A Fire Safety Officer arrives at your building. They are in uniform, carrying a warrant and an identification card. They have booked the visit in advance — although they do not need to, and can attend unannounced if they have reason to. They want to see the responsible person or their representative. They are there to audit your compliance with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. The visit will take between one and five hours, depending on the size and complexity of the premises.
This is not an unusual scenario. Fire and Rescue Services across England carried out 51,020 fire safety audits in the year ending March 2025 — a 2.4% increase on the previous year, and the highest level of activity in recent years. As we covered in our analysis of the latest government audit data, 42% of those audits returned an unsatisfactory result. For residential premises — particularly houses converted to flats — the failure rate is higher still.
Understanding what an audit involves, what the inspector is looking for, and what happens afterwards is not just useful knowledge. For anyone managing a portfolio of buildings in 2026, it is essential.
How Buildings Get Selected for Audit
FRSs operate what is known as a Risk Based Inspection Programme. Buildings are not selected at random — they are prioritised according to a risk score drawn from multiple data sources: the type of premises, its occupancy profile, its history of fires or complaints, response times, firefighter risk, and wider intelligence about the building and its management. The highest-risk buildings receive the most attention.
In practical terms, this means that residential blocks, HMOs, hotels and care homes tend to be audited more frequently and more thoroughly than, say, an office building. Audits of purpose-built flats increased by up to 61% in a single year in 2024–25, reflecting the sustained national focus on residential building safety following the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.
In addition to routine programme-led audits, an FRS may also audit your premises following a fire; following a complaint from a resident, employee or member of the public; following a request from another authority; or at any time an officer forms the view that there may be a risk to relevant persons. A blocked escape route reported by a resident, a fire alarm fault that goes unresolved, or a pattern of small fires — any of these can trigger an unannounced visit.
What Happens on the Day
Most audits are pre-arranged, typically by email or telephone to the responsible person or managing agent. You will usually receive confirmation of the appointment, the documents the inspector will need to see, and guidance notes on the inspection process. Some FRSs will ask for documents to be sent in advance.
On arrival, the officer will show their identification and warrant. They will need to be accompanied by the responsible person or a representative who knows the building — someone who can unlock doors, answer questions about the fire safety arrangements, and provide access to any area the inspector wants to see.
The audit has two distinct parts: a document review and a physical inspection of the premises.
Part One: The Document Review
The inspector will want to see evidence that you have met your duties under the RRO. That means documentation — and it needs to be current, organised and accessible. Inspectors are experienced at identifying the difference between a building that is genuinely well managed and one where paperwork has been assembled hastily for the visit.
This is not an exhaustive list — the inspector may ask for other documents depending on the type and complexity of the premises. The key point is that all of these records should exist, be current, and be immediately accessible. If you have to search for them on the day, that itself tells the inspector something about how fire safety is being managed.
Part Two: The Physical Inspection
After reviewing your documents, the inspector will walk the building. They will look at the physical fire safety measures in place and compare them against what your risk assessment says should be there. They may inspect any part of the premises, including external areas, plant rooms, bin stores, roof spaces and any area that forms part of the means of escape.
Specifically, they are likely to check:
The Outcome: What Happens After the Audit
At the end of the visit, the inspector will discuss their findings with you. You will then receive a written outcome. The enforcement pathway from a satisfactory result to prosecution operates on a clear escalating scale.
You have 21 days from receiving an enforcement, prohibition or alteration notice to appeal to the Magistrates' Court. Appealing an enforcement or alteration notice suspends it pending the court's decision. Appealing a prohibition notice does not — the prohibition remains in force unless the court directs otherwise.
How to Prepare Before the Inspector Arrives
The good news is that the vast majority of audit failures are avoidable. The issues that produce unsatisfactory results — blocked escape routes, out-of-date FRAs, poorly maintained fire doors, inadequate training records — are not complicated to address. They require consistent management, not specialist expertise.
Our strong advice to managing agents is to treat an FRS audit as something that could happen at any time, rather than something to prepare for only when it is imminent. That means:
Keeping your fire risk assessment current. Your FRA should reflect the building as it is today — not as it was two or three years ago. Any significant change to the building, its occupancy or its use triggers a review obligation. Our post on how often an FRA should be reviewed sets out when that obligation arises.
Maintaining and documenting your fire safety systems. Testing and service records for fire alarms, emergency lighting, fire doors and extinguishers need to be kept up to date and be immediately accessible. A well-maintained building with poor records is almost indistinguishable from a poorly managed one in the inspector's eyes.
Keeping escape routes clear — always. This is the single most cited breach in England. It is also the simplest to prevent. A regime of regular checks, documented and actioned, is all that is required.
Training your staff and keeping records. Fire safety training records need to show who was trained, when, by whom, and what the training covered. Training delivered with no record is, from a compliance perspective, training that cannot be evidenced — which is the same as training not delivered at all.
Knowing your building. The inspector will ask questions. The responsible person or their representative needs to be able to answer them — about the evacuation strategy, the fire strategy, the maintenance history, and the arrangements for communicating with residents. Our post on residential PEEPs for property managers is relevant here too — inspectors are increasingly checking compliance with the new PEEP regulations that came into force on 6 April 2026.
There is also value in having an independent fire risk assessment carried out by a qualified assessor before an FRS audit — not to game the system, but to identify the same issues the inspector will find, while there is still time to address them.
We work with managing agents, HMO landlords, commercial premises, hotels and hospitality venues, and warehouses and industrial sites across Chester, the North West and North Wales. If you would like to know how your buildings would stand up to an FRS audit — or if it has simply been too long since your last fire risk assessment — get in touch.
How would your building perform in a Fire and Rescue Service audit?
We carry out thorough, professionally qualified fire risk assessments for managing agents and responsible persons across Chester, the North West and North Wales — identifying the issues before the inspector does.