What A Fire Risk Assessment Is, And Who Needs One
A fire risk assessment is a written examination of a building that identifies what could start a fire, who would be harmed, and what has to change. If you are an employer, freeholder, managing agent, or a landlord of anything other than a single private dwelling, you must have one and keep a record of it. The common parts of a block of flats and a house in multiple occupation both count; one let house on its own does not.
The duty comes from the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, in force in England and Wales since 1 October 2006. Article 9(1) requires the responsible person to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to which relevant persons are exposed.
Lektrix Installations Ltd has been wiring and maintaining buildings from 820 Garratt Lane in Tooting since 1957. We assess commercial premises, blocks of flats, HMOs and mixed-use buildings across south London and Surrey, and can put right the electrical and detection findings.
Who The Responsible Person Is, And What Changed On 1 October 2023
Article 3 defines the responsible person: in a workplace, the employer, so far as it is under their control; in other premises, whoever controls them in connection with a trade or business, and failing that, the owner. A building can have more than one, and they must co-operate.
Most of section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022 came into force in England on 1 October 2023 and changed what has to be written down. A record used to be required only where you employed five or more people, or the premises were licensed, or an alterations notice was in force. That threshold has gone: article 9(6) now applies to every responsible person, whatever the size of the premises.
The same amendment deleted "significant" from article 9(7)(a), so the record must set out the findings in full, including the measures taken or to be taken, and any group especially at risk. Home Office guidance adds the name of anyone appointed to assist, and article 11 arrangements must now be recorded in every case.
You can delegate the work. You cannot delegate the responsibility. That is why the name on the front of the report matters, and why we tell you whose it will be before you book.
Which Premises Are In Scope
If people work in the building, visit it, sleep in it, or pass through shared parts of it to get out, the Order almost certainly applies. Buildings we assess include:
- Offices, shops and showrooms
- Workshops, warehouses and industrial units
- Pubs, bars, restaurants and cafes
- Schools, nurseries and places of worship
- Sheltered and supported housing
- The common parts of blocks of flats
- Houses in multiple occupation
- Shops and offices with flats above
Which Premises Are Not
The inside of a single private dwelling is outside the Order; article 6(1)(a) excludes domestic premises. Conditions inside a let house are handled by the council under the Housing Act 2004 instead.
Two or more sets of domestic premises change that. Since 16 May 2022 in England, the Fire Safety Act 2021 has confirmed the Order reaches the structure, the external walls including cladding and balconies, the common parts, and every flat entrance door onto them.
Blocks Of Flats And Converted Houses
Assessments of blocks are described by type. Type 1 covers the common parts by visual, non-destructive inspection and is the usual default. Type 2 adds destructive sampling where compartmentation is in doubt; Type 3 adds escape from a sample of flats, and Type 4 samples both. Most blocks need a Type 1.
We refer out intrusive work, external wall appraisals and buildings above 18 metres or seven storeys.
HMOs And Rented Housing
In an HMO the duties are split. The Fire Safety Order covers the common parts; the Housing Act 2004 and the Housing Health and Safety Rating System cover the dwellings. The building still has to be read whole, because escape from a bedroom does not stop at the bedroom door.
The benchmark councils apply to existing housing is the LACORS guidance of August 2008 — good practice, not law — which sets detection benchmarks by building type and storey count. Where a property is licensed, the licence conditions bind you.
What The Assessment Covers, And What You Receive
We work to PAS 79-1:2020 for premises other than housing, and to BS 9792:2025 for housing, published in August 2025 to replace the withdrawn PAS 79-2:2020. Both are codes of practice rather than law, but a recognised method is how an assessment is shown to be suitable and sufficient.
On site we examine:
- Ignition sources, fuel and how the building is used
- Escape routes, travel distances, exits and door hardware
- Compartmentation, fire doors, seals and self-closers
- Detection and alarm coverage against the relevant standard
- Emergency escape lighting on the routes people will use
- Signage, notices and firefighting equipment
- The electrical intake, risers, cupboards and cable penetrations
- Records, log books, testing, training and drills
You receive a written report, not a tick sheet. It sets out the findings in full, names the person who carried it out, and ends with a prioritised action plan: what must be done, in what order, against which standard. That is the document you keep to satisfy article 9(6).
Who Carries Out Your Assessment, And What Our Certifications Cover
In England there is no licence to carry out fire risk assessments, no protected title and no mandatory register. The test is in article 18(5) of the Fire Safety Order: a person is competent where they have sufficient training and experience, or knowledge and other qualities, to do the work properly. The law does not oblige you to appoint a certified assessor, whatever you may have been told.
Voluntary schemes do exist, run by BAFE, the Institution of Fire Engineers and the Institute of Fire Safety Managers. BAFE also certifies fire risk assessment itself under a separate scheme, which we do not hold. We say so before you book, not after.
What we do hold is precise. Lektrix Installations Ltd is a BAFE Registered Organisation, ID 303447, under scheme SP203-1, Fire Detection and Alarm Systems, covering design, installation, commissioning and maintenance, third-party certificated by NICEIC. That covers alarm systems, not risk assessment, and we will not present it as though it does.
We are certified by NICEIC under its Approved Contractor Scheme and its Domestic Installer Scheme, and have been NICEIC registered since April 1962. Companies House shows LEKTRIX INSTALLATIONS LIMITED, company number 00595683, incorporated on 19 December 1957 and still active at 820 Garratt Lane.
The practical argument is simple. Detection, emergency lighting and the electrical intake are the findings that most often generate work, and they are what we have installed and maintained for three generations. Because the law requires you to record who carried out your assessment, we tell you before you book who will attend and what their background is. If your building needs specialist higher-risk experience, we will say so and help you find it.
A Fire Risk Assessment Is Not An EICR
The two are often confused, and buildings end up with one when they needed both. A fire risk assessment reads the whole building as a fire problem: what could ignite, how people get out, whether the compartments hold, whether the alarm and escape lighting suit the building, and whether anyone is managing it.
An Electrical Installation Condition Report inspects and tests the fixed electrical installation against BS 7671 and codes its observations C1, C2, C3 and FI. Private landlords in England must have it done at least every five years, give the report to the existing tenant within 28 days and to a new tenant before they move in, and put C1, C2 and FI items right within 28 days. The maximum financial penalty for a breach of those regulations rose to £40,000 on 1 November 2025.
For commercial premises there is no single statutory interval: guidance commonly points to five years, or around three in higher-risk settings such as industrial, catering and laundry premises. The underlying duty comes from the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989.
Neither replaces the other. A fire risk assessment will often recommend an EICR; an EICR will not tell you whether your escape route is still protected. We carry out both, and our inspection and testing team works to the standards the assessment is written against.
What Happens After The Report
Most fire risk assessments end at the PDF, leaving the responsible person to find somebody to carry out the action plan. That is where compliance stalls. We can do that work, and because it raises a fair question about independence, here is how we handle it: the assessment is priced and invoiced on its own, the action plan is written to British Standard categories and grades rather than to a product, and you may take the report to any installer. If you ask us to quote for remedial work, that is a separate job on a separate invoice.
The findings that come up most often are:
- Detection below the grade or category the building needs
- No control panel where a panel system is called for
- Emergency escape lighting missing, failed or too short in duration
- Fire doors without intumescent strips, cold smoke seals or self-closers
- Cable penetrations and intake cupboards breaching compartmentation
- An expired EICR, or C1 and C2 defects left outstanding
- No log book, no weekly alarm test, no annual discharge test
- No record of who last reviewed the assessment
Detection and alarm work is what our BAFE SP203-1 registration is for: our fire alarm installation work is designed, installed, commissioned and maintained to the current edition of BS 5839-1, in effect since 30 April 2025.
Testing keeps it valid: a weekly user test of one call point in rotation, a service visit roughly every six months, a monthly functional test of every emergency luminaire and a full rated-duration discharge test each year. Landlords have further duties on alarms, EICRs and licensing, set out on our landlord compliance page, and larger sites are handled by the team behind our commercial electrical work.
Where We Work
We assess buildings across south London and into Surrey from our base in Tooting: Wandsworth, Lambeth, Wimbledon and Merton, Kingston upon Thames, Surbiton, Sutton, and Epsom and Ewell.
In the London boroughs the enforcing authority is London Fire Brigade, run by the London Fire Commissioner. In Epsom and Ewell it is Surrey Fire and Rescue Service. Knowing which service audits your premises matters when an inspector arrives.
How To Arrange One
Call and describe the building: its use, how many storeys and units, whether anyone sleeps there, and what paperwork you hold. Assessments are quoted per building rather than from a list price, because a shop and a six-flat conversion are not the same job.
We confirm the scope in writing, tell you who will attend, and give you a date.
Fire Risk Assessments: Common Questions
Is a fire risk assessment a legal requirement?
Yes, for almost any premises that are not a single private home. Article 9(1) of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires the responsible person to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the fire risks to which people are exposed. The Order has applied in England and Wales since 1 October 2006.
Who is the responsible person?
Article 3 of the Fire Safety Order defines it. In a workplace it is the employer, so far as the workplace is under their control. In other premises it is whoever controls them in connection with a trade, business or other undertaking, and where nobody has control in that way, the owner. A building can have more than one.
Does the assessment have to be written down?
Yes. Since 1 October 2023, article 9(6) requires every responsible person to record the assessment, whatever the size of the premises. The old threshold of five or more employees was removed by section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022. The record must set out the findings in full and name the person who carried out the assessment.
Can I carry out my own fire risk assessment?
You may, if you are competent to do so. For a small, simple, single-storey unit with an obvious escape route, that is realistic. For a block of flats, an HMO, a care home or anywhere with sleeping occupants, complex compartmentation or a mixed use, most responsible persons appoint someone to assist them.
Who can carry out a fire risk assessment in England?
There is no licence, no protected title and no mandatory register. Article 18(5) of the Fire Safety Order sets an outcome test instead: sufficient training and experience, or knowledge and other qualities, to do the work properly. Anyone telling you the law demands a certified assessor is mistaken. Ask who will attend and what their background is.
Does a single private house need a fire risk assessment?
No. Article 6(1)(a) of the Fire Safety Order excludes domestic premises, so the inside of a single private dwelling is outside it. A let house is instead dealt with by the local housing authority under the Housing Act 2004 and the Housing Health and Safety Rating System.
Does a block of flats need a fire risk assessment?
Yes. The common parts are in scope, and since 16 May 2022 the Fire Safety Act 2021 has confirmed that the Order also reaches the building's structure, its external walls including windows, cladding and balconies, and every door between a flat and the common parts. The inside of a private flat is not assessed.
How often should a fire risk assessment be reviewed?
The Order sets no fixed interval. Article 9(3) requires review regularly so the assessment stays up to date, and particularly where there is reason to suspect it is no longer valid or there has been a significant change such as an alteration, an extension or a change of use. Annual review is common practice rather than a statutory rule.
What is the difference between a fire risk assessment and an EICR?
They answer different questions. A fire risk assessment examines the whole building as a fire problem: ignition sources, escape routes, compartmentation, detection, emergency lighting and management. An Electrical Installation Condition Report inspects and tests the fixed electrical installation against BS 7671 and grades defects C1, C2, C3 and FI. Neither replaces the other.
Do fire safety rules still apply if my HMO does not need a licence?
Yes. Licensing and fire safety are separate regimes. The Fire Safety Order applies to the common parts of an HMO whether or not a licence is required, and the Management of Houses in Multiple Occupation (England) Regulations 2006 require escape routes to be kept clear and firefighting equipment and alarms kept in working order.
What happens if I do not have one?
Fire safety offences are triable either way. Failing to comply with the duties in articles 8 to 22B where that puts someone at risk of death or serious injury carries an unlimited fine in the magistrates' court, and an unlimited fine and up to two years' imprisonment in the Crown Court. Directors can be prosecuted personally under article 32(8).
How much does a fire risk assessment cost?
It depends on the building, not on a list price. Size, storey count, the number of flats or units, sleeping occupancy and how much documentation already exists all change the work involved. We quote per building after a short conversation about the premises, and we invoice the assessment separately from any remedial work.