How Often Does a Fire Risk Assessment Need to Be Done?

The rule

The Fire Safety Order does not set a period. It requires the Responsible Person to review the assessment regularly, and to revise it when there is reason to think it is no longer valid or there has been a significant change. Fire services and insurers turn that into a practical rhythm:

• Review every year. Walk the building against the last report: have the actions been done, has anything changed, are the records in order. Write the review down and date it.
• New assessment every three to five years for most blocks and workplaces, nearer three for higher-risk or sleeping-risk buildings.

Events that make a new assessment due now

• A change of use, an extension, a conversion, or significant refurbishment
• A change in who occupies the building or how many
• A fire, a near miss, or an enforcement visit
• Cladding, external wall or compartmentation work, or questions about them
• A new managing agent or owner taking the building on without a current report
• The previous assessor's review date

What we do about it

Every report we issue carries a review date, and we write to you when it falls due. A review of a building we assessed is priced lower than a first assessment because the baseline exists.