The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has today issued new guidance which seeks to clarify the types of residential property that do, and do not, need extra fire safety inspections. 

The guidance makes clear that, where it can be established that the particular building owner has met the advice in the government's consolidated advice note, an EWS1 form should not be required, nor would an EWS1 form be required for a building that is over 18 metres that has a valid building control certificate in place. Buildings of any height that have High Pressure Laminate (HPL) cladding and those of five storeys or higher with combustible cladding linking balconies will still need an EWS1 form. 

As regards the government's building safety fund, that will not assist the owners of buildings under 18m high (with a 30cm tolerance).

Guidance Criteria

For buildings over six storeys an EWS1 form should be required where:

There is cladding or curtain wall glazing on the building or

There are balconies which stack vertically above each other and either the balustrades and decking are both constructed with combustible materials (e.g. timber) or the decking is constructed with combustible materials and the balconies are directly linked by combustible material.

For buildings of five or six storeys an EWS1 form should be required where:

There is a significant amount of cladding on the building (for the purposes of this guidance, approximately one quarter of the whole elevation estimated from what is visible standing at ground level is a "significant amount") or

There are ACM, MCM or HPL panels on the building or

There are balconies which stack vertically above each other and either the balustrades and decking are both constructed with combustible materials (e.g. timber), or the decking is constructed with combustible materials and the balconies are directly linked by combustible materials.

For buildings of four storeys or fewer an EWS1 form should be required where:

There are ACM, MCM or HPL panels on the building.