Ask a self-managed block who the accountable person is and you often get a pause. The Building Safety Act created roles that many buildings have never formally assigned. Here is what accountable person, principal accountable person and responsible person mean, why resident-run blocks feel it most, and how to settle who holds what.

Two assessors can visit the same block and produce very different reports, and both be right. The difference is the type of assessment. Here are the four types of fire risk assessment for blocks of flats, what each one looks at, and how the new BS 9792:2025 standard fits in.

A fire risk assessment does not produce a pass. It produces a list of significant findings, and the law expects you to act on them. An assessment in a drawer with open actions is evidence of non-compliance, not proof of it. Here is why buildings stall at this point, and how to close the loop properly.

There is no single licence to hold before calling yourself a fire risk assessor. The law requires competence, but does not hand out a badge, so the burden falls on you to judge it. Here are the questions worth asking before you appoint anyone, and why the cheapest quote is rarely the right one.

A waking watch is meant to be a bridge, not a destination. Yet for many buildings it has become a permanent, expensive fixture. Here is what a waking watch is actually for, when it is the right call, and how to tell whether yours should have been replaced by an alarm a long time ago.