FRA FAQ
Yes, if you are competent to do it properly. The Fire Safety Order 2005 judges whether the finished assessment is suitable and sufficient, not who produced it, so the real question is whether your knowledge honestly matches your building.
Where it is defensible
Self-assessment holds up where the building is small and simple, the fire risks are ordinary, nobody sleeps on the premises and the escape routes are short and obvious. A single-storey shop, a small office or a modest workshop sits comfortably in this territory. Government guidance was written precisely so that owners of premises like these could work through the five steps without buying in help.
Even in easy territory the duty comes with conditions. Since Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022 took effect, the whole assessment has to be written down, findings and measures included, whatever the size of the organisation. Competence also includes knowing where your knowledge stops: identifying a question you cannot answer, such as whether an escape route is acceptable, is the signal to take advice rather than guess.
Where it is not
The calculation changes the moment people sleep in the building. Blocks of flats, HMOs and any premises housing vulnerable occupants demand judgements about compartmentation, fire door condition and whether a stay put strategy remains supportable, and since the Fire Safety Act 2021 the external walls and flat entrance doors are explicitly in scope too. These are specialist calls, and the blocks of flats guide shows how much sits behind each one.
Liability is the second half of the legal answer. The duty stays with the responsible person no matter who does the work, so a defective self-assessment is your failure in law, with sanctions running from enforcement notices to unlimited fines and, in the worst cases, imprisonment. Weigh the saving on a professional against that exposure; for anything with sleeping risk the arithmetic almost always favours appointing a specialist.
FAQ
No. The Fire Safety Order places the duty on the responsible person and leaves the choice of assessor to them. Since October 2023 the record must state who did the work, and if you appoint someone, satisfying yourself that they are competent is part of the duty itself.
Nothing forbids it, but sleeping risk makes it hard to defend. You would need to judge the doors, the separation between flats and the escape route to a professional standard. Most small landlords decide the exposure is not worth it; see who can do a fire risk assessment for flats.
The consequences land on you, not on the template or checklist you used. An assessment that is not suitable and sufficient is a breach in its own right, and who is responsible if a fire risk assessment is not suitable and sufficient explains how enforcement plays out.
FRA Flow captures evidence on site and drafts the full written record for a named reviewer to sign. BS 9792-native, with a free tier.
