The price of a legionella risk assessment tracks the water system rather than the floor area, which is why a small building with tanks, a calorifier and thirty little used outlets can cost more to assess than a larger one on a mains supply with combi boilers. Anyone quoting without asking about the system is quoting for the simplest case and will re-quote on the day.
Legionnaires risk assessment cost: what the assessor is pricing
The number of outlets and assets. Whether a schematic exists or has to be drawn. Whether there is stored water and how many tanks. Whether there are showers, spa facilities, cooling towers or other aerosol generators. Number of buildings and whether they are on one site. Access, particularly to roof voids and plant rooms. And whether the written scheme of control is included or quoted separately, which is the biggest single difference between two quotes.
Why the cheapest quote is usually a different job
A low fixed price for a domestic property usually buys a short visit and a template. That may be entirely adequate for a simple system, and HSE's own position is that most landlords can do this themselves. What it does not buy is somebody crawling the roof void to find the disused tank, and on a building with a real system that is where the risk actually is.
The costs that follow
Monitoring, which is the recurring cost and the one that matters, priced per visit and per number of outlets. Remedial work, which is unknown until the assessment is done and is where the real money is on an older building. Sampling, only where warranted. Tank cleaning and disinfection, if inspection calls for it. A quote for the assessment alone tells you very little about the annual cost of compliance.
Making quotes comparable
Send every firm the same short description: number of buildings, number of outlets, stored water yes or no, showers yes or no, cooling tower yes or no, and whether you want the written scheme too. Ask each for the deliverables by name. The spread usually collapses once everyone is pricing the same thing.
A legionella test cost, and what a sample actually buys
Sampling is priced per sample plus the visit, and the laboratory work is the smaller half of it: the sampler has to attend, run the outlet to protocol, take pre and post flush samples where the question requires both, keep them within temperature and get them to an accredited laboratory inside its holding time. What the result buys is narrow and worth being clear about: it tells you what was in that outlet on that day. It is not a clean bill of health for the system, and a negative result on two taps says nothing about the calorifier or the dead leg behind the wall. That is why the assessment and the temperature monitoring are the controls and sampling is the check on them, used where the assessment calls for it, after remedial work, or where a system serves people who are more vulnerable than most.
Questions people ask about legionella risk assessment cost
How much does a legionella risk assessment cost?
It depends on the water system rather than the building size: outlets and assets, stored water, aerosol generators, access, number of buildings, and whether the written scheme is included.
Why are legionella quotes so different?
Usually because they are for different scopes. One includes the written scheme of control and a schematic; another is a short visit and a template.
Is a cheap legionella assessment worth having?
For a simple domestic system it can be perfectly adequate. On a building with tanks, calorifiers and little used outlets, a desk exercise misses the things that actually cause outbreaks.
What is the ongoing cost after the assessment?
Monitoring visits, any remedial work the assessment identifies, and periodic tank inspection. The monitoring is the recurring number to ask about, because it is what keeps the system controlled.
How much is a legionella risk assessment for a single rented flat?
It is the cheapest case there is, and HSE's own position is that most landlords can assess a simple system themselves without being trained or accredited. So the useful question is not the headline number but what the fee buys: whether a schematic is drawn, whether the written scheme comes with it, and whether anybody will return when something changes. A fixed price quoted before anyone has asked how many outlets there are and whether water is stored is pricing a template rather than the property.
What is a legionella testing cost, and is testing what you actually need?
Sampling is charged per sample plus the visit, and the laboratory fee is the smaller half. Before buying it, check what the assessment asked for: in most hot and cold water systems the control is temperature and the evidence is the monitoring log, and sampling is indicated where the controls cannot be relied on, where the system has been out of use, where there are susceptible people, or after a positive result. On a cooling tower it is routine and budgeted monthly. Buying samples instead of an assessment produces a number with nothing to interpret it against.