Fire Risk Assessments

Can someone please confirm which fire system we need? The FRA said D LD2, but the building is four storeys high, including the basement, which houses three flats off the communal hallway.

Does a shop with 3 employees and never more than a maximum of 10 people including the 3 employees need a FRA by a paid assessor or can it be carried out by the shop manager please? The shop is only open during the day and no one stays in it overnight.

Hi - I've spent the last hour trawling various government documents on the above but can't get a definitive answer in layman's language. I own (outright) and live in the ground floor flat of a converted Victorian house. There are two flats above me and we all share the freehold. The middle flat is owned by a buy-to-let landlord who is remortgaging with a loan company that demanded a fire risk assessment. There are a few things that need to be done to meet the recommendations in the FRA. We already have a compliant fire alarm system, so we just need minor work on the individual flat doors etc. There's a tiny communal hall with a mains smoke detector attached to …

Guidance needed please. I’m trying to purchase a 3 story property. My survey has flagged that there are no internal firedoors. The loft extension was done in 1997 and I believe firedoors were required then. I imagine they have been replaced over the years by various owner with standard normal doors. The owner of the house is saying as they have building regs signed off in 1997 then this is not a problem but I disagree. It is a large property with around 10 internal doors to replace. If I order the doors myself and have a carpenter install them who do I get to certify the work meets fire regulations? I did get a quote from a fire specialist company…

Hi, new and learning to become a fire risk assessor . Im studying about fire doors and im just wondering. it a fire door has a "fire door keep shut" would you still be able to fix a the automatic door closers like the "Dorgard Fire Door Retainers" ? would you have to replace the sign with a new sign "fire door" or would it be acceptable to ? And also going off the subject a little, would the manufacture of the fire door be able to clarify if you can screw door closer devices like the above or would it make the fire door invalid ? Thank you Stephen

My Daughter bought a 2 bed flat which is a Leasehold and the property is basically a converted house with a flat on the ground floor and one on the first floor. Both properties have completely separate front doors to enter and there are no communal are no communal areas at all. Despite my Daughter owning the flat, she has been contacted by Leaseholder/Agent to advise she needs to install a fire door to the entrance of her flat? I don't quite understand why this demand can be made as there are no communal areas and having a fire door as a front door would only keep external fire out as the door opens straight out onto her alleyway? Can anyone advise on this please as t…

Hi, I hope some of you experts can help. I am a tenant in a building with 3 floors and because my business is busy, we have multiple boxes delivered each day. There could be anywhere from 1-6 boxes on average, put at the bottom of the stairs, out the way of traffic and fire exit. The landlord is making my life difficult. We drop parcels to our courier daily and as such may leave multiple parcels at the stair bottom or in fire exit corridor but not blocking the route out. The LL is telling me now no boxes at all can be left at the bottom of my stairs, even out the way or myself leaving parcels for me to take the courier. Parcels could be downstairs …

Do I need fire doors in my converted 2 bedroom 1st floor flat if I decide to let it out. It was converted in 1950's from a house that was built in 1925. There are no communal areas and it has it's own private front door.

Appreciate some guidance. Just finished our loft conversion - now ground, 1st and 2nd floor semi-detached dwelling. Our private building control officer originally cited that as we had a plug socket in a cupboard at the foot of the stairs between 1st and top floor with a mega flow that it was a fire risk - because it was in a cupboard. I looked at options and suggested I remove the existing doors so it would not be deemed as a cupboard. They said they would consider this. Our building control officer has now come back and cited that it is actually the mega flow / pressurised water cyclinder housed in the cupboard to the right of the stairs that in the…

We have had an FRA completed for a Victorian Conversion with two flats. Our common entrance is 1.5x1m. We have two doors that open into a very small common area leading to the main door. The recommendations include two smoke alarms, one heat alarm and emergency lighting, signs and a few other measures. The area is well lit during the day and night as there is good borrowed lighting. I can evacuate my flat to the main door in one stride. This seems excessive and even the Fire Service questioned the emergency lighting. Any advice regarding proportional measures? Thanks

Hello, Please can you offer some advice regarding REGS. Please see action below. Window is 635mm length x 483mm.Window sill is 1220mm from the ground so min from ADB clearance. Doors are already FD30s. Doors are not openable. 1 Flat in 1sqm commueal areas some of them have 2 flats and 2 windows. All ground floor purpose built blocks maisonettes. 4 story block. Do we have to follow this FRA then as in upgrade windows ? Thanks

I own a top floor flat in a Victorian mansion block. There are four flats in total and we all have a share of the freehold. Management of property is done ourselves. The flats consist of lower ground floor (separate entrance), ground floor, first floor and second floor (top floor conversion). I lived in the flat for a good few years and now rent my flat out. But have realised there has never been a fire safety risk assessment carried out since I’ve lived there. The property was converted prior to 1991. I have a few questions. 1. What type of FSA should be carried out? Can we do this ourselves and is there a checklist anyone can point us to? 2. Are there any…

Hello, I am struggling to find an answer to the situation I am facing. I am converting a Victorian house, which was converted into 3 flats in 2010 back into a single family house. My budget is tight and I am hearing conflicting views about the applicability of the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022. These state that the Regulation applies to a building with two ore more residential units. Given that the house is currently uninhabitable due to building work and will be habitable as a single family home after the renovation, I am struggling to see how the Regulations apply. My building control person (privately appointed) is insisting they do apply and that I have …

Hi all! First time poster, long time lurker... I'm the director of a management company. As background, we have an electrical cupboard on the lower ground floor of the building (newly built block of 7 flats) with it's own entrance door opening to the exterior. The door doesn't open onto an escape route. Previously we carried out fireproofing works to ensure the service penetrations in this cupboard were sealed with proper fire related materials (as opposed to the builder's foam used by previous managing agent...). We had a FRA review performed recently, and one of the comments made is: "Is there a means of fire detection in the common areas? No …

Hi all What would be the minimum requirement fire safety wise, if you wanted to start using the dining room in a 2 storey house into a bedroom? It’s an old council house (built 1950s), Dining room is off the kitchen and has only the one entrance into it from the kitchen. Back door is adjacent to the dining room entrance and distance is approx 3m, but you need to walk past the cooker to get to it. There is a window, in the dining room but it doesn’t comply to current building regs as it only has a small opening window at the top, so there is no other alternative means of escape. There is also a fuse box and gas meter within the dining room. it’s been sugges…

Hi all What would be the minimum requirement fire safety wise, if you wanted to start using the dining room in a 2 storey house into a bedroom? It’s an old council house (built 1950s), Dining room is off the kitchen and has only the one entrance into it from the kitchen. Back door is adjacent to the dining room entrance and distance is approx 3m, but you need to walk past the cooker to get to it. There is a window, in the dining room but it doesn’t comply to current building regs as it only has a small opening window at the top, so there is no other alternative means of escape. There is also a fuse box and gas meter within the dining room. it’s been sugges…

Hi, Where a sheltered accommodation is fitted with a sprinkler system, is there a requirement for compartmentation within roof space to separate flats and common area. I can't find anything on ADB or other guidance. Can anyone please provide guidance on this matter?

We've purchased an apartment in an apartment block that isn't a good current state. It is a duplex apartment on the 7th / 8th floor. We need to replace the very rickety spiral staircase that feels like it might fall down but I'd also like to make changes to the layout as it doesn't work in it's current state. I now know that I need to apply to the BSR rather than building control so I wondered if there were any issues with this plan before I go through the process? All bedroom doors would be FD30 and we would add hard wired smoke detectors in the bedrooms, bottom of the stairs and lounge and a heat detector in the kitchen. Any advice would be greatly appreciated…

3 storey block of flats (25 flats), with stairways and exits at either end. They have a plant wall in the entrance lobby. The width of the lobby is about 12m, with the exit doors in the centre. The plant wall is on the side. Is it allowed?

Where there is a communal services riser in a block of flats, but the riser is fire-stopped at each floor (i.e. there is a concrete floor and ceiling on each level) - is it necessary to have a compartment wall that faces into the flat? I've looked through Approved Document B but I can't find a satisfactory answer. In this scenario, would the whole floor be a compartment rather than the riser itself - or would the riser still have to be a compartment?

Hi, I'm in the process of purchasing a flat that is one in a block of 6 purpose built, all of which are leasehold flats. The building is around 10 years old. We've been waiting for weeks for a fire safety certificate (FRA?) for the communal areas of the building, only to be told today that the management company are saying they don't have one and haven't yet set a date to complete one. What are the legalities around this? Should there be a recorded FRA in place already? Thanks in advance for any advice! Sam

Hi all, In my FRA I am asked the question: "Are the windows leading onto the escape route above 1.1m fire resisting". i am under the impression that windows below 1.1m and less than 1.8m in distance from flat entrances in a block of flats escape route have to be fire resisting. Is this true?

Hello everyone, I was wondering if anyone can advise me. I'm risk assessing a number of properties that have existing external fire escape stairs, possibly over 50 to 60yrs old. I'm aware they will require a structural survey if they have had one recently. I was wondering about the gaps between the railings, some of them have gaps of 250mm, big enough for a child or small adult to easily fall through. Do these fire escapes need to conform to the current standard, I think gaps should be no more than 100mm. Or do they have grandfather rights?

Hi, After a fire stopping survey was undertaken in the care home i work for, the fire stopping company advised that a fire barrier was required in the roof space as it is over 20m (im waiting for confirmation as to by how far in excess of 20m) . When i referred this to the Fire Risk Assessor, they did not see a need for this to completed on the basis we have detection in the roof space (unused), fire-rated ceilings below and on the basis it is a relatively new building and the design and construction was subject to building control approval at that time (2016) and had been accepted as is. This hasnt been picked up as an issue in any previous fire risk assessments wh…

Hi. Does a Fire Risk Assessor need to check the roof space of a 1961-purpose-built 3-storey block of flats? The flats have two entrances and two communal areas although it is one detached building. The assessor is saying that a 30-minute fire cavity barrier is needed along the dividing wall between the two sides of the building and above each protected stairwell in the loft. Is this correct