01 · Why quotes varyThe FRA market is a three-tier one, here is how to read it
A landlord searching for a fire risk assessment in London will see quotes ranging from £99 to £850 for what looks, on the face of it, like the same product. It isn't. The London FRA market is three-tiered, each tier delivers a materially different piece of work, and the cheapest tier is usually rejected by the borough that commissioned it.
HSE Property Checks delivered 56 fire risk assessments across 100 line-items between October 2025 and March 2026. The pricing in this guide is drawn from those receipts directly, no rounding, no bracket-smoothing. Where we cite a range, it is the real low and the real high we charged for that property type during that six-month window, working to BS 9792:2025 (housing) and PAS 79-1:2020 (non-housing premises), with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 as the governing statutory framework.
The three tiers, briefly:
- Volume tier (£99–£140), typically a pro-forma PAS 79 desktop review, often by a non-NFRAR-registered assessor, scope limited to the unit itself with no occupancy or compartmentation analysis. Marketed as same-day. Almost always rejected when a London borough licensing officer visits.
- Competent-assessor tier (£150–£395), the mid-market. Site visit, PAS 79 methodology, photographic evidence, significant findings, action plan. Tier 2 or Tier 3 NFRAR. This is what 80% of responsible landlords buy.
- Specialist tier (£395–£850), Tier 3 NFRAR or BAFE SP205 fire-engineer-competent, for licensed HMOs, blocks of flats, HRBs (7 storeys or 18 metres), care homes, CQC-regulated settings, and purpose-built residential where the fire strategy has complexity. Where London Fire Brigade expects the assessor signature to come from.
What this guide is not
This is a transparent pricing explainer, not a marketing flyer. The numbers are HSE's own, but the tier framing applies to every competent-assessor firm in London. If you are comparing quotes from three different companies, the framework in Section 02 will tell you what you are actually being quoted for.
02 · Six factorsWhat actually drives the cost of an FRA
Across the 56 assessments we priced in the last two quarters, six factors account for roughly 90% of the spread between the cheapest and the most expensive job. None of them are mysterious; all of them are visible from your property description at the point of quoting.
01 · Property type & occupancy profile
Largest driverA single flat with one household is an order of magnitude simpler than a 6-bed HMO sharing a kitchen and bathroom across two households. Occupancy profile, how many people, how many households, what pattern of use, shapes the fire-strategy assessment and the compartmentation analysis more than any other single variable.
02 · Storeys & escape complexity
StructuralA single-storey ground-floor flat with direct external exit is the simplest possible case. A 3-storey Victorian conversion with an internal shared staircase is at least 60% more work, escape-route widths, compartmentation between floors, fire-door spec at every unit entrance, and emergency lighting at every storey all need individual scrutiny. Above 4 storeys, BS 9991:2024 residential fire safety design and Reg 10 of the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 start to apply.
03 · Build era & material risk
Evidence loadPre-1940s buildings raise separate questions, original timber structure, absent fire-stopping in voids, retrofitted alterations that break compartmentation. Pre-2000 buildings need an asbestos management overlay. Post-2018 buildings under BSA 2022 Part 4 are a different assessment altogether. Build era dictates how much evidence an assessor needs to gather before the report can be signed.
04 · Licensing regime & borough
ScopeA LACORS-aligned HMO FRA in a borough running Additional or Selective licensing is materially longer than a non-licensed single-let assessment in the same borough. Article 4 boroughs (Tower Hamlets, Newham, Southwark, Hackney, Waltham Forest, Barking & Dagenham, Camden) add a planning-overlay check; Southwark in particular applies a tighter amenity standard that shows up in the fire report.
05 · Assessor tier
CompetenceTier 2 NFRAR is adequate for simple single-let flats and small houses in low-risk buildings. Tier 3 NFRAR or BAFE SP205 is the benchmark cited in government FRA guidance and the level London Fire Brigade, insurers and most borough licensors look for on any HMO, block, HRB, care home or CQC premises. The typical premium for Tier 3 over Tier 2 on the same property is £50–£150, negligible against the cost of an FRA being rejected and redone.
06 · Scope of deliverable
What's includedWhere the assessment sits on a scale from "desktop review" through "site visit with photographic record" to "full PAS 79 with compartmentation report, prioritised action plan, responsible-person briefing and 12-month desktop review bolt-on" matters more than any other single line. Cheap quotes usually exclude photographs, the action plan, and the desktop review; those three items together represent a quarter of the real work.
If the cheapest quote you are looking at does not list photographs, a prioritised action plan and a named Tier-2 or Tier-3 NFRAR competent assessor, you are not comparing like with like. You are comparing a compliance document against a pro-forma.
03 · Price bandsWhat we actually charged, by property type
These are the real ranges HSE Property Checks charged for a standalone fire risk assessment between October 2025 and March 2026. The average column is a straight mean across all receipts in that property type. Remedial works, re-inspection, alarm upgrades and fire-door installs are separate line items and are not included in any number below.
| Property type | Typical range | Average | Scope & methodology |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single-let flat (1 household, 1 storey) | £150–£220 | £180 | BS 9792:2025 site visit, photographs, action plan, RRO 2005 responsible-person briefing. Tier 2 NFRAR adequate. |
| Single-let house (family home, 2–3 storeys) | £180–£260 | £210 | BS 9792:2025, multi-storey escape and compartmentation check, photographs, action plan. Tier 2 NFRAR. |
| Small HMO (3–4 occupants, 2 households) | £220–£395 | £295 | BS 9792:2025 with LACORS alignment, alarm-grade check, door-set audit, amenity assessment. Tier 2 or Tier 3 NFRAR. |
| Mandatory licensed HMO (5+ occupants) | £395–£550 | £460 | LACORS-aligned BS 9792:2025, full compartmentation, Grade A alarm verification, emergency-lighting check, door-set audit, amenity-standard report. Tier 3 NFRAR. |
| Flat in purpose-built block (common-parts FRA) | £395–£650 | £495 | BS 9792:2025 + Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 Reg 10 common-parts assessment. Tier 3 NFRAR. Usually commissioned by RMC / managing agent, not individual flat owner. |
| Commercial (office, retail, hospitality) | £185–£350 | £272 | PAS 79-1:2020, fire-strategy review, occupancy calculation, escape-route analysis. Tier 2 or Tier 3 depending on scale. |
| Supported living / institutional / care | £395–£850 | £620 | PAS 79-1:2020 (non-housing) or BS 9792:2025 (housing-based supported living) with CQC Regulation 15 alignment, PEEPs and evacuation-strategy review, horizontal-evacuation assessment. Tier 3 NFRAR / BAFE SP205. |
04 · Visual spreadPrice ranges at a glance
The same data, shown as horizontal bars. Each row is a property type; the coloured band is the typical low-to-high range; the marker is the average HSE charged in the last two quarters.
05 · Hidden costsWhat the £99 quote quietly leaves out
If you are comparing two quotes that look hundreds of pounds apart on the same property, nine times out of ten the gap is explained by what the cheaper quote has stripped out of the scope. Before you accept the cheaper one, check for each of these eight items:
- Physical site visit. A significant proportion of sub-£140 assessments are desk-based pro-formas; the assessor never sees the property. PAS 79 methodology requires a site visit.
- Dated photographic evidence. A proper FRA carries photographs of every significant finding and a record of every component it audited. Cheap quotes typically include none.
- Prioritised action plan. Every significant finding needs a priority (High / Medium / Low or 1 / 2 / 3) and a target remediation window. A bullet list of "recommendations" with no timescale is not an action plan.
- Named, competent assessor. The report should name the individual assessor with Tier 2 or Tier 3 NFRAR registration (or BAFE SP205 / IFE membership). A report signed by "Compliance Team" with no individual name is a red flag for licensing officers.
- Methodology statement. BS 9792:2025 (housing) or PAS 79-1:2020 (non-housing premises) should be cited explicitly. PAS 79-2:2020 was withdrawn when BS 9792:2025 was published on 1 August 2025, so any 2026 housing FRA still citing PAS 79-2 is behind the current standard. No methodology = no defensible basis.
- LACORS alignment on HMOs. For HMOs, the report should explicitly address LACORS Housing Fire Safety guidance against the specific property. A generic FRA with no LACORS matrix is almost always rejected by borough licensing.
- Occupancy and usage analysis. A proper assessor evaluates who uses the building, when, at what density, and whether any occupants have mobility or evacuation vulnerabilities. Cheap quotes skip this and produce a property-shaped document that says nothing about the people living in it.
- 12-month desktop review bolt-on. The RRO 2005 requires the FRA to be "kept under review". A £99 quote that excludes the 12-month review makes compliance your problem to remember.
The false-economy pattern
We see this regularly: landlord buys a £99 FRA, takes it to a Southwark HMO licensing inspection, council rejects it, landlord pays £395 for a re-done Tier 3 FRA, then pays the remedial works anyway. Actual spend: £494 plus six weeks of delay and a licence-application refund cycle. The same outcome for £395 on day one.
£494
Typical true cost to a London HMO landlord who starts with the cheap quote: £99 initial + £395 replacement, plus six weeks of delay and licence-application friction.
06 · Worked exampleA 6-bed HMO in Southwark SE15, actual quote breakdown
Mandatory HMO licence renewal, 6 occupants, 3 storeys, Victorian conversion
A private landlord with a 6-bed Mandatory HMO in Southwark SE15 (Peckham) came to us with a licence-renewal deadline 14 days away and a cheap quote in hand from a national online compliance portal. The portal had quoted £135 for the FRA. The Southwark licensing team had already flagged their existing document as non-compliant with LACORS. Here is what the HSE quote looked like, line by line.
Southwark licensing accepted the HSE FRA on first submission. The landlord's actual alternative cost path: pay £135 to the portal, be rejected (as the existing report already had been), miss the 14-day deadline, lodge a new application, and pay for a proper FRA anyway, a near-certain £685 combined spend plus delay. The fixed £550 was the cheaper route.
The remedial items the FRA identified, intumescent strip replacement on four doors, one smoke-seal, and a Grade D to Grade A alarm upgrade, were quoted separately at £1,840 and delivered within the same 14-day window.
07 · FAQsFive questions we are asked weekly
How much does a fire risk assessment cost in London?
A London FRA typically costs £150–£550 depending on the property; specialist settings such as care homes and HRBs can reach £850. Single-let flats sit at £150–£220; single-let houses £180–£260; small HMOs £220–£395; mandatory licensed HMOs £395–£550; commercial premises £185–£350; supported-living or care premises £395–£850. All figures from 100 audited HSE receipts, Oct 2025 – Mar 2026, and exclude remedial works and re-inspection.
Why are fire risk assessment quotes so different, from £99 to £600?
The London FRA market has three tiers, the cheapest tier is a desktop pro-forma, the middle tier is a competent site-attending PAS 79 assessment, and the specialist tier is Tier 3 NFRAR or BAFE SP205 for HMOs, blocks and HRBs. Borough licensing officers in London routinely reject the cheapest tier on inspection. See Section 01 above for the full tier framework and Section 05 for what the cheapest quotes typically leave out.
What's included in a proper London fire risk assessment?
A proper FRA includes a site visit by a competent, named assessor, photographs of every significant finding, a prioritised action plan, and a written report citing BS 9792:2025 (housing) or PAS 79-1:2020 (non-housing premises) against the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. For HMOs, it also includes LACORS-aligned analysis of alarm grade, door-set specification, compartmentation, amenity standard and occupancy profile. A 12-month desktop review bolt-on keeps the document current between full re-inspections.
Does an HMO fire risk assessment cost more than a standard FRA?
Yes, typically 40–100% more. A mandatory licensed HMO (5+ occupants, 2+ households) requires a LACORS-aligned PAS 79 assessment that scrutinises alarm grade, fire-door specification, compartmentation, escape-route widths, amenity ratios and emergency lighting across every storey. Small HMOs (3–4 occupants) sit at £220–£395; licensed HMOs run £395–£550 before any remedial work. Institutional or supported-living premises can reach £550–£850 due to elevated occupancy-risk analysis under the RRO 2005.
Should I pay extra for a Tier 3 NFRAR fire risk assessor?
For a single-let flat in a low-risk building a Tier 2 competent assessor is usually adequate; for any HMO, block, higher-risk building, commercial, care home or CQC premises, Tier 3 NFRAR or BAFE SP205 is the benchmark cited in government guidance. It is the level London Fire Brigade, insurers and most borough licensing officers look for. The typical premium is £50–£150 over a Tier 2 assessment for the same property, negligible against the cost of an FRA being rejected and redone.
08 · Where to go nextThree things to do before you accept any quote
If you are actively choosing between quotes right now, here are three concrete steps that will save you the false-economy outcome at Section 05.
First, ask the assessor for a sample of their report template. Any competent firm will share an anonymised one. If the sample has no photographs, no prioritised action plan, or no named Tier-2/Tier-3 assessor signature, move on.
Second, ask whether the quote covers a 12-month desktop review. That single item is the difference between an FRA that stays current and one you will have to pay for twice.
Third, if the property is anything more complex than a single-let flat, check the assessor's NFRAR registration tier directly on the IFSM register before you commission. For London HMOs, blocks, HRBs and care homes, nothing below Tier 3 is defensible. Our Fire Risk Assessment service is delivered by Tier 3 NFRAR assessors as standard, with fixed prices set on property type rather than quoted per-call.
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