Offering trusted and professional property compliance software and safety services. Helping landlords to easily keep tenants and properties safe.
Landlords & Agents can use the Safer Landlord Services FRA system as responsible persons to conduct self assessments of their property, and continue to maintain compliance.
Transparent pricing, no upfront payment required and quickly receive your assessment and safety certificates from one of our certified fire, gas, or electrical teams.
Easily check that you have all the required compliance and licensing documents for your properties, store them in your own personal space and never miss a safety certificate date again. New here? Register for £25/year + VAT to get full access.
The choices you make about compliance have real consequences — for your tenants, and for you.
Safer Landlord Services can meet all of your property compliance needs. Competent. Professional. Competitive.
Know what is legally required to keep both tenants and property safe
Identify hazards & people at risk via risk assessments and safety checks by competent and experienced specialists
Remove and reduce risk via clear and easy to understand action plans
Record, plan and inform
Not ready for a full Fire Risk Assessment or one of our other services just yet? Start keeping proper records today with our free Fire Safety Logbook — the same 13-category compliance logbook we build into every property registered with Safer Landlord Services, covering fire risk assessment, gas safety, electrical installation, PAT testing, smoke & heat detection, fire alarms, means of escape, furniture & bedding, fire doors, emergency lights, fire extinguishers, fixed fire fighting equipment and tenants' fire emergency advice.
We'll only use your email to send occasional landlord compliance tips and news from Safer Landlord Services. Unsubscribe anytime.
Share this guide with your tenants, or send it to them directly — a plain-English, 24-point fire safety guide written specifically for people living in rented accommodation and HMOs. It covers escape routes, fire doors, smoke & carbon monoxide alarms, safe cooking and electrics, what to do if there's a fire, a 5-minute move-in checklist and links to official government guidance.
We'll only use your email to send occasional landlord compliance tips and news from Safer Landlord Services. Unsubscribe anytime.
Certified assessments and safety certificates, priced transparently.
Fire safety can feel complicated, particularly when you are responsible for a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO). This guide answers some of the questions landlords commonly ask about Fire Risk Assessments (FRAs), fire safety responsibilities and keeping tenants safe.
Yes, if the Fire Safety Order applies to your property, you need a suitable and sufficient Fire Risk Assessment.
HM Government’s Fire Safety Risk Assessment: Sleeping Accommodation guidance specifically includes the common areas of Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs).
The purpose of an FRA is to identify fire hazards, identify people who may be at risk, assess the risks and determine what fire safety measures and management arrangements are necessary.
The assessment should be specific to your property rather than simply being a generic checklist.
The person with responsibility for fire safety is generally known as the Responsible Person.
Depending on the circumstances, this could be the landlord, owner, managing agent or another person who has control of the premises.
If you use a managing agent, it is important to understand exactly who is responsible for which fire safety duties. Having a managing agent does not automatically remove the landlord’s responsibilities.
Think of an FRA as a structured health check for your property’s fire safety.
A proper assessment considers:
The government guidance describes the process around identifying fire hazards, identifying people at risk, evaluating and reducing risk, recording significant findings, planning and informing people, and reviewing the assessment.
In some circumstances, yes.
The government states that you can carry out a Fire Risk Assessment yourself if you have the necessary knowledge and understanding.
However, HMOs can involve complicated issues such as fire compartmentation, escape routes, fire doors, detection and warning systems and the interaction between different fire safety measures.
If you do not have the necessary expertise, you should appoint a competent person to assist you.
The important question is not simply whether someone has completed a form. The assessment needs to be suitable and sufficient for your particular property.
A competent person should have sufficient knowledge, training, experience and skills to carry out the work properly.
For a more complicated HMO, you may need someone with appropriate specialist fire safety knowledge.
When choosing a fire risk assessor, don’t simply choose the cheapest assessment. Ask about their qualifications, experience, competence and the type of properties they normally assess.
A good assessment will normally consider areas such as:
Fire hazards
People at risk
Fire protection
The government guidance specifically identifies fire detection and warning, firefighting equipment, escape routes, lighting, signs and notices, and regular testing and maintenance as matters that should be considered.
Absolutely.
Fire doors form part of the property’s fire protection strategy.
An assessment may consider whether doors are suitable for their intended purpose and whether they are properly maintained.
Things that can cause problems include:
The government guidance highlights the importance of maintaining fire doors and fire-resisting elements, and its inspection examples include checking fire door seals, self-closing devices and internal self-closing fire doors.
Yes.
Escape routes need to remain usable.
Landlords and property managers should make sure that corridors, stairs, landings and final exits are not being obstructed by:
The assessment should consider whether people can reach a place of safety and whether escape routes remain available in the event of fire.
The government guidance specifically asks whether escape routes and final exits are kept clear and whether everyone will be able to safely use the escape routes.
It depends on the property and the findings of the Fire Risk Assessment.
Emergency lighting may be necessary where normal lighting could fail and people would otherwise have difficulty escaping safely.
The important point is that emergency lighting should not simply be installed because another property has it, or omitted because another property does not.
The FRA should determine what is necessary for your particular building.
The appropriate level of fire detection and warning depends on the property.
An FRA should consider whether people will receive adequate warning of a fire and whether the existing detection and warning system is suitable for the building and its occupants.
The government guidance specifically identifies fire detection and warning as one of the key areas to consider when reducing risk to people.
Important: Don’t assume that installing a particular alarm simply makes an HMO compliant. The required arrangements depend on the circumstances of the property and applicable requirements.
Firefighting equipment should be considered as part of the Fire Risk Assessment.
The government guidance identifies firefighting equipment as one of the areas that should be assessed.
Whether particular equipment is appropriate, where it should be located and how it should be maintained will depend on the property and its risks.
Fire extinguishers should not be regarded as a substitute for adequate prevention, detection, warning and escape arrangements.
Signs should be provided where necessary to help people identify escape routes and firefighting equipment.
The government guidance explains that signs may not be necessary where escape routes and firefighting equipment are immediately obvious, but in other circumstances the risk assessment is likely to identify a need for signs.
Signs also need to remain visible, legible and understandable.
This is an important part of the assessment.
The FRA should consider the people who are actually using the property and whether anyone may require additional assistance in an emergency.
This could include people with mobility difficulties, sensory impairments or other circumstances that could affect their ability to respond to a fire alarm and escape.
The government guidance says that people at particular risk should be considered as part of the assessment.
The answer depends on the legal duties and the nature of the accommodation.
For HMOs, the Fire Safety Order principally applies to the common areas, although risks arising from individual rooms and other parts of the property may still be relevant when assessing the overall fire safety of the building.
The government’s sleeping-accommodation guidance specifically covers the common areas of HMOs.
A competent assessor should consider the whole fire safety strategy rather than looking at individual rooms in isolation.
There isn’t a simple rule that every FRA must automatically be completely rewritten every year.
The assessment should be kept under review and revised where necessary.
You should review it when circumstances change, for example:
The government guidance explains that keeping records helps provide the basis for subsequent reviews.
Yes – good record keeping is an important part of managing fire safety.
Your records can include:
The government guidance states that up-to-date fire safety records can help demonstrate compliance and should include significant findings, testing and checking of escape routes, fire-warning systems, emergency lighting, firefighting equipment, training and alterations, repairs and maintenance.
Don’t panic.
Identifying problems is one of the main reasons for carrying out an FRA.
The important thing is to understand:
For example, an assessment might identify a damaged fire door, inadequate escape lighting or an obstruction to an escape route.
The government guidance gives examples of significant findings and the actions that need to be taken.
Not necessarily.
An FRA is an assessment of risk. It may identify actions that need to be completed.
Having an assessment carried out does not remove the landlord’s responsibility to address significant risks.
Think of it as:
Assess → Identify → Prioritise → Fix → Verify → Review
The goal is not simply to possess an FRA document. The goal is to manage fire risk effectively.
No.
A fire alarm inspection checks the condition and operation of the alarm system.
A Fire Risk Assessment is much broader.
It considers the overall fire safety arrangements, including:
The attached guidance makes this distinction clear by treating fire detection, escape routes, lighting, signs and maintenance as separate elements of the overall assessment.
Deal with it promptly.
The priority should depend on the level of risk.
Some problems may require immediate action. Others may require planned remedial work.
For example, an escape route blocked by combustible materials should not simply be added to a long-term maintenance list – it should be dealt with immediately.
The government guidance states that defects should be put right as quickly as possible and that fire safety equipment and facilities need to be maintained in effective working order.
You should consider whether the work has changed the fire risk.
Changes such as:
could affect the fire safety strategy.
A significant change may require the Fire Risk Assessment to be reviewed or revised.
This is both a management and fire safety issue.
Tenants should be informed about why fire doors must not be wedged or propped open.
The property should also be checked to determine why this is happening and whether there is an underlying problem.
For example, a door that is constantly wedged open because it is difficult to use may require attention to the door or its closer.
The government’s guidance specifically highlights the importance of preventing fire doors from being wedged open and maintaining safe escape routes.
Yes, appropriate information and instruction should form part of your fire safety arrangements.
Tenants should understand what they should do if they discover a fire or hear the alarm.
Depending on the property and evacuation strategy, information may include:
The government guidance identifies emergency planning and providing information, instruction and training as part of the fire safety management process.
Generally, you should be cautious about this.
An FRA needs to reflect the actual property, its construction, layout, occupancy, fire precautions and management arrangements.
Two properties that look similar externally may have very different fire risks.
A generic document copied from one property to another may fail to identify important differences.
Don’t choose an assessor based on price alone.
Ask:
The government guidance says that where you do not have the expertise or time to undertake the assessment yourself, you should appoint a competent person.
There is no single magic format that every property must use.
However, a useful assessment should clearly explain:
The government guidance notes that there is no single “correct” format for fire safety records, but that records should contain significant findings and actions taken.
Treating fire safety as a paperwork exercise.
A Fire Risk Assessment is useful only if it reflects what is actually happening in the property.
A landlord may have a beautifully presented FRA, but if:
then the underlying fire risk may still exist.
Fire safety is an ongoing responsibility, not a document you put in a drawer.
The principal government guidance for HMOs and other sleeping accommodation is the Home Office’s Fire Safety Risk Assessment: Sleeping Accommodation guidance, which specifically includes the common areas of houses in multiple occupation. You can also find the government’s wider information on Fire Risk Assessments below.
Fire Safety Risk Assessment: Sleeping Accommodation — GOV.UK Fire safety in the workplace: Fire risk assessments — GOV.UKFire safety doesn’t have to be complicated. The key is to understand the risks in your property, make sure appropriate precautions are in place, maintain them properly and deal with problems when they are identified.
A good Fire Risk Assessment should give you a clear picture of where you are today – and, where improvements are needed, what you should do next.
If you're still unsure about the level of compliance you need or would just like to find out more, contact us today and a member of the SLS team will be in touch to offer free and professional advice.
