Two things make a Brighton fire risk assessment different from the same job inland. A great deal of the city's stock is listed or in a conservation area, so the remedy the assessor writes down cannot always be carried out by ringing a joiner. And a great deal of it is let to people who are not the householder, which moves premises the owner thinks of as a home onto the regulated side of a line the Order draws quite sharply.
The action list has a consent step buried in it
Assessors write remedies that assume the fabric can be altered: upgrade the stair enclosure, fit a door to the hall, enlarge an escape window, put signage on a protected route. In a listed building or a conservation area those are consent questions before they are contractor questions, and the consent takes longer than the remedy. Ask the assessor to flag which actions touch protected fabric so the application starts on the same day the report lands rather than three months later when somebody chases the action list.
Interim measures are what covers the gap
A remedy waiting on consent leaves the risk where it is, and the enforcing authority will ask what was done in the meantime. That is what interim measures are for: a change to how the building is managed rather than to its fabric, such as a different escape route, extra detection, a waking watch in the worst case, or simply not using a room for the thing that created the risk. A report that names actions and no interim measures has left the most exposed period unaddressed.
The line between a home and regulated premises
The Order does not apply to domestic premises, which it defines as premises occupied as a private dwelling. A flat let to paying guests by the week is not that, and neither are the common parts of any building holding more than one dwelling. Brighton has a large number of premises that have quietly crossed the line: a garden flat put on a short let platform, a house split into rooms with a shared stair, a guest house run from the owner's own home. Each needs an assessment, and the owner's assumption that it is just a house is the usual reason there is not one.
Sleeping risk sets the standard, not the size
Where people sleep, the assessment is judged against what it takes to wake and move somebody who is asleep and unfamiliar with the building: detection that reaches the bed head, a protected route to a final exit, and a plan that works at three in the morning rather than at a drill. That standard does not soften for a four bedroom guest house. Size changes the cost of the assessment and almost nothing about what it has to establish.
Questions people ask about fire risk assessment Brighton
Who enforces fire safety in Brighton?
The fire and rescue authority for the area is the enforcing authority for most premises, with the Health and Safety Executive and other bodies taking specific premises named in article 25 of the Order. The duty itself sits with the responsible person either way.
Does a listed building get an easier standard?
No. The outcome required is the same; what changes is the route to it. Protected fabric usually means a solution that is reversible or managed rather than structural, and it means consent has to be obtained before the work, not after.
Does a holiday let need a fire risk assessment?
If the premises are not occupied as a private dwelling then they are not domestic premises, and the Order applies. A flat or house let out to paying guests falls on that side of the line, and so do the common parts of any building holding more than one dwelling.
What should the report do about actions I cannot carry out yet?
Name the interim measure that holds the risk while the permanent remedy waits, with a date. An action list with no interim measures leaves the period of greatest exposure with nothing recorded against it.
Sources
- Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, article 6 (application to premises)
- Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, article 2 (interpretation)
- Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, article 9 (risk assessment)
- Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, article 25 (enforcing authorities)
- GOV.UK: fire safety risk assessment, sleeping accommodation