If you find out that your building does not have a fire risk assessment you should contact the freeholder, managing agent, or management company and ask them to carry out an assessment as soon as possible.
What if the owner, management company or managing agent doesn’t carry out the assessment?
The freeholder or managing agent of a building has a legal duty to arrange for a fire risk assessment to be carried out on the communal . If the they do not carry out a fire risk assessment they have not met their legal duty to keep residents safe and could face an unlimited fine and/or up to 2 years in prison.
Freeholders and management companies
If the person responsible for carrying out the assessment is your freeholder or a management company, you can complain to them directly.
If your freeholder or management company still won’t carry out an assessment, you should contact your local fire and rescue authority (FRA). Your local fire service will be able to tell you who the FRA is (it might be your local council).
Your FRA is responsible for enforcing fire safety regulations and they can order your freeholder or management company to carry out a fire risk assessment.
Managing agents
If the person responsible for carrying out the assessment is a managing agent, you should complain directly to the individual agent.
If that does not work you should make a formal complaint through the internal complaints procedure at the agent’s company. If you are still unhappy you can then complain to a redress scheme. All managing agents in England must be a member of one of two redress schemes:
As well as complaining to these redress schemes you could also speak to your . See the ‘Freeholders and management companies’ section above for more information.
More information you might find useful:
- I’m responsible for fire safety in a block of flats. Do I need a fire risk assessment?
- What is a fire risk assessment?
- How do I get a copy of my building’s fire risk assessment?
- Fire risk assessments: how often must they be done?
- Who is responsible for carrying out a fire risk assessment?
- What are the leaseholder protections in the Building Safety Act 2022?
- More Frequently Asked Questions on Fire safety
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