The legal test in one paragraph
Article 9 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires the responsible person to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to which relevant persons are exposed, for the purpose of identifying the general fire precautions needed. Article 3 defines the responsible person: in a workplace, the employer if they have any control; otherwise the person with control of the premises in connection with a trade, business or undertaking, or the owner. That definition is deliberately broad, and in practice more than one person can hold duties over the same building at the same time — a freeholder for the structure and common parts, a managing agent for day-to-day control, and each commercial tenant for their own demise.
Who is the responsible person in your situation
The single most common cause of an unassessed building is two parties each assuming the other holds the duty. It is worth writing the answer down. In a residential block, the freeholder or right-to-manage company is usually responsible for the common parts, and the managing agent exercises that control day to day under the management agreement. In an HMO, the licence holder and the landlord hold duties. In a workplace, the employer holds them, even in leased premises where the landlord also holds duties for shared areas. In mixed-use buildings, both the commercial occupier and the residential freeholder hold duties, and they overlap where the escape routes are shared.
- Employers — for their workplace and their staff
- Freeholders and RTM companies — for common parts and structure
- Managing agents — where the management agreement gives day-to-day control
- Landlords and HMO licence holders — for shared areas and let dwellings
- Occupiers of leased premises — for their own demise
- Charities, schools, places of worship and community groups — as occupiers
Who does not need one
A single private dwelling occupied by one household is outside the Fire Safety Order — a family home you own and live in does not require a fire risk assessment. The moment the building contains two or more dwellings, the common parts fall within scope. The moment a dwelling is let, other duties attach even where the Order itself does not: smoke and carbon monoxide alarm regulations, the Housing Health and Safety Rating System, and HMO licensing conditions where applicable. And a purely domestic garage or garden building attached to a single household is out of scope, while the same structure used for a business is in.
What changed in 2021, 2022 and 2023
Three changes reshaped this duty in quick succession. The Fire Safety Act 2021 clarified that the structure, external walls and flat entrance doors of buildings containing two or more dwellings fall within the scope of the Order — closing the argument that a common-parts assessment could ignore the façade. The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, in force from January 2023, added specific duties by building height, including quarterly checks of communal fire doors and annual checks of flat entrance doors in blocks over 11 metres, and secure information boxes and wayfinding signage in blocks over 18 metres. And the Building Safety Act 2022 created the higher-risk regime for buildings at least 18 metres or seven storeys with two or more dwellings, with an accountable person, a safety case report and registration with the Building Safety Regulator.
What happens if you do not have one
Enforcement is by the local fire and rescue authority, which can serve an alterations notice, an enforcement notice requiring specified works, or a prohibition notice closing all or part of the building immediately. Failure to comply is a criminal offence; since the fee cap was removed, fines for serious cases are unlimited and custodial sentences have been handed down where breaches contributed to risk to life. The commercial consequences arrive sooner: insurers decline claims where no suitable assessment existed, lenders and buyers stall on missing documentation, and licensing authorities refuse or revoke HMO licences.
- Alterations, enforcement or prohibition notices
- Unlimited fines and, in serious cases, imprisonment
- Insurance claims declined or cover withdrawn
- HMO licence refused, conditioned or revoked
- Sales and remortgages stalled on missing documentation
How often it must be reviewed
The Order requires the assessment to be kept up to date rather than repeated on a fixed interval, but in practice an annual review is the defensible norm for most residential blocks and workplaces. Review sooner whenever the building or its use changes: works are carried out, occupancy shifts, a fire or near miss occurs, a new tenant changes the risk profile, or the previous assessment's actions have been completed and the risk rating should change to reflect that. An assessment that still describes a building as it was three years ago is, for enforcement purposes, no assessment at all.
What a compliant assessment has to contain
Suitable and sufficient means the assessment identifies the hazards, the people at risk, the existing precautions and the gap between the two, and then sets out what must be done and by when. In practice that means a written record naming the assessor, the date, the scope and the methodology, with a prioritised action plan and evidence. PAS 79 is the recognised format and the one we work to. A one-page tick sheet with no photographs, no named author and no timescales will not survive scrutiny, whatever it cost.
