Cost is usually the first question and it is a fair one. The honest answer is that fire risk assessment pricing varies more than most professional services because the work involved varies enormously. A single-room hairdresser and a nine-storey block of flats both need "a fire risk assessment" but one takes ninety minutes and the other takes two days.
Below are realistic market ranges for Wirral and the surrounding area, what moves the price and what you should expect to receive for the money.
Indicative price ranges
These are typical market ranges, not quotations. Every building is different and the only accurate figure is one based on your actual premises.
Commercial premises
| Premises | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Small single-unit shop, café, salon or office, under about 200 m², single storey | £250 to £500 |
| Medium commercial premises, 200 to 1,000 m², two or three storeys | £400 to £850 |
| Larger office, retail or industrial unit, 1,000 to 3,000 m² | £750 to £1,500 |
| Large or complex sites: multi-storey, multi-tenanted, manufacturing, warehousing with racking, licensed venues | £1,200 to £3,000+ |
| Care homes, hospitals, schools and heritage buildings | Usually priced individually, commonly £900 upwards |
Residential and mixed use
| Premises | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Small HMO, 3 to 6 lettings | £200 to £450 |
| Large or licensed HMO, 7+ lettings or student accommodation | £400 to £900 |
| Purpose-built block of flats, Type 1, up to around 20 units | £350 to £750 |
| Larger block or high-rise, Type 1 | £700 to £2,000+ |
| Type 3, adding a sample of flats | Typically 1.5 to 2.5 times the Type 1 fee |
| Type 2 or Type 4, intrusive | £2,000 upwards, plus contractor attendance, asbestos management and making good |
| Fire risk appraisal of external walls to PAS 9980 | £3,000 to £10,000+, sometimes considerably more |
Mixed-use buildings are priced as two pieces of work because they are two pieces of work. The commercial parts are assessed to PAS 79-1:2020 and the residential parts to BS 9792:2025.
What actually drives the price
1. Floor area and number of storeys
The obvious driver but not the dominant one. A 2,000 m² open-plan warehouse can be quicker to assess than a 600 m² Victorian building carved into twelve small offices over four floors with two staircases and a basement.
2. Sleeping risk
Premises where people sleep carry a materially higher consequence in the event of fire and the assessment reflects that. Hotels, HMOs, care homes, sheltered housing and student accommodation all take longer and demand a more experienced assessor.
3. Complexity of the escape strategy
Simple means of escape is quick to assess. Phased evacuation, stay put, progressive horizontal evacuation, dead-end corridors, single-staircase buildings, inner rooms, basements and external escape stairs all add time and all require judgement rather than a checklist.
4. Type of assessment
For residential blocks, the type is the single biggest lever on price. A Type 1 is non-intrusive and covers the common parts. A Type 4 adds intrusive opening-up in both common parts and a sample of flats, which brings a contractor, asbestos considerations and reinstatement costs with it. See our separate guide on the difference between Type 1, 2, 3 and 4.
5. Number of dwellings sampled
In residential work, sampling drives time directly. Common practice is to inspect around 10% of dwelling entrance doors, with a minimum of two. Larger samples or arranging access to occupied flats, cost more.
6. Occupancy and vulnerable persons
Where occupants include people with mobility impairments, cognitive impairments, sensory impairments or care needs, personal emergency evacuation plans and person-centred fire risk assessments may be required. BS 9792:2025 devotes an entire annex to this. It is skilled work and it is not included in a headline fee unless it is quoted for.
7. Process and dangerous substances
Spray booths, dust extraction, solvent storage, commercial kitchens, battery charging areas and hot works all extend the assessment and may trigger a separate DSEAR assessment.
8. Information available
If you can provide existing plans, a fire strategy, previous assessments, service records and an accessible key holder, the work is faster. If the assessor has to establish the building's construction from first principles because nobody knows what is above the suspended ceiling, it is slower.
9. Travel, access and urgency
Out-of-hours attendance, restricted access, multiple visits to reach tenanted areas and genuine emergency turnaround all carry a premium.
10. Portfolio scale
Volume works the other way. Multi-site programmes across an estate are usually priced at a lower unit rate, with consistent methodology and consolidated reporting.
Why the cheapest quote is rarely the cheapest outcome
There is a visible market in £99 and £150 fire risk assessments. They exist because it is possible to walk a building for twenty minutes, tick a generic template and email a PDF. What you get is a document, not an assessment.
Since 1 October 2023, that gap has widened. Article 9(6) requires the assessment to be recorded in every case and Article 9(7)(a) now requires all findings to be recorded, not only the significant ones. Article 9(1) has always required the assessment to be suitable and sufficient and Article 18 requires the competent persons you appoint to actually be competent. A template with no named assessor, no risk methodology and no scope statement is difficult to defend against any of those requirements.
Note that the explicit competence duty at Article 9A, which section 156(4) of the Building Safety Act 2022 would have inserted, has not been commenced. Firms citing it as current law are wrong. That does not help the cheap end of the market though because the "suitable and sufficient" test in Article 9(1) has been in force since 2006 and is the one that gets applied at audit.
The costs of a poor assessment are not theoretical:
- Enforcement. An inspecting officer who finds a generic assessment will usually treat it as no assessment. That is a route to an enforcement notice and in the wrong building, a prohibition notice.
- Insurance. Underwriters increasingly require evidence of a competent, third-party certificated assessor. Where a policy is conditional on maintaining adequate fire precautions, a demonstrably inadequate assessment gives an insurer a line of argument at exactly the moment you cannot afford one.
- Remediation priced wrong. Generic action plans recommend everything as urgent because the assessor has not made a judgement. Responsible persons then spend money on the wrong things while the actual defect sits unaddressed.
- Doing it twice. A rejected assessment has to be done again properly. The saving evaporates.
What you should receive for your money
A report that satisfies PAS 79-1:2020 or BS 9792:2025 should contain, as a minimum:
- The type and scope of the assessment and anything explicitly excluded
- The assessor's name, relevant qualifications and certifications
- Dates of inspection and issue
- Any areas that could not be accessed and why
- The benchmark standards used to judge existing precautions
- An assessment of the likelihood of fire and the likely consequences, combined into an overall fire risk rating using at least five defined categories
- Written justification wherever an existing measure departs significantly from current guidance but no upgrade is recommended
- A prioritised action plan with realistic timescales
- The date for review
- Photographic evidence of the findings
If a quote does not tell you which standard is being applied, who is doing the work and what type of assessment it is, it is not comparable to one that does.
How to compare quotes properly
Ask every prospective assessor:
- Which standard will you apply, PAS 79-1:2020 or BS 9792:2025 and for mixed use, both?
- For a residential block, which type of assessment is quoted and why is that type appropriate for this building?
- What percentage of dwellings or flat entrance doors will be inspected?
- Who will attend, what is their competence level under BS 8674:2025 and what certifications do they hold?
- Is the organisation third-party certificated, for example to BAFE SP205 and by which UKAS-accredited certification body?
- Is the report peer reviewed before issue?
- What is the turnaround and is a post-issue query period included?
- What is specifically excluded, for example external walls, intrusive inspection, PEEPs or fire door surveys?
Two quotes with a £400 difference are usually quoting two different pieces of work. Question five, in particular, tends to explain the gap.
What is not included as standard
Be clear on scope. The following are normally separate instructions:
- Fire door surveys to BS 8214:2026. An assessment samples doors, a survey inspects every door and records defects individually.
- Compartmentation and fire stopping surveys, which are intrusive.
- Fire risk appraisal of external walls to PAS 9980.
- DSEAR assessments where flammable liquids, gases or combustible dusts are present.
- Personal emergency evacuation plans for named individuals.
- Fire strategy development for new build, refurbishment or material change of use.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a standard price for a fire risk assessment? No and any firm quoting a single flat rate before seeing details of your building is quoting for a template rather than an assessment.
Why will you not publish a fixed price list? Because the work is not fixed. A small retail unit and a nine-storey residential block are entirely different exercises. We provide a fixed, guaranteed price once we know the size, type and complexity of the premises and we hold that price.
Is a cheap fire risk assessment legally valid? It is valid only if it is suitable and sufficient and carried out with the assistance of a competent person. Price is not the test but a fee that could not possibly cover a proper inspection is a strong indicator.
Does the price include the follow-up review? Not usually, though reassessment and review are typically quoted at a reduced rate where we hold the original assessment.
Do you charge extra for the action plan? No. The action plan is the entire point of the assessment. Any quote that treats it as an extra should be treated with caution.
