In a commercial property the hard question is rarely what the assessment contains. It is who owes it. The Fire Safety Order puts the duty on the responsible person, and in a let building that can be the landlord for the common parts, each tenant for their demise, and a managing agent with control over some of it. Where nobody has decided, the answer is usually that nobody has done it.
Who the responsible person is
In a workplace, the employer where they have control. Elsewhere, the person in control of the premises in connection with a trade or business, and the owner where nobody else has that control. A let building therefore has several, each for the part they control, and the Order expects them to cooperate and coordinate rather than each assume the others have it covered.
Where a let building usually fails
The common escape route is the landlord's, the risk that will use it is the tenant's, and the alarm serving both belongs to whoever installed it years ago. Nobody owns the interface. The assessment has to state the boundary in writing: which parts it covers, which it does not, and what it assumes about the parts it does not.
What the assessment has to establish
The people at risk and how harm reaches them. Ignition sources, fuel and oxygen. Escape routes judged against the real occupancy of every demise, not the one on the lease plan. Detection, warning, equipment and the maintenance behind them. Then the significant findings and an action plan naming who does what by when, which in a let building means naming the party as well as the person.
Leases, and what they do not settle
A lease can allocate the cost and the practical responsibility for fire safety work, and it often does. What it cannot do is move the statutory duty off a person who has control of the premises. An assessment that relies on a lease clause to say the duty is somebody else's has answered a commercial question and left the legal one open.
Questions people ask about fire risk assessment commercial property
Who does the fire risk assessment in a let building?
Each responsible person for the part they control: usually the landlord or agent for the common parts and each tenant for their own demise. The Order requires them to cooperate so the parts join up.
Does one assessment cover the whole building?
It can, if whoever commissions it has control of the whole and the scope says so. Otherwise it covers what it names, and everything outside that scope is somebody else's assessment.
Can a lease make the tenant responsible for everything?
A lease can allocate cost and practical responsibility. It cannot remove the statutory duty from a person who is in control of premises, so both may still owe something.
How does a fire risk assessment residential property needs differ from a commercial one?
The people and the strategy, not the method. In residential premises the occupants are asleep, they include people who cannot self evacuate, and the usual strategy is to stay put behind compartmentation rather than to leave on hearing an alarm, which puts the weight on the flat entrance doors, the compartment walls and the escape stair rather than on detection everywhere. In a commercial building people are awake, mobile and briefed, and the assessment leans on detection, the route and the drill. Where a building is both, and most converted high streets are, the assessment has to hold both answers at once, which is where a single generic report usually fails.
Who should carry out a risk assessment, and can it be somebody outside the business?
Anybody competent, which means somebody with enough knowledge and experience of the work and of the hazards to reach a sound judgement, and that is usually somebody inside the organisation who knows how the job is really done. A consultant is legitimate and often sensible for a specialist risk, and what a consultant cannot do is know your building's habits, which is why the best arrangement is a competent person inside working with the specialist rather than a report arriving by email. The duty to have it done stays with the employer whoever holds the pen.
Who is responsible for risk assessment in a leased building?
It follows control rather than the title deeds, which is why leases are read carefully after an incident. The employer is responsible for their own work activities wherever they are. For the premises, the responsible person under the fire safety Order is whoever has control to the extent of that control, so the landlord usually holds the common parts, the plant and the structure and the tenant holds their demise. Where the lease is silent or overlapping, both are liable for what they control and the practical answer is a written agreement about who assesses what, with each holding a copy.