FRA FAQ
The responsible person for the building commissions and pays for the fire risk assessment. In a leasehold block that is usually the freeholder, RMC, RTM company or their managing agent, and the cost normally flows to leaseholders through the service charge.
Leasehold blocks
In a typical block the sequence runs: the freeholder, RMC or RTM company instructs a managing agent; the agent procures the assessment for the common parts; the invoice is paid from the service charge account; and leaseholders fund it through their normal demands, in the proportions the lease sets. Individual flat owners do not commission the block FRA themselves, although they have a clear interest in it existing and being current, particularly when selling, as do I need a fire risk assessment to sell my flat explains.
Service charges have to be reasonably incurred, so leaseholders can ask what was bought and use the normal statutory routes to challenge a cost that looks inflated. In practice the assessment fee is rarely the contentious line; the remedial works it triggers are where the money gets serious, and for certain historical safety defects the Building Safety Act 2022 limits what can be passed to qualifying leaseholders.
Workplaces and mixed sites
In a workplace the employer, or whoever otherwise controls the premises, is the responsible person and simply pays for assessing the areas they control. Multi-let commercial buildings split the job: each occupier assesses its own demise, the landlord assesses the common parts, and the landlord's share normally comes back through the commercial service charge. Under a full repairing and insuring lease, compliance costs for the demised space sit squarely with the tenant.
Where a site has several responsible persons they must cooperate and share information, a duty sharpened by Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022, so the sensible arrangement is to agree in writing who commissions what before anyone books an assessor. Mixed-use buildings are the classic case: residential common parts, commercial units and shared plant can each sit with a different payer, and the gaps between them are where enforcement finds nobody in charge. Identifying the duty holder first, as who is the responsible person in a fire risk assessment sets out, settles most payment arguments before they start.
FAQ
Only on the usual service charge grounds: the lease must allow recovery and the cost must be reasonably incurred. An assessment is a statutory compliance cost, so the fee itself is hard to attack; disputes far more often centre on the remedial works that follow the report than on the assessment.
Not for the statutory assessment. Fire and rescue services offer free home fire safety visits for individual dwellings, which are advice visits rather than FRAs; see can I get a free fire safety check. Government remediation funding targets specific defects such as unsafe cladding, not routine assessments.
The landlord. An HMO is, in fire safety terms, the landlord's business: the shared parts need an assessment, the duty sits with the person in control of them, and the cost is part of running the property rather than something recharged to individual tenants as an extra.
FRA Flow keeps assessments, evidence and reviewer sign-off in one place, so agents and RMCs can show leaseholders what the service charge bought. Free tier available.
