When a Pub Changes Hands: The Fire Safety Handover You Can't Skip

The outgoing tenant leaves a fire safety file in the office. A ring binder with a fire risk assessment from two years ago, some alarm service certificates, and a floor plan that doesn't show the partition wall knocked through last month. The lease has been signed, the premises licence transferred, the team hired. The question nobody in the conveyancing process typically asks: does the fire safety regime transfer with the keys?

Since 1 October 2023, there's a law that says it should.

Article 22A: the handover obligation the conveyancing process misses

Article 22A of the Fire Safety Order, inserted by Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022, created a statutory handover duty. It arrived in the same amendment that made written fire risk assessments mandatory for every responsible person. When someone stops being the responsible person for a premises and another person takes over, the outgoing responsible person must pass on "relevant fire safety information."

This is a statutory obligation, not guidance, and a breach that puts people at risk can be prosecuted under the same offence provisions as the Order's core duties.

It applies whenever a pub changes tenant. When a pubco converts a managed house to a tenancy. When a lease is assigned. When a freeholder sells. Any change that moves fire safety responsibility from one person to another triggers Article 22A.

What must be handed over

The Order specifies what counts as relevant fire safety information:

• The fire risk assessment and any review records
• The identity of anyone who helped carry out the assessment (the name of the assessor and, where applicable, their organisation)
• Names and UK addresses of any other responsible persons for the building (the pub company, the freeholder, the owner of the flats above)
• Any fire safety information provided under Building Regulations (Regulation 38 information, covering things like the building's fire strategy, as-built compartmentation drawings, and the spec of installed fire safety systems)

The outgoing responsible person must also keep a record of this information; that record-keeping duty is written into Article 22A itself. Proving the handover happened is a matter of evidence rather than statute: a signed transmittal note, an email with read receipt, a delivery record.

Why a pubco estate change is the sharpest test

A pubco with 400 sites converts a managed house to a tenancy. Under managed operation, the company was the responsible person. The area manager ran fire safety. The company held the FRA, the logbook, the service certificates, the training records, the contractor relationships.

The new tenant signs the lease. Head office sends a welcome pack about beer lines and EPOS systems. Article 22A goes unmentioned. The tenant opens the doors, starts trading, and becomes the responsible person the moment they take control. Their fire risk assessment is whichever document the previous operator left behind, if they left one at all.

Three months later, a fire officer arrives for a routine audit and asks for the FRA. The tenant produces a two-year-old assessment commissioned by someone else, for a different operation, with an action plan that was never completed. The tenant has no record of who assessed the building, whether other responsible persons exist, or what the compartmentation between the pub and the flats upstairs is supposed to look like.

This is the gap Article 22A was written to close.

Where the handover commonly fails

Article 22A does not pause the incoming responsible person's duties. The Fire Safety Order applies from the moment control is taken, whether or not the Article 22A information has been received.

When the information hasn't arrived, the absence should be documented in writing: a request to the outgoing operator (or the pubco, or the freeholder's solicitor) naming Article 22A and listing what the Order requires:

1. The current fire risk assessment and all review records
2. The name of the person who carried it out and, where applicable, their organisation
3. Names and contact details of every other responsible person for the building
4. Any Regulation 38 fire safety information for the building

A common month-one handover request new tenants send to the pubco in writing includes:

• The existing fire risk assessment and every revision since it was first commissioned, as required under Article 22A
• Regulation 38 information and any as-built compartmentation drawings held by the company, which should have accompanied the original premises sign-off
• The Article 22A handover record from the outgoing tenant, documenting what was passed on and when
• Written confirmation of which party the pubco treats as the responsible person under Article 3 for shared structures: the stairwell, the roof, or any element maintained under the lease by the landlord

Pubco welcome packs typically include operational guides, brand standards, trade terms, and introductory health-and-safety documentation. Article 22A's information-transfer requirement covers the transfer of specific fire safety information listed in the Order: the FRA, assessor identity, details of other responsible persons, and Regulation 38 material. The transfer should come with a record that it took place. Where a welcome pack doesn't reference those specific items or include a transmittal record, receipt of the pack alone does not satisfy the Article 22A handover record.

Where no handover arrives, the incoming responsible person has no inherited compliance. A fresh fire risk assessment, commissioned from a competent assessor, reflects the actual operation, staffing, kitchen layout, and opening hours. An inherited assessment written for a different operator's operation is not compliance for the incoming one.

Why the inherited assessment isn't yours

The assumption that catches incoming operators: "There's an FRA in the file, so I'm covered."

An inherited FRA is the previous responsible person's compliance document, not the incoming licensee's. Under FSO Article 9, the duty to have a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment attaches to the person who has control of the premises. From the moment the incoming operator takes control, the duty is theirs. The document in the file is evidence that someone else once complied.

A fire risk assessment is tied to the way a specific operator runs a specific premises. A change of operator, trading hours, staff, kitchen equipment, or layout changes the risk profile. The inherited assessment may identify real hazards. It may also miss everything that differs under the new operation.

The month-one takeover who assumed the assessment transferred is not an edge case; it is exactly the situation Article 22A and the Article 9 review duty were written for.

The Fire Safety Order requires the assessment to be reviewed when it's "no longer valid" or after "significant change." A change of operator is exactly the kind of significant change the review duty is aimed at, and FSO Article 9(3) makes clear that the review obligation rests on the current responsible person. BAFE maintains a register of organisations certificated to its SP205 scheme for fire risk assessment. A fresh assessment for a single pub typically runs £600 to £1,400 depending on size and complexity. A new tenancy spend runs tens of thousands of pounds in fit-out, deposits, and initial stock. The fine in a fire safety prosecution typically lands around £25,000 for an organisation, and the worst cases run into six figures.¹

Article 22 runs alongside Article 22A

Article 22A covers the handover from outgoing to incoming. Article 22 covers the ongoing relationship between multiple responsible persons who share the same building.

Where a pub has flats above, a shared stairwell, or a landlord who retains maintenance obligations for the fire alarm or building structure, there are overlapping responsible persons. Article 22 requires all of them to identify each other, exchange names and UK addresses, state which parts of the premises each is responsible for, cooperate on fire safety, and keep a record of who holds which responsibility.

The handover under Article 22A provides the starting point: who the other responsible persons are. Article 22 then requires contact, confirmation of the split of responsibilities, and documentation. Our fire safety resources cover how these duties work in tenanted pubs, managed houses, and pubs with flats above.

What the Fire Safety Order requires from day one

The Fire Safety Order carries no grace period for a new lease. Responsible person status attaches the moment control is taken.

Day-one obligations under the Order include: obtaining or commissioning a valid fire risk assessment, identifying every other responsible person for the building and cooperating under Article 22, maintaining records of fire safety arrangements, and ensuring escape routes, emergency lighting, and the fire alarm panel are operational. The Article 22A information from the outgoing operator provides the starting point for all of these; its absence doesn't defer any of them.

Incoming licensees who approach the takeover systematically typically follow a recognised sequence:

1. Licence transfer
2. The Article 22A handover request in writing
3. A premises walk-through with the incoming FRA in mind
4. A fresh fire risk assessment commissioned in month one
5. Article 22 contact with every other responsible person
6. A staff fire safety training reset

This sequence reflects how FSO Article 9 liability flows: each step either establishes the incoming operator's own compliance baseline or documents the steps taken to establish it. An inherited document addresses none of those steps on its own.