if a fire service later asks for evidence. Official guidance from London Fire Brigade makes clear that evacuation planning is now expected to be active, personalised and regularly reviewed.
Landlords in taller blocks should now be asking three questions: is the building in scope, who is the responsible person, and how will resident needs be identified and updated over time? Those who leave the answer to managing agents without checking may be taking a bigger risk than they realise.
Opinion
These rules will not trouble small buy-to-let investors in low-rise stock, but they matter for anyone exposed to larger blocks through direct ownership, freehold interests or mixed-use holdings. The direction of travel is clear: fire safety law is becoming more resident-specific, more documented and harder to wave away as somebody else’s problem.
