Landlord compliance

Commercial Fire Risk Assessment

Fire risk assessments for offices, retail, hospitality and mixed-use buildings.

From £159.99 (inc VAT) Written assessment within 48 hours 12-month workmanship guarantee

Book this service 07426 409342

Starting from

£159.99inc VAT

communal areas up to 3 floors · buildings from £259.99

Competent assessors experienced with London fire authority expectations

Travel distance and occupancy capacity calculated, not estimated

Mixed-use responsibility interfaces set out clearly

Template emergency plan supplied with the report

Book online

Overview

What is a Commercial FRA certificate?

A commercial Fire Risk Assessment applies the same statutory duty to workplaces and mixed-use buildings, where the responsible person must also account for employees, customers and visitors who do not know the building. The assessment covers escape routes and travel distances, occupancy capacity, detection and warning systems, extinguisher provision, signage, staff training and emergency planning, and produces a written report with a risk-rated action plan.

Why it matters

Why it's worth getting right

In a commercial building most of the people inside are unfamiliar with it. They do not know where the second staircase is, they will instinctively try to leave the way they came in, and in a retail or hospitality setting many of them will be moving in the opposite direction from your fire exits. That changes the assessment fundamentally: escape strategy, signage, staff training and alarm audibility all matter far more than they do in a residential block where people know their own home.

The responsible person in a commercial setting

Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 the responsible person in a workplace is the employer, together with anyone else who has control of the premises. Where five or more people are employed, or the premises is licensed, or an alterations notice is in force, the significant findings of the assessment must be recorded in writing. The Order also requires an emergency plan, appropriate staff training and the appointment of competent persons to assist. Fire authorities inspect commercial premises directly and can issue alterations, enforcement and prohibition notices — the last of which can close a business the same day.

Regulations & standards

The rules this work is carried out to

Every inspection we do is measured against a published standard — here are the ones that apply to this service.

RRO 2005

Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005

Employer duty to assess, plan, train and appoint competent persons.

BS 9999

Fire safety in the design, management and use of buildings

Risk-based approach to escape, travel distances and occupancy capacity.

BS 5839-1

Fire detection and alarm systems for buildings

System category and coverage requirements for commercial premises.

In detail

Understanding your Commercial FRA

The technical detail behind the certificate — what gets checked, what the results mean, and the decisions that actually affect your property.

Escape routes, travel distances and occupancy capacity

Three numbers do most of the work in a commercial assessment. Travel distance is how far someone must walk to reach a place of relative safety — broadly up to 18 metres where escape is possible in only one direction, and up to 45 metres where there is a choice of routes, varying with risk category. Exit capacity is how many people a given exit width can discharge, calculated from door widths and staircase widths. Occupancy capacity is the resulting maximum number of people the premises can safely hold, and in licensed premises it is frequently a condition of the licence. Assessments fail most often not because exits are missing but because a fit-out has extended travel distances or an exit has been narrowed or obstructed since the layout was designed.

Alarm system categories — L1 through M

BS 5839-1 classifies systems by what they are designed to protect. Category M is manual only — call points, no automatic detection — which is acceptable in some small, simple, low-risk premises. Category L systems protect life, with L5 covering a specific defined risk, L4 covering escape routes, L3 adding detection in rooms opening onto escape routes, L2 adding defined high-risk rooms, and L1 covering the whole building. Category P systems protect property rather than life, and are often specified by insurers rather than by fire safety law. Getting the category right matters in both directions: an under-specified system leaves people unwarned, while an over-specified one in the wrong environment produces false alarms that lead staff to ignore the real one.

Mixed-use buildings and the split of responsibility

Buildings with commercial units at ground level and flats above are extremely common in London and are the single most contested area of fire safety responsibility. There will usually be more than one responsible person — the freeholder for the structure and common parts, each commercial tenant for their demise, and a managing agent for the residential parts — and the Order requires them to cooperate and coordinate. In practice they frequently do not, and the risk concentrates at the interfaces: the compartment floor between a restaurant and the flats above, a shared escape route, a commercial extract duct passing through residential compartmentation. We assess those interfaces explicitly and set out clearly who needs to act on each finding.

Staff training and the emergency plan

The Order requires an emergency plan and appropriate training, and this is where commercial premises most often fall down at inspection. The plan should identify how the alarm is raised, the evacuation strategy — simultaneous, phased or progressive horizontal — assembly points, who calls the fire service, who sweeps which areas, and how assistance is provided to anyone who cannot use stairs. Training must be given at induction and repeated periodically, with fire drills carried out and recorded, normally at least annually. Where anyone in the building would need assistance to evacuate, a Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan should be prepared for them individually. Our reports include a template plan you can adopt and adapt.

Warning signs

When a commercial assessment needs redoing

These all invalidate an existing assessment, regardless of its date:

Any fit-out, partitioning or layout change since the last assessment

A change of use — retail to hospitality, office to workshop

Increased occupancy, new seating layouts or new shift patterns

Fire exits obstructed, locked during trading, or repurposed for storage

New processes or materials introducing significant fuel or ignition sources

Alterations to the alarm system, or persistent false alarms

A fire officer visit, insurer inspection or licence review has raised concerns

Any fire or near miss on the premises

The risks

What non-compliance costs a business

Commercial fire enforcement is fast and can be terminal:

!Prohibition notice closing the premises immediately

!Unlimited fines and up to two years' imprisonment for the responsible person

!Personal liability for directors and managers, separate from the company

!Premises and alcohol licences refused, conditioned or revoked

!Buildings, contents and business interruption cover void

!Employers' and public liability claims from staff and customers

!Lease breach and dilapidations exposure at the end of term

Ongoing fire safety management

Test the alarm weekly from a different call point each time and log it. Carry out monthly emergency lighting functional tests and the annual duration test. Service extinguishers annually to BS 5306-3. Run and record fire drills at least annually, more often where staff turnover is high. Keep escape routes and final exits clear and unlocked whenever the premises is occupied — obstructed and locked exits are the most common finding at commercial inspections by a wide margin. Review the assessment annually and immediately after any change of layout, use or occupancy, and keep the log book on site so it can be produced the moment it is asked for.

Why us

The benefits of booking your Commercial FRA with us

Accredited, transparent and built around making compliance easy.

Competent assessors experienced with London fire authority expectations

Travel distance and occupancy capacity calculated, not estimated

Mixed-use responsibility interfaces set out clearly

Template emergency plan supplied with the report

Remedial work available in-house so actions do not stall

Written report within 48 hours

What's included

Everything covered in your Commercial FRA

One all-inclusive price — here is exactly what the engineer does on site and what you receive afterwards.

Full assessment against the RRO 2005 by a competent assessor

Travel distance, exit capacity and occupancy capacity calculations

Alarm system category reviewed against BS 5839-1

Extinguisher provision, signage and emergency lighting assessed

Compartmentation and mixed-use interface review where applicable

Emergency plan and staff training requirements set out, with a template plan

Risk-rated written action plan with responsibilities and timescales

Pricing

Simple, all-inclusive pricing

The price you see is the price you pay — VAT included, with no hidden call-out fees. Your final price depends on the size of your property; we'll confirm an exact, all-inclusive quote before we attend.

Commercial FRA from

£159.99inc VAT

communal areas up to 3 floors · buildings from £259.99

Get my exact price

All prices include VAT · 12-month workmanship guarantee

Commercial Fire Risk Assessment pricing

Building	Price (inc VAT)
Communal areas · up to 3 floors	£159.99
Communal areas · 3–5 floors	£199.99
Communal areas · 5–10 floors	£289.99
Building · 1–3 floors	£259.99
Building · 3–5 floors	£379.99
Building · 5–8 floors	£469.99
Building · 8–12 floors	£549.99
Building · more than 12 floors	Price on application

All prices include VAT and a full written report with a risk-rated action plan. Buildings above 12 floors, high-rise residential and complex mixed-use sites are quoted individually — contact us and we will scope it properly.

Prices are all-inclusive of VAT with no hidden call-out fees. Where they genuinely apply, parking (£5) and the London Congestion Charge (£18) are passed on at cost and always shown up front.

The process

How your appointment works

Simple, transparent and designed around you and your tenants.

Step 1

Scope the premises

Tell us the building type, floor count and use. We confirm a fixed price and attend at a time that suits trading.

Step 2

Survey and measure

Escape routes, travel distances, exit widths, detection, extinguishers and signage are surveyed and measured.

Step 3

Assess management arrangements

Emergency plan, training records, drill history and log book are reviewed alongside the physical measures.

Step 4

Report and action plan

A risk-rated action plan is issued within 48 hours, with responsibilities and timescales for every item.

FAQs

Commercial FRA — frequently asked questions

Normally the employer, together with anyone else in control of the premises — which can include the freeholder, a managing agent and individual tenants. In mixed-use buildings there is usually more than one, and the Order requires them to cooperate and coordinate with each other.

If you employ five or more people, hold a licence, or an alterations notice is in force, then yes — the significant findings must be recorded. In practice we recommend a written assessment in every case, because an unwritten one is impossible to evidence after an incident.

Annually as standard, and immediately after any fit-out, change of use, change in occupancy, alarm system alteration, or any fire or near miss. An assessment that no longer matches the building offers no protection.

It depends on the building and its risks. Category M is manual call points only, suitable for some small low-risk premises. Category L systems protect life, from L5 for a specific risk up to L1 for whole-building coverage. The assessment determines the appropriate category rather than assuming one.

No. Final exits must be openable without a key whenever the premises is occupied. Locked and obstructed exits are the single most common finding at commercial fire inspections, and they attract enforcement action quickly. Panic hardware or approved release devices are the correct solution where security is a concern.

Yes, but they are quoted individually rather than on the published scale. High-rise residential buildings carry additional duties under the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 and the Building Safety Act, and they need scoping properly rather than being priced from a table.

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Book your Commercial FRA today

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07426 409342

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