How to Commission a Fire Risk Assessment That Actually Protects You

As cut-price assessors flood the market, professional property managers across the North West face a growing problem: a compliant-looking document that, on scrutiny, is anything but.

By Fletcher Risk | Chester · Liverpool · Manchester · Warrington · North Wales | 4 March 2026

In fire safety, the paperwork can look reassuring long after its value has expired. A fire risk assessment bearing an authoritative logo, a reference number and a confident conclusion — that the premises are 'broadly compliant' — can sit in a filing cabinet for years without anyone questioning whether it actually means anything. Many do not.

Across the North West, a race to the bottom has been underway for some time. Online platforms and directory services now allow building owners to procure a fire risk assessment for less than a round of team beers at Chester Racecourse. The result is a proliferation of documents produced by unqualified individuals, assembled from templates, and signed off without anyone having looked properly at a building. For professional property managers, those who carry legal accountability, the consequences of relying on such a document can be severe.

Understanding what separates a rigorous, legally defensible assessment from a cheap imitation has never been more important.

The Regulatory Landscape

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, and its strengthening through the Fire Safety Act 2021 and the Building Safety Act 2022, places the responsibility for fire risk assessments firmly on the 'responsible person'. In the context of managed residential blocks, commercial premises and mixed-use developments, that typically means the property manager, the managing agent or the employer. The legislation does not merely suggest that an assessment be conducted; it mandates one, and it mandates that the person conducting it be competent.

Competence, however, is not defined in law with the precision one might hope. There is no statutory licensing regime for fire risk assessors in England and Wales. Anyone can print a business card, build a website and begin selling assessments. The question for the property manager, therefore, is not simply whether an assessment has been carried out, but whether the person who carried it out actually knew what they were doing.

The Anatomy of a Substandard Assessment

The most common failure mode is not outright fraud, though that exists too. It is the template-driven, tick-box assessment produced at pace by someone whose understanding of fire safety principles is superficial at best. The signs are consistent:

Warning signs of a non-compliant assessment:

Generic, copy-and-paste risk descriptions with no reference to the specific building.
No evidence of a physical inspection — travel times, door conditions, and means of escape not documented.
Action points that are vague, uncosted, or lack any priority weighting.
No consideration of the building's construction type, occupant profile, or recent material alterations.
Assessor credentials absent, unverifiable, or from an unrecognised body.
A suspiciously brief document for a complex premises — two pages for a six-storey block.
No review date or mechanism for updating the assessment as conditions change.

The consequences of relying on such an assessment are not merely theoretical. The Fire Safety Order requires that where an assessment is found to be inadequate, the responsible person may be prosecuted. Fines are unlimited and custodial sentences are possible. And in the event of a fire, the civil liability exposure is substantial. Insurance claims can be contested if the insurer determines that due diligence on fire safety was not exercised.

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry cast a long and searching light on what happens when the paper compliance of fire safety documentation diverges from the physical reality of a building. Professional property managers in the North West are, in the main, conscientious people who take these obligations seriously. They deserve assessments that meet them at that standard.

What a Quality Assessment Actually Looks Like

A properly conducted fire risk assessment begins before the assessor arrives on site. A competent practitioner will review the building's history, existing fire safety strategy documents, previous assessments, and any recent works that may have affected compartmentation, means of escape or the fire detection systems.

On site, the assessment is a rigorous physical examination. Every storey is walked. Every fire door is checked, not just observed from a distance, but checked for intumescent seals, self-closing mechanisms, correct ironmongery and the absence of damage or unauthorised modifications. Escape routes are timed and assessed against the anticipated occupant profile. Plant rooms, roof voids and basement areas receive attention. The assessor considers the construction type, identifies any materials of concern, and evaluates the quality of any compartmentation.

The resulting document is specific, detailed and actionable. It categorises risks according to a recognised methodology — typically aligned to PAS 79:2020, the British Standard for fire risk assessments in buildings. Action points are clearly prioritised, with immediate risks separated from medium-term improvement recommendations. Costs are estimated where possible to assist the responsible person in planning works. A review schedule is proposed, with triggers for an earlier review if the building's use, occupancy or condition changes.

Training, Experience and the Third-Party Verification

In the absence of statutory licensing, the most reliable indicator of competence is third-party professional membership and training. Experience and specialism also matter. An assessor with a background in residential blocks, sheltered housing or mixed-use commercial-residential schemes will bring a different — and more relevant — understanding to those property types than one whose experience is primarily in single-occupancy industrial units. The complexity of a purpose-built block of flats in Liverpool's Baltic Triangle, with its varying tenures, its communal areas and its complex means of escape, is qualitatively different from a warehouse in Warrington.

Price as a Diagnostic Signal

It is reasonable to ask what a fire risk assessment should cost. The honest answer is that it varies — by building type, by size, by complexity, and by the depth of the report. What can be stated with reasonable confidence is that an assessment for a multi-storey residential block that costs less than a couple of hundred pounds almost certainly does not reflect the time required to do the job properly.

A competent assessor working alone cannot physically inspect, document, analyse and report on a complex building in under two hours. If the fee implies that they have, the fee is telling you something important. Quality assessors are not the cheapest, because the value they deliver — protection from prosecution, reduction of civil liability, and the genuine identification of life-safety risks — substantially exceeds their fee.

For professional property managers overseeing portfolios, the risk of commissioning a substandard assessment extends beyond the individual building. A regulator or enforcing authority that identifies a pattern of inadequate assessments across a portfolio is unlikely to reach a charitable conclusion about the responsible person's commitment to compliance.

Staying Ahead: The Review Obligation

A fire risk assessment is not a one-time exercise. PAS 79:2020 and general good practice require that assessments are reviewed periodically, typically every year for higher-risk premises and at minimum every five years for lower-risk buildings, and more frequently whenever there is a significant change to the building, its use, or its occupancy. Refurbishments, changes of tenancy, alterations to means of escape, and incidents that give rise to concern all trigger a review obligation.

Cheap assessments typically treat this obligation as an afterthought. A review date, if it appears at all, may be set arbitrarily far in advance. There is no mechanism for the responsible person to be alerted when conditions change. The result is that outdated assessments quietly persist, giving a false picture of compliance, until an inspection, an incident, or a legal challenge renders the gap impossible to ignore.

Commission a Fire Risk Assessment You Can Rely On

Fletcher Risk provides professional, accredited fire risk assessments for property managers across Chester, Liverpool, Manchester and the wider region. Our assessors are fully qualified, independently verified, and experienced in the full range of residential, commercial and mixed-use premises. If your current fire risk assessment hasn't been reviewed in the last twelve months — or if you have any doubt about the competence of the assessor who produced it — now is the right time to act. Please contact us today.

Disclaimer

The information contained in this article is intended for general guidance only and does not constitute legal, regulatory or professional advice. Whilst Fletcher Risk has taken reasonable care to ensure the accuracy of the information provided, fire safety legislation and regulatory guidance is subject to change and readers should not rely solely on this article when making decisions about fire safety compliance. The responsible person for any premises should always seek advice from a qualified and competent fire risk assessor and, where appropriate, independent legal counsel. Fletcher Risk accepts no liability for any loss, damage or regulatory sanction arising from reliance on the contents of this article. References to legislation, British Standards and accreditation schemes are correct at the time of publication and should be verified against current editions before being acted upon.

Tim Fletcher4 March 2026