Liverpool’s selective licensing scheme has been running since April 2022 and is designated until March 2027. The council says it covers around 80 percent of the city’s private rented stock, about 46,000 homes. Ordinary rented houses inside the designated area need a licence, not only HMOs. Properties that already hold an HMO licence are exempt from this scheme.
The map, the current fee and the exemptions sit on Liverpool City Council’s selective licensing pages. Check those. The council has been consulting on what follows this designation, so the boundary and the fee can move. The fee on the live application page is the one that applies.
What the licence already makes you do
The council’s own guide for licensed landlords is specific. Condition 15: inspect the property every six calendar months and keep a written record, and inspect again when a tenant reports disrepair. Condition 27: smoke alarms on each storey, in working order, tested at those six-monthly inspections, with a record kept; replace or repair a faulty alarm. Condition 29: carbon monoxide alarms in every room with a fixed combustion appliance other than a cooker, tested on the same six-monthly round, with a record kept.
Those conditions are on How to stay a compliant landlord. They are housing-licence conditions. They do not write the fire risk assessment for you. What they do give the assessor is a paper trail: where the alarms sit, when they were last tested, and whether anyone has actually walked the house twice a year.
Bring those records to the assessment. An assessor who has to guess whether the alarms work is working blind, and the report will say so.
Who enforces fire safety law in Liverpool
Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service does not carry out fire risk assessments for you. Their job is to audit whether you have done yours and whether the measures in it are actually in place. On an audit they typically want the written assessment, the action plan, evidence that overdue items were done, alarm and emergency-lighting records, and a person on site who can show them the escape route. That is a different visit from a council licensing inspection, which is looking at the licence conditions.
What the licensed stock actually is
A lot of the licensed stock is older terraced housing. Fire stopping between the original rooms, and between the ground floor and the bedrooms above, is what those assessments usually find missing. Sleeping accommodation is the part that takes the longest. Student houses in the terraces around the universities are the same construction with a higher turnover of people who did not fit the alarms.
Converted warehouse and dock buildings around the waterfront are a different job. The original structure was not built as homes. Compartmentation between the new flats, the shared cores, and the old fabric that was never fire stopped are the usual findings. If you manage one of those buildings, say so when you ask for quotes. A terrace and a warehouse conversion are not the same assessment.
If you rent from a social landlord, start with them.
The housing licence and the fire risk assessment are two duties
The selective licence is a housing licence from Liverpool City Council. The fire risk assessment is a duty under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. You still need both where both apply. Sitting outside the designated area removes the selective licence. The fire safety duty stays if you run a business, let an HMO, or manage a building with common parts.
Mandatory HMO licensing still applies citywide where five or more people from two or more households share a toilet, bathroom or kitchen. That licence has its own conditions. Check the council HMO pages for the current fee.
What the Liverpool report should actually name
A report that could have been written for any city is not suitable and sufficient for a licensed Liverpool house. It should say whether the property sits inside the selective licensing designation, where the storey alarms are, whether six-monthly test records exist, and what happens to the escape if the front door is the only way out. For a warehouse conversion it should name the original structure and the new compartmentation, not “common parts” as a heading with nothing under it.
Checking an assessor in Liverpool
There is no statutory register, which is why the checking is yours to do. Ask any Liverpool assessor for qualifications, professional body membership, indemnity cover and a sample report. The full set of questions is on what a fire risk assessment costs.
What it costs in Liverpool
Price follows size, layout, and whether anyone sleeps there. A small shop or office is usually a few hundred pounds. An HMO or a block with common parts costs more because of the sleeping accommodation. If you need the assessment because of the selective licence, say that when you ask for quotes. Get more than one, in writing. National ranges, and what sits inside a serious fee, are on what a fire risk assessment should cost.
Manchester is the other large city in the North West with its own licensing map: fire risk assessments in Manchester.
Selective licensing in Liverpool
Does the selective licence replace the fire risk assessment?
No. The licence is a housing licence. The fire risk assessment is a Fire Safety Order duty. You can be licensed and still be without a suitable assessment, which is what Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service will look for if they inspect.
I am outside the designated area. Do I still need an assessment?
If you run a business, let an HMO, or manage a building with common parts, yes. The designation only decides whether you also need a selective licence.
I already have an HMO licence. Does that cover it?
It exempts you from the selective scheme. It does not exempt you from the fire risk assessment. HMO licence conditions usually include fire precautions. The written assessment is still the document the fire service will ask to see.
Do the six-monthly inspections count as the fire risk assessment?
No. Condition 15 is a walk of the house for the housing licence. The fire risk assessment is a separate document, reviewed when the risk changes, and written so Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service can audit it.
How often should it be reviewed?
The Order says regularly, and when something significant changes. There is no statutory anniversary. In practice, licensed rented houses and anything with sleeping accommodation are reviewed every year. After a conversion, a change of occupiers, or works to the escape route, review it then, not at the next round number.
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