Fire risk assessments for blocks of flats.
In short
The law requires the responsible person for a block's common parts to have a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment, recorded in writing, and to review it regularly. It sets no fixed interval. In practice most managing agents review it every year, commission a fresh assessment every one to three years depending on the building's risk, and always reassess after a fire, a material alteration or any sign it no longer reflects the building.
Who is responsible for the fire risk assessment?
The responsible person under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 is whoever has control of the common parts: usually the freeholder, or a residents' or right to manage company. A managing agent normally arranges the assessment and the follow-up on their behalf, but the duty sits with the responsible person.
Where more than one person has duties in the same building, the Order expects them to co-operate and share information. Since the Building Safety Act 2022 changes came in on 1 October 2023, responsible persons must also record the name of anyone they engage to carry out the assessment.
What does a fire risk assessment of a block cover?
The common parts: stairs, corridors, lobbies, plant rooms, bin stores and any other shared space. The Fire Safety Act 2021 confirmed that in a building with two or more sets of domestic premises it also covers the structure, the external walls (including windows and balconies) and the entrance doors to individual flats.
It does not cover the inside of each flat. Those are a matter for the leaseholder or, where a flat is let, its landlord.
How often should a fire risk assessment be reviewed?
There is no statutory interval: the Order says the assessment must be reviewed regularly so that it stays valid, and whenever there is reason to suspect it no longer is or there has been a significant change. Most managing agents treat a yearly review as the minimum and set the date for a full reassessment from the building's risk and the assessor's own recommendation, usually between one and three years.
Does the assessment have to be in writing?
Yes. Since 1 October 2023 every responsible person in England must record the whole fire risk assessment in writing, along with the fire safety arrangements, not only the significant findings.
What type of assessment does a block need?
Assessors commonly describe four types. A Type 1 is non-destructive and looks at the common parts, and is the usual starting point for a purpose-built block. Types 2 to 4 go further: opening up the structure in the common parts, or looking inside a sample of flats. The assessor should say which type was carried out and why.
What should happen to the findings?
Each finding should become an action with a priority, an owner and a date, and stay on the list until it is done and recorded. The assessment is only as good as the actions it leads to: a tribunal, an insurer or the fire and rescue service will ask what was done about it, and when.
Where Servanda comes in
Servanda reads the assessment when it is dropped in, pulls out every remedial action with a due date from its priority, and keeps each on the list until a person closes it with a note or a photo. The review date sits on the register beside it.
Everything Servanda doesThe law
The legislation is the authority; this page is a plain summary for England, checked on 2026-10-23. Wales and Scotland have their own rules. Take advice on any particular building.