FRA FAQ
Three clocks run in sequence: booking lead time, which depends on assessor pipelines; time on site, often a morning for a small block; and report turnaround, typically days to a few weeks depending on the drafting and review process.
Three clocks
Booking lead time is the most variable clock, because it is really a question about the assessor market: established consultancies run pipelines, and demand spikes after regulatory deadlines and high-profile fires. A single small block can often be slotted in within weeks; programmes covering hundreds of buildings are scheduled across months by design. If your need is urgent because something material changed in the building, say so when booking; a significant change review has a fair claim to the front of the queue.
Report turnaround is the clock people forget to ask about. After the visit the assessor drafts, checks photographs and references, and in better consultancies puts the report through an internal review before issue, so days to a few weeks is the honest range. Ask two questions when booking: when is the visit, and how long after the visit does the signed report arrive? The second answer varies between firms far more than the first.
Delays
Access failures are the classic site-day problem: missing keys, locked risers, alarm panels nobody can operate, no one on site who knows the building. Each gap either extends the visit or forces a return, and return visits go to the back of the booking queue. Missing records slow things too, because an assessor who arrives without the previous report, door inspection history or external wall information has to reconstruct context that should have arrived in an email, a preparation job covered in how to obtain a fire risk assessment.
On the report side, the delay usually lives in drafting and review rather than inspection. Long reports assembled by hand from photographs and notes take time, and reviewer availability adds more. When you compare consultancies, ask how the report is produced and who signs it off; a firm that can describe its drafting and review process will usually also commit to a turnaround. Urgent findings should never wait for the document: a competent assessor flags immediate hazards to the responsible person on the day they are found.
FAQ
A same-day verbal flag of urgent hazards is normal practice; a same-day suitable and sufficient written report is rarely credible for anything beyond the simplest premises. Instant reports are one of the warning signs discussed in how much should a fire risk assessment cost.
There is no fixed expiry. The assessment must be reviewed regularly and whenever it may no longer reflect the building, and much of UK housing works to an annual review pattern with fuller reassessment on a risk-based cycle. How often should a fire risk assessment be done explains the cycles.
For the whole programme, yes; per building, not necessarily. Portfolio schedules are agreed in advance, so individual blocks get fixed slots, and good planning means records and access are ready when the assessor arrives. The buildings that wait longest are usually the ones nobody prepared.
FRA Flow drafts the report from evidence captured on site, ready for reviewer sign-off, which targets the drafting stage that sets turnaround times. Starts free.
