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UK building and land safety, audits and compliance — practical notes, product releases and our reading of the regulations. Opinion and general information, not legal advice.

SAMRISK opinion and general information — not legal or professional advice.

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Satellite view of Hanley town centre in Stoke-on-Trent, the streets of shop units, upper floors and service yards around the centre

Latest · Maintenance and management

16 October 2026 5 min read

Empty units over winter, and the inspection your insurer expects

England had 542,000 empty homes on the council tax register in September 2025, up 8% on the year before. An empty flat or shop unit is easy to forget once the heating season starts, and the policy that covers it usually expects someone to be checking it, and writing it down.

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Satellite view of the Barbican Estate in the City of London, the residential towers and terraces around the lake and podium, with service yards and access roads at the edges

9 October 20265 min readFire safety

Bonfire season, and the waste left beside your buildings

Fire and rescue services in England attended 102,549 secondary fires in the year to March 2026, up 30% on the year before. Bins, skips and dumped rubbish against a wall are where an outdoor fire becomes a building fire, and the weeks before 5 November are when to clear them.

Satellite view of Woodberry Down in Hackney, new residential blocks beside the West Reservoir and the East Reservoir, with Seven Sisters Road running across the frame

8 October 20265 min readFire safety

Sprinklers before the first frost, and the pipework in the cold spaces

New blocks of flats in England over 11 metres have been fitted with sprinklers since November 2020, so a lot of residential managers now look after a system they did not have five years ago. Most of it sits in heated flats. The parts that freeze are the tank, the pump room, the car park and the bin store, and October is when to check them.

Satellite view of the Golden Lane Estate in the City of London, low-rise blocks of flats around courtyards and tennis courts, with the Barbican terraces along the bottom of the frame

2 October 20265 min readFire safety

Emergency lighting before the clocks go back, and the test nobody writes down

The clocks go back on Sunday 25 October 2026, and from then on most evacuations after work happen in the dark. BS 5266-1 was revised in October 2025. The monthly flick test and the annual three-hour discharge are unchanged, and there is now a photometric check every five years.

Satellite view of the Brunswick Centre in Bloomsbury, central London, two long stepped terraces of flats with flat roofs either side of a shopping precinct

29 September 20265 min readMaintenance and management

Roofs before the first named storm, and the inspection that comes first

Insurers paid out £244 million for storm damage to homes in 2025, up 32% on the year before, according to the ABI. The 2026/27 storm names are out and the first on the list is Austen. The time to look at the roof, the coping and the rooftop plant is before it is named, not after.

Satellite view of the Alton Estate in Roehampton, south west London, long slab blocks and point towers set in open parkland

25 September 20265 min readFire safety

Smoke alarms that were fitted, and the fires they never saw

The Home Office's detailed analysis of fires in England for the year to March 2026 found a smoke alarm fitted but failing to operate in 19% of dwelling fires. In two thirds of those failures the alarm worked. The fire was somewhere the detector could not see. In other buildings, 46% of fires had no smoke alarm at all.

Satellite view of terraced streets in Harehills, Leeds, long rows of pitched roofs with shared gutter lines running the length of each terrace

22 September 20265 min readMaintenance and management

Gutters, autumn leaves, and the water that finds its way in

The English Housing Survey found 1.4 million homes in England, 5% of the stock, with a damp problem in 2024, and penetrating damp in 2% of them. Most of that water arrives from outside, and a lot of it arrives through a blocked gutter or a split downpipe. October and November are when the leaves come down. The clearance booked now is cheaper than the damp investigation booked in January.

Satellite view of Pendleton in Salford, where a group of residential tower blocks each depend on their lifts

18 September 20265 min readMaintenance

Lift examinations, and the report that comes every six months

A lift that carries people has to be thoroughly examined by a competent person at least every six months under LOLER, and the report that follows sets its own clock. Here is what the examination is, how it differs from the maintenance visit, what to do when a defect is reported, and the records an inspector will ask to see.

Satellite view of central Sheffield, a city with a large mix of older private rented and social housing heated by gas

17 September 20265 min readRegulation

Carbon monoxide alarms, and the rooms that actually need one

Heating systems go back on across the country over the next few weeks, and two thirds of fatal unintentional carbon monoxide poisonings in England and Wales happen in autumn or winter. The duty has covered the social rented sector as well as the private one since 1 October 2022. Here is which rooms need an alarm, what has to be tested and when, and what a landlord has to be able to produce.

Satellite view of the Byker estate in Newcastle upon Tyne, low-rise homes linked by paths, steps and planted areas under mature trees

15 September 20265 min readMaintenance and management

Wet leaves, darker evenings, and the paths you are responsible for

Slips, trips and falls on the same level were 30% of the non-fatal injuries to employees reported under RIDDOR in 2024/25, more than any other kind of accident. The clocks go back on 25 October. Between now and then is the time to walk the external routes of every site you manage, and to write down what you found.

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