A Fire Risk Appraisal of External Walls is an assessment of how the outside of a building would behave in a fire. It exists because the Fire Safety Act 2021 put beyond doubt that external walls and flat entrance doors are within the scope of the fire risk assessment in buildings containing two or more sets of domestic premises, and most existing assessments had never looked at them.
What a FRAEW is
A specialist appraisal of the external wall construction, including cladding, insulation, cavity barriers, balconies and attachments, assessing the risk of fire spread over or within the wall and what should be done about it. It is carried out by somebody with the relevant competence, feeds into the building's fire risk assessment and may recommend remediation, management measures, or nothing at all.
FRAEW vs EWS1
They answer different questions for different audiences. A FRAEW is a fire safety appraisal for the responsible person, produced to manage risk. The EWS1 form is a valuation process document, used by lenders to decide whether they will lend on a flat. An EWS1 is normally produced off the back of an appraisal; it is not itself the assessment, and a building can need one and not the other.
FRAEW requirements: what the law changed
The Fire Safety Act 2021 clarified that where a building contains two or more sets of domestic premises, the fire risk assessment must cover the building's structure, external walls including anything attached to them, and flat entrance doors. The Building Safety Act 2022 then built a wider regime around higher risk buildings. Between them they turned external walls from something few assessments mentioned into something every relevant assessment must address.
What a leaseholder or resident can ask for
In England, residents of blocks of flats are entitled to certain fire safety information from the responsible person, and the appraisal's conclusions bear directly on how the building is being managed and on any interim measures. If you are being told a building is safe, the question to ask is what appraisal was done, by whom, when, and what it concluded, rather than whether a form exists.
Questions people ask about fraew report
What is a FRAEW?
A Fire Risk Appraisal of External Walls: a specialist assessment of how a building's external wall construction would behave in a fire, feeding into the building's fire risk assessment.
Is a FRAEW the same as an EWS1?
No. A FRAEW is a fire safety appraisal for the responsible person. EWS1 is a valuation process form used by lenders. One is usually produced from the other, and a building can need one without the other.
Which buildings need external walls assessed?
Under the Fire Safety Act 2021, buildings containing two or more sets of domestic premises must have external walls, attachments and flat entrance doors within the scope of the fire risk assessment.