Fire risk assessment cost for UK landlords: 2026 price guide

Published prices we found in October 2026 run from about £135 for a small shared house to roughly £800 for the common parts of a 20-flat block, with most HMOs between about £150 and £600. Size, layout and assessment type drive the fire risk assessment price. Quotes may or may not include VAT, so ask.

These are published prices from assessors, a landlord association and a booking platform, not quotes we collected ourselves. Treat them as a sanity check before you ask three firms for a fixed price.

How much does a fire risk assessment cost for a landlord?

There is no national price list, and the range between firms is wide. That is partly geography, partly scope, and partly the difference between a firm that sends a competent assessor for two hours and one that sells a templated PDF. The table below sets out the published figures we found, grouped by type of source so you can see where each number comes from.

Two things stand out. First, the cheap London prices and the North West guide describe the same kind of building at very different prices, which tells you the figure on its own means little without the scope behind it. Second, nobody publishes a single, stable price for a block of flats beyond a few floors. Those jobs are quoted individually.

Small HMOs and shared houses

A three or four bedroom HMO over two storeys is the cheapest end of the market because the common parts are short: a hall, a stair, a landing, a shared kitchen. Published figures run from the low £100s for a basic bedroom-count price to about £600 for a thorough assessor. A landlord forum summary of members’ own experience gave £250 to £600 per property, with one member paying about £250 through a long-standing relationship and thorough assessors charging up to about £500. If the house has three or more storeys, internal rooms, or a basement, expect to be at the upper end. The fire safety rules that sit behind these assessments are explained in our HMO fire risk assessment guide.

Common parts of a block of flats

Here you are paying for the staircase, corridors, lobbies, riser cupboards, bin stores and sample flat entrance doors, not for each flat. The one price guide that publishes a number for a block of 6 to 20 flats gives £495 to £795. A London assessor lists communal-area-only pricing by number of floors, rising as the building gets taller. Above about 11 metres, other legal duties kick in as well (see our fire door inspection guide), and blocks of that height are usually quoted individually.

Small mixed-use buildings

A flat above a shop is a common case. The commercial part and the flat’s access route are assessed together, because the shopkeeper and the landlord share the same escape route. Published commercial prices for a small single-tenancy unit sit around £395 to £595 in the North West guide, and a London price page lists whole-building prices of £240 for up to three floors and £350 for three to five floors. We did not find a published price specifically for “flat above a shop”, so ask for a quote that names both uses.

How much is a fire risk assessment on a flat?

If you own a single flat inside a larger block, the fire risk assessment under the Fire Safety Order is of the building’s common parts, structure, external walls and flat entrance doors, not the inside of your flat. The person who controls those areas, usually the freeholder, the residents’ management company or the managing agent, is responsible and normally recovers the cost through the service charge. A single flat that you let out does not need its own assessment under that Order, though a landlord can still choose to commission one as a safety check. A London assessor lists residential assessments at £135 for one to three bedrooms. Whether you need one at all is covered in do landlords need a fire risk assessment?

What drives the price of a fire risk assessment?

The price guides we read agree on the main factors, even where they disagree on the numbers.

• Size and number of storeys. More floors and more floor area means more time on site and a longer report.
• Layout and age. A converted Victorian house with inner rooms, odd stairs and a cellar takes longer than a tidy modern purpose-built block.
• Sleeping risk and vulnerable occupants. HMOs and blocks with elderly or less mobile residents are treated as higher risk than a plain office.
• Type of assessment. A Type 1 is non-destructive and quick. Types 2 and 4 need a contractor to open up construction and make good, which adds cost (see below).
• Your paperwork. If there is no maintenance history for the alarm, emergency lighting or fire doors, the assessor spends longer verifying what exists.
• Access. Locked plant rooms, riser cupboards or roof voids can mean a return visit and a second fee.
• Portfolio size. Several buildings booked together are often priced lower per site.
• Report depth. A visual check of fire doors is normally part of an assessment. A full fire door survey with an asset register and functional testing is a separate, more detailed service.
• Travel and location. Some firms add travel costs if the property is far from their base.

One useful habit: ask what is excluded. Specialist electrical testing, alarm servicing, emergency lighting tests and the repairs the report recommends are normally quoted separately. The NRLA has estimated that upgrade work after an assessment could cost up to £15,000 for a single property in some cases, so budget for the action plan as well as the report.

What are Type 1, 2, 3 and 4 fire risk assessments?

For purpose-built blocks of flats the Home Office guide Fire safety in purpose-built blocks of flats (first produced in 2011 and now published on GOV.UK) describes four types of assessment. They differ in how far the building is inspected, and that is the biggest lever on price. When you commission an assessment, say which type you want, because the guide notes that Type 1 will often be enough.

The guide also says that before any destructive inspection, the risk of disturbing asbestos should be considered, for example by checking the asbestos register. If your building is older, see asbestos in rented property.

Most small landlords will never buy a Type 3 or Type 4. They apply to blocks of flats, not to a house split into bedsits, where the assessor looks at the whole building as one set of common parts. Do not pay for a more invasive type because a salesperson suggests it; the guide says a recommendation for a different type should come from specific issues found, not be a generic line in every report.

Who is allowed to carry out a fire risk assessment?

The Fire Safety Order requires a “suitable and sufficient” assessment. It does not say you must hire a specialist. The Home Office block-of-flats guide says responsible persons or their employees can often carry out an assessment for a small, simple block by studying the guidance, but that where an outside professional is used, competence matters because criminal liability stays with the responsible person if the assessment is not suitable and sufficient. The government’s sleeping accommodation guide takes the same line: you can appoint yourself, a trained employee or a third party, and more complex premises will probably need an assessor with comprehensive training or experience.

What about the Building Safety Act competence rule?

Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022 amended the Fire Safety Order in several ways. Most of it, including the written record duty, came into force on 1 October 2023. The new article 9A, which will stop a responsible person appointing anyone to help with a fire risk assessment unless they are competent, is inserted by section 156(4), and that subsection was held back. On legislation.gov.uk, which was up to date to 26 October 2026 when we checked, article 9A still appears as a pending insertion rather than part of the Order. So at the time of writing, competence is a matter of the existing duty to make a suitable and sufficient assessment and of government guidance, not a stand-alone legal test with a published pass mark. That could change, so check before you rely on this.

The registers and schemes, and what they mean

No register is compulsory. They exist to help you show that you took reasonable care in choosing someone. The main ones as at October 2026:

• Institution of Fire Engineers (IFE) Fire Risk Assessors register. A register of individuals. Applicants provide evidence of education, training and experience and examples of their work reviewed by a panel, and must also hold Engineering Council registration through the IFE. The IFE says its register has always required the highest of the three BS 8674 levels.
• National Fire Risk Assessors Register (NFRAR). Run by the Institute of Fire Safety Managers (IFSM). It has three tiers: Foundation (straightforward premises such as small residential properties), Intermediate (medium-risk) and Advanced (high-risk, which requires third-party accreditation). Older web pages may use earlier names for the scheme, such as NAFRAR.
• BAFE SP205. A certification scheme for companies, not individuals. Each assessment must be checked and signed off by a designated validator within the certified firm, and assessors’ competence is reviewed at intervals of no more than 36 months. BAFE publishes a searchable register of certified firms.
• FRACS. The Fire Risk Assessors Certification Scheme, formerly run by Warrington Certification, was withdrawn effective 31 December 2024. Some websites still mention it. NSI took over the existing registrants temporarily under a closed scheme called FRAS, and invited them to move to SP205. A current claim of “FRACS certified” should be checked directly.
• BS 8674:2025. A British Standard published in 2025 that sets out competence criteria for individual assessors at three levels: Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced. It covers general, non-invasive assessments of occupied buildings, and it is a code of practice, not law.

A registered assessor is not a guarantee, and an unregistered one is not automatically poor. The Home Office guide says competence comes from a blend of education, training, experience and knowledge, and that using a registered or third-party certificated assessor is one way to show due diligence. For a block of flats it adds a specific point: the assessor’s competence should extend to blocks of flats, not just offices and shops. Ask to see a sample report, ask what type of assessment they are quoting, and ask what experience they have of your type of building.

How often should a fire risk assessment be reviewed?

The Fire Safety Order says the assessment must be kept up to date and reviewed if there is reason to think it is no longer valid or if there has been a significant change. It does not set a number of years. The Home Office block-of-flats guide gives a general steer instead:

• For a low-risk, modern, low-rise block (no more than three storeys above ground and built within the last 20 years), a review every two years might be sufficient, with a new assessment every four years.
• For higher-risk blocks, or blocks over four storeys, an annual review might be more appropriate, with a new assessment every three years.
• In extreme cases, for the highest-risk premises, an annual assessment might be appropriate.

The same guide lists the events that should trigger an early review: material alterations, a significant change in the type of residents, a fire in or spreading to the common parts, and the completion of significant works to fix shortcomings in the previous assessment. A review is not a repeat of the whole process. It can be shorter and, as the guide notes, can sometimes be done by trained in-house staff, since it mostly checks progress on the previous action plan. One commercial price guide we read said most professionals recommend an annual review, with a full reassessment every two to three years. That is advice from an assessor, not law.

Wales is about to be different for HMOs. The Building Safety (Wales) Act 2026 includes provisions requiring the landlord of a relevant HMO to review the current fire risk assessment at least every 12 months. Those provisions were not in force on legislation.gov.uk when we checked (information up to 29 October 2026), so they are not yet a legal requirement.

What should a good fire risk assessment report contain?

A fire risk assessment is a written record, not a certificate. Since 1 October 2023 the record must exist for every responsible person, and it must include the findings of the assessment, including the measures taken or to be taken, and any group of people the assessment identifies as especially at risk. The government’s five-step process is: identify fire hazards, identify people at risk, evaluate and reduce the risk, record and plan, then review. A report that follows that shape will normally contain:

1. A description of the premises, the number of storeys, the use, and who occupies it.
2. Fire hazards: ignition sources, fuel and oxygen, including shared kitchens, meter cupboards and stored items in escape routes.
3. People at risk, including anyone who would struggle to leave quickly.
4. The existing fire precautions: detection and alarm, escape routes, fire doors, emergency lighting where it exists, extinguishers and fire blankets where provided.
5. Management arrangements: who tests what, how often, and where it is recorded.
6. A risk-rated action plan with priorities and timescales, not a vague list.
7. The type and scope of the assessment, and anything that could not be inspected.
8. The assessor’s name and qualifications, the date, and a stated review date.

Warning signs on price are worth knowing. One consultancy’s own cost guide describes very low “from £99” adverts as something to treat with caution, and recommends a written scope, a named assessor, a sample report and a statement of what is excluded. A cheap report that tells you only that you have smoke alarms is of little use if the council or the fire and rescue service turns up.

What happens if you do not have a fire risk assessment?

If the Fire Safety Order applies to your premises and you have not made a suitable and sufficient assessment, you are committing an offence. The fire and rescue authority can serve notices, and in serious cases a prohibition notice stopping or restricting use of the premises. Under article 32 of the Order, the most serious failures can lead on conviction on indictment to a fine, imprisonment for up to two years, or both.

For a single let house outside the Order, the pressure comes instead from the Housing Health and Safety Rating System, under which a council can require fire hazards to be fixed and, since 1 May 2026, impose a civil penalty of up to £40,000 for failing to comply with an improvement notice. See do landlords need a fire risk assessment? for who is caught by what.

How do I get a fixed price I can compare?

1. Write one paragraph describing the building: address, storeys, number of lettable rooms or flats, use, any commercial unit.
2. Ask each firm for a fixed price that states the type of assessment, whether VAT is included, and what is excluded.
3. Ask for the assessor’s name, their register or scheme (or the firm’s BAFE SP205 certificate) and a sample report.
4. Ask what happens if access fails or the report finds that a more invasive type is needed.
5. Choose on scope and competence, not on the lowest price.

You can compare fire safety professionals in your area through our find a professional page, and use the compliance checker to see which of your other certificates are due. The fire safety hub lists every guide in this series.

This guide explains the rules as published on 30 October 2026. For a specific property, check with your local council or a qualified professional.