This briefing is for building owners, directors, and budget holders responsible for residential properties. It covers the new legal requirement, what you must have in place, the risk of non-compliance, and how EvacPlan addresses it — simply, quickly, and at a cost that makes inaction the more expensive option.
The Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) (England) Regulations 2025 came into force in April 2026. They impose a specific duty on the responsible person — typically a building manager, housing officer, facilities manager, or property owner — to maintain, document, and submit evacuation plans for high-rise residential buildings.
This is not guidance. It is not best practice. It is a statutory requirement with criminal penalties for non-compliance.
The responsible person faces unlimited fines and up to two years' imprisonment. Liability rests with the named individual, not the organisation. Insurance policies may not cover breaches of statutory duty. The earlier the Grenfell Inquiry findings are heeded, the lower the legal and reputational exposure.
A documented, individually tailored evacuation plan for every resident who needs assistance leaving the building — covering mobility aids, refuge areas, assistance required, and next of kin. Must be reviewed monthly and whenever a resident's circumstances change.
A full building evacuation plan for all occupants — mapping escape routes, warden zones and posts, disabled refuge areas, and the designated assembly point. Available to every warden and the fire service on demand.
Documented fire compartments, suppression and detection systems, FD panel references, inspection dates, and certificates — in a format that fire services can use on arrival. A copy must be held in the building's secure information box.
Several organisations have already been subject to enforcement action under fire safety legislation. The regulations are actively enforced by local fire and rescue authorities, who have powers to inspect, require remediation, and prosecute. The following risks are specific to non-compliance with the 2025 Regulations:
Liability under the Regulations rests with the responsible person by name — not the company or organisation. A manager, director or housing officer can be personally prosecuted, fined without limit, and imprisoned for up to two years.
A local fire and rescue authority can issue an enforcement notice requiring immediate remediation. Failure to comply escalates to prohibition notices, which can prevent occupation of the building entirely.
Building and liability insurance policies typically contain compliance clauses. A breach of statutory fire safety duty may void cover at the point it is needed most.
Care Quality Commission, housing associations, and local authorities are increasingly requiring evidence of fire safety compliance as part of registration and contract renewal. Non-compliance creates regulatory exposure beyond the fire safety framework itself.
Of the 37 disabled residents in Grenfell Tower, 15 lost their lives. The absence of personal evacuation plans was a significant contributing factor. The regulation exists because the risk is real. Every building without plans in place carries this exposure today.
EvacPlan is the only platform that manages all three required plan types — PEEP, GEEP and Fire Zone — on a live, interactive floor plan of your building. It was designed from the ground up for the April 2026 regulations, by a team with direct experience in fire safety surveying and building compliance.
It requires no technical knowledge. It works on any phone, tablet or desktop. And it is set up for you — not by you.
Every apartment is colour-coded — green (independent), amber (needs assistance), red (full assistance), blue (offsite), orange (overdue). Tap any unit to view or update the full PEEP record.
The system tracks review dates for every PEEP and sends automatic alerts when reviews are due. No spreadsheets. No manual chasing. Nothing falls through the gaps.
Every update to every PEEP, GEEP or fire zone record is logged with a timestamp and user ID. Produces the audit trail an inspector will ask for, automatically.
Fire and rescue services can be given free read-only access to all live evacuation data — PEEP status, fire zone layout, GEEP — on any device, before or during a call-out.
Generate a compliant PDF of your evacuation plan at any time — formatted exactly as fire services need it, ready to place in the building's secure information box.
Managers, supervisors, wardens and the fire service each get role-appropriate access. Wardens see their zone and their residents. Managers can edit and report. All from any device.
The GEEP layer flags warden coverage gaps in real time. If a post is vacant, the system alerts. No manual cross-referencing required.
All data held in the UK. Ommateum Ltd carries professional indemnity insurance. Data processing agreement available. ICO registered.
Most buildings don't. Most evacuation software expects you to already have CAD drawings or architectural plans to import — and most responsible persons don't. This is the single biggest barrier to compliance, and it's where EvacPlan is categorically different from every other solution on the market.
EvacPlan is developed by Ommateum Ltd — a precision surveying company. We attend your building, conduct a LiDAR laser survey, and deliver a millimetre-accurate digital floor plan, loaded directly into EvacPlan and ready to use — within 48 hours of site visit.
LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) uses laser pulses to capture the precise geometry of every room, corridor, stairwell, door and refuge area — to millimetre accuracy, in any lighting condition. The resulting point cloud is processed into a clean, accurate floor plan that becomes the foundation of your EvacPlan system. No CAD files needed. No drawings required. We do it all.
Our team attends your building with professional LiDAR scanning equipment. Typically half a day for a standard high-rise floor. Minimal disruption to residents or staff.
Raw scan data is processed overnight into clean, accurate floor plan geometry. Every room, corridor, stairwell and refuge area captured to millimetre accuracy.
Plans are loaded into your EvacPlan system. Apartments numbered, fire zones mapped, warden posts and refuge areas marked. System tested and ready to use.
A 30-minute walkthrough for your managers and wardens. Simple enough that training is rarely needed twice. You're compliant and operational.
EvacPlan is priced per building, per year. There are no per-user fees, no hidden charges, and no long-term contracts. A 30-day free trial is available with no payment required. All prices exclude VAT.
For context: a single enforcement action for non-compliance with fire safety regulations can result in fines running to tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds, plus legal costs and remediation costs. The annual subscription cost of EvacPlan is, in most cases, a small fraction of one day's legal fees.
All prices exclude VAT · 30-day free trial, no card required · Monthly payment option available (annual fee spread over 10 months) · LiDAR survey included in setup fee for standard buildings · complex multi-wing buildings quoted separately