Fire Risk
Assessment London

The Fire Safety Order 2005 and what it requires

The rules sit in the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which came into force in October 2006 and swept away more than seventy earlier pieces of fire legislation. It applies across England and Wales to almost all premises, the main exception being a single private dwelling.

The Order does not hand you a shopping list of equipment. It tells you to identify a Responsible Person, to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risk from fire, to act on what that assessment finds, to plan for an emergency and to keep the whole thing under review. Where five or more people are employed, or the premises are licensed, the significant findings must be recorded in writing — and in practice a written record is the only version anyone will accept.

The Fire Safety Act 2021 clarified that in a building containing two or more sets of domestic premises the duty also covers the structure and external walls of the building, and the flat entrance doors that open onto common parts. For London freeholders and managing agents that clarification is the difference between assessing a stairwell and assessing a building.

The government’s plain-English summary of what a Responsible Person actually has to do is published on GOV.UK, and it is worth twenty minutes before your first inspection. Fire safety rules have moved several times in recent years and further changes remain under review, so always check the current government guidance rather than relying on an older summary.

Who is the ‘Responsible Person’?

The Order places the duty on a role rather than on a company name. In a workplace the Responsible Person is the employer, so far as the premises are under their control. Everywhere else it is whoever has control of the premises in connection with a trade or business — and failing that, the owner.

In a typical London building that produces a short and fairly predictable list.

• The employer for offices, shops, restaurants, salons, workshops, warehouses and every other workplace.
• The freeholder or landlord for the common parts of a block of flats, including stairs, lobbies, bin stores, plant rooms and car parks.
• The HMO landlord for shared kitchens, hallways, landings, bathrooms and any other space used in common by the tenants.
• The managing agent where the management contract gives them practical control of the building.
• Anyone else with control — a facilities contractor, a maintenance company, or a commercial tenant who has taken on part of the premises.

More than one person can hold the duty at the same time in the same building, and where that happens the Order requires them to co-operate and co-ordinate with each other. Settling who does what while everyone is calm is considerably easier than arguing about it after an incident.

How often must a fire risk assessment be reviewed?

The Order sets no fixed interval. It requires the assessment to be reviewed regularly, and whenever there is reason to suspect it is no longer valid or there has been a significant change. In practice the profession works to an annual review with a full reassessment every three to five years, which is the pattern we follow and the one most insurers and licensing officers expect to see.

Some changes should trigger a review straight away rather than waiting for the anniversary.

• Building work, a loft or basement conversion, a change of layout, or anything that breaches compartmentation.
• A change of use or of occupancy — new vulnerable residents, more sleeping accommodation, a new commercial tenant on the ground floor.
• New or altered detection, emergency lighting, sprinklers or means of escape.
• A fire, a near miss, a pattern of false alarms, or a visit from the enforcing authority.
• Substantial new storage in common parts, including deliveries, waste and the charging of e-bikes and e-scooters.

Keep every version rather than overwriting the last one. The review history is what demonstrates a continuing duty taken seriously, and it is the part that is missing from almost every file we are asked to rescue.

Penalties for getting it wrong

The Order is enforced by the local fire and rescue authority, which in the capital is the London Fire Brigade. Inspecting officers can serve an alterations notice, an enforcement notice requiring specific work within a stated period, or a prohibition notice that restricts or closes part of a building immediately where the risk to life is serious.

Beyond notices, failing to comply is a criminal offence. Serious breaches are tried in the Crown Court and can attract an unlimited fine and, for the gravest offences, a custodial sentence. Outcomes are set case by case on the facts, so treat any figure you read online as illustrative only and check the current position with the enforcing authority or your own solicitor.

The commercial consequences usually land first. Insurers ask for the report after any fire, lenders and buyers’ solicitors ask for it during a sale, and councils ask for it as a condition of HMO licensing. A missing document delays all three at once.

Preparing for the visit

A little preparation shortens the visit and stops findings being raised for things the assessor simply could not reach or verify. None of it is difficult and none of it costs anything.

• Open every common area. Bin stores, plant rooms, meter cupboards, roof access, basements and cycle stores all form part of the scope, and a locked door becomes a caveat in the report.
• Find the paperwork. The previous report, alarm and emergency lighting service records, the weekly test logbook, fire door certification and any drawings of the building all save time on site.
• Tell us the strategy. If the building runs a stay put policy, or simultaneous evacuation, say so. The assessor needs to test that assumption rather than reverse-engineer it.
• Flag vulnerable occupants. Residents with mobility, sensory or cognitive impairments change the evacuation plan and may need a personal emergency evacuation plan of their own.
• Mention the history. A past fire, a persistent false alarm, a door that has never closed properly or a long-running dispute about storage is useful information, not an embarrassment.
• Arrange access. Where flat entrance doors are in scope, give residents notice. We collect keys from agents right across London at no extra charge.

The visit itself runs from around an hour for a studio or a small communal area to most of a working day for a large HMO or a multi-storey building with complex escape routes.

Reading your significant findings

Your report arrives as a detailed PDF within 48 hours, written in the PAS 79 format that insurers, lenders and enforcing authorities recognise. The opening sections record the building, its construction, its use, its occupants, the evacuation strategy in force and the assessor’s overall opinion of the risk.

The part everybody turns to is the significant findings action plan. Each observation is written as a specific job rather than a general worry, and each is given a priority so the work can be sequenced sensibly.

• High priority — an immediate threat to life, such as a blocked final exit, a breached compartment wall or a missing self-closer on a stairwell door. These want dealing with in days, not months.
• Medium priority — a genuine shortfall that is not an immediate danger, such as inadequate detection coverage, an untested emergency light or a fire door with failed seals.
• Low priority — improvements and good practice, covering signage, record keeping, training and housekeeping.

Behind the action plan sit the supporting sections: the hazards found, the people at risk, the protection measures already in place, the management arrangements and the assessor’s justification for the evacuation strategy. Read the justification carefully. If a report cannot explain why the strategy works, it is not finished.

Remedial action and review

A report with findings in it is not a failure. It is a to-do list in a defined order, and virtually every building we visit produces one. What matters to an enforcing authority is not that findings exist, but that you acted on them and can show when.

Every client gets a straight route back to compliance.

• Itemised quote. A transparent, fixed-price quote to close out the findings we raised, with nothing bundled and nothing vague.
• Priority booking. High-priority items are scheduled first so the serious risks close quickly rather than queueing behind cosmetic ones.
• Documented sign-off. Completed work is recorded against the original action plan, so your file shows the finding, the fix and the date in one place.
• Review rather than repeat. Where the work is substantial we review the existing document instead of charging you for a brand new one.

Keep the report, the action plan and the evidence of completion together in one folder. That folder is your defence, and it is the single thing most often missing when a building is inspected.

If you have taken over a building from another owner or agent, start by asking three questions: where is the current report, when was it last reviewed, and what happened to the findings it raised. A file that cannot answer all three is not evidence of compliance, whatever date is printed on the cover. In those cases we usually recommend a fresh survey rather than a review, because an assessor cannot sensibly sign off on judgements they cannot trace.

Everything we produce is written to be handed straight to a fire officer, an insurer or a licensing team without translation.

Choosing a competent assessor

The Order requires the work to be done by a competent person but does not define competence by qualification, which is why the market ranges from serious surveyors to fifty-pound template mills. Competence is really a combination of three things: relevant training and qualifications, demonstrable experience of buildings like yours, and professional indemnity insurance that would actually respond if the judgement turned out to be wrong.

Before you instruct anybody, it is worth asking a handful of blunt questions.

• What will you actually inspect? A type 1 survey of common parts is a very different job from one that opens up construction or samples flat entrance doors, and the scope should be agreed in writing before the visit.
• How many buildings like mine have you done? A Victorian conversion, a 1960s slab block and a licensed HMO each carry different failure modes.
• Are you insured, and for how much? Professional indemnity cover is the difference between a report and an opinion.
• What does the report look like? Ask for a redacted sample. If the action plan is not specific enough to hand to a contractor, it is not specific enough to hand to an inspector.
• Will you be available afterwards? Findings generate questions from leaseholders, insurers and councils, and somebody has to answer them.

Our assessors are qualified, insured and work to the PAS 79 methodology on every job, whether that is a single studio or a ten-storey block. When you are ready, book your assessment online or ask us for a callback.