Fire safety overview for landlords in Wales

Introduction

Whether you are renting to a family or renting to sharers you have an obligation to ensure the property is safe from fire. However, knowing what is required to make a property safe is quite a complex area of the law.

There are several important pieces of legislation which can affect your responsibilities and practices in regards to fire safety for your properties. Not all of it applies to every property which can make it difficult to understand exactly what you need to do to ensure you are being responsible about fire safety.

The purpose of this guide is to help you understand what the legislative framework is for fire safety, what you might be required to do to comply with it, and how that translates to ensuring each of your properties is safe for your tenants. It is designed for landlords and agents who own or manage one property rather than a block of flats for example.

What fire safety legislation might apply to my property?

The framework for fire safety ranges across a number of different pieces of legislation. The main ones are -

• The Renting Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) (Wales) Regulations 2022
• The Housing Act 2004 
• The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
• The Building Regulations (Part B)
• The HMO Management Regulations 2006 and the additional provisions laid out in 2007