Solo
Independent assessor
£79 /month
1 assessor included
- 5 report credits per month
- Unwatermarked PDFs + AI drafting
- Action register + 1 free reviewer seat
By housing sector
Fire risk assessment software for mixed-use buildings.
Buildings combining residential floors with retail, office or commercial uses carry multiple Responsible Persons, distinct compartmentation requirements, and the cooperation duties Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022 now imposes. FRA Flow handles the multi-RP picture cleanly.
No card. Two reports a month, free forever.
- Multi-RP cooperation
- Inter-use compartmentation
- Section 156-aware
Multi-RP picture
Why mixed-use buildings have multiple Responsible Persons.
A typical mixed-use building has at least two distinct Responsible Persons under the FSO. The freeholder or managing agent holds RP status for the common parts of the residential portion (escape routes, plant rooms, shared roof terraces). Each commercial tenant holds RP status for their own demised area, where they have control of the premises in connection with their trade or business. For larger commercial spaces (a major retail unit, a multi-floor office tenant), the commercial RP is a substantial duty-holder in their own right.
For a building with retail at ground floor, offices on the first floor, and residential above, you can easily have four or five RPs operating in different scopes within the same building. Each carries the FSO duty for their own scope. Each FRA addresses their own scope. The cooperation between them is now an explicit duty under Section 156 BSA, not a courtesy.
Compartmentation
Why inter-use compartmentation is the critical FRA finding.
In a mixed-use building, the fire safety strategy depends heavily on the compartmentation between uses. A fire originating in a ground-floor restaurant should be contained for long enough that residents in the flats above can either evacuate or remain safely in place, depending on the strategy. The compartment boundary between the restaurant and the residential portion is the critical fire-resisting element.
For the FRA, the evaluation of inter-use compartmentation is one of the most important findings. The assessor needs to consider what the design intent was (often Approved Document B Volume 2 with specific provisions for separating uses), how the as-built compartmentation now stands, what penetrations through the boundary may have been made over time (services, ducts, refurbishments), and what fire-stopping arrangements are in place.
Where the inter-use compartmentation is not adequately verifiable, the FRA records the position and the action plan typically includes a separate compartmentation survey. The FRA does not by itself remediate; it surfaces the position so the dutyholders can take advice.
Operational interactions
Lift use, escape route sharing, alarm integration.
01
Lift access patterns: where commercial tenants and residents share lifts during normal operation, the fire safety strategy needs to handle the divergent evacuation requirements.02
Escape route sharing: where residents and commercial occupants share an escape route, the route capacity needs to handle simultaneous use; the route protection needs to handle commercial-source fire risk.03
Fire alarm system integration: a single fire alarm system serving multiple uses needs to handle different occupancy patterns and different evacuation strategies (e.g., simultaneous for commercial, stay-put for residential) without confusion.04
Out-of-hours occupation: residential is occupied 24/7, commercial typically is not. The fire safety position out of commercial hours differs from in-hours.05
Service routes: shared service risers, plant rooms, refuse stores often penetrate compartment boundaries between uses. They are common compartmentation gap points.Section 156
How Section 156 BSA changed mixed-use FRA practice.
Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022 amended the Fire Safety Order to require Responsible Persons sharing a premises to take all reasonable steps to cooperate and coordinate. For mixed-use buildings, this is the explicit duty that previously sat as a courtesy.
In practice, this means the residential RP and the commercial RP cannot operate independent FRAs that ignore each other. The commercial FRA should reference the relevant compartment boundary with the residential portion. The residential FRA should reference the relevant compartment boundary with the commercial portion. Where one FRA identifies a compartmentation issue that affects the other, the cooperation duty requires the issue to be communicated.
For the FRA workflow, this raises the bar on inter-RP communication. FRA Flow records the dutyholder structure and the cooperation history at the property level so that the picture is auditable.
In FRA Flow
How the multi-RP picture is recorded.
In FRA Flow, a mixed-use building is set up as a property record with the building structure recorded. Multiple dutyholders can be linked to the same property record, each with their own scope. The FRA on each scope is a distinct assessment, with the audit trail recording the boundary with the other scopes and any cooperation events between RPs.
For property managers and block managers running mixed-use stock for freeholder clients, this avoids the trap of one FRA per RP scope sitting in totally separate workflows. The picture stays connected. The cooperation duty becomes operationally trackable.
Plans and pricing
Priced like a report production system.
Reviewer and admin seats are free on every paid tier. Report credits are pooled across the team so one busy assessor does not run out while another has spare capacity. Annual billing saves around 17 percent. See full tiers, including the free tier and Enterprise, on the [pricing page](/pricing/).
Practice
Small consultancies, 2–10 assessors
£249 /month
+ £49 /month
- 8 report credits per assessor
- Unlimited free reviewer + admin seats
- Client branding profiles + QA workflow
Consultancy
Multi-landlord teams, 10–25 assessors
£499 /month
+ £79 /month
- 15 report credits per assessor
- Per-landlord branding + multi-client dashboard
- Priority support + bulk report packs
Prices shown are monthly. Save around 17% by switching to annual at checkout. See full pricing details for overage rates and feature comparison.
25+ assessors, SSO, or a custom integration?
Enterprise plans start from £1,500 / month and include a named CSM, SLA, and custom domains.
FAQ
Questions buyers ask before they commit to a new workflow.
FAQ 01
Can FRA Flow handle multiple Responsible Persons on a mixed-use building?
Yes. The dutyholder structure is recorded at the property level and can include multiple RPs each with their own scope. Each FRA addresses its own scope; the audit trail records the boundary with the other scopes and any cooperation events.
FAQ 02
How does FRA Flow handle inter-use compartmentation findings?
The compartmentation evaluation is a structured section in the FRA workbench. For mixed-use buildings, the assessor records the inter-use boundaries explicitly, with any penetration concerns surfaced. Where a separate compartmentation survey is recommended, the action plan generates an item against that boundary.
FAQ 03
Does FRA Flow help with the Section 156 cooperation duty?
Yes. The audit trail records cooperation events between RPs against the property: shared FRAs, communications about findings affecting the other RP's scope, joint walkthroughs. This is the trail that demonstrates the cooperation duty has been discharged.
FAQ 04
What about a building where the commercial RP is not on FRA Flow?
FRA Flow records what the residential RP can record from their side: the cooperation correspondence sent and received, the FRAs received from the commercial side, and the residential RP's own assessment of inter-use compartmentation. The commercial RP runs their own FRA in whatever tool they use.
FAQ 05
How does FRA Flow handle the alarm system integration question?
The fire alarm system evaluation is part of the standard FRA workbench. For mixed-use buildings, the evaluation explicitly records whether the alarm system serves multiple uses, how it differentiates evacuation strategies, and how it handles out-of-hours occupation.
FAQ 06
Where is mixed-use building data stored?
All customer data, including database, file storage, and AI inference, runs in UK or EU regions only. Nothing leaves the European Economic Area. Where multiple RPs share data through the cooperation duty, both organisations' UK GDPR positions are supported by the same residency commitment without separate negotiation.
See FRA Flow run a mixed-use FRA programme.
Book a 30-minute walkthrough on a mixed-use building or portfolio sized like yours.