In Reading, the duty to make a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 falls on whoever controls a workplace, a let shared house or the common parts of a block of flats, and since 1 October 2023 every responsible person must record the assessment in writing. Below are the borough’s licence for small shared houses, the way Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service inspects and enforces, what a good assessment and report contain, and what to ask before you accept a quote.
Reading’s licence for three and four person shares
Reading Borough Council has licensed small shared houses across the whole borough since 1 March 2026. A house or flat needs an additional HMO licence when three or four people live there as two or more households and share facilities such as a kitchen or bathroom, and the council’s examples of two households are three unrelated friends, or a couple sharing with one other person. The designation was made on 17 November 2025 and runs until 28 February 2031. It covers flats and houses of any size or number of storeys, including a flat share inside a purpose-built block, and each qualifying property needs its own licence.
The fee is £1,500 for a licence of up to five years, paid in two parts of £750: the first with the application and the second when the council issues the draft licence. The council asked landlords to apply by 31 May to avoid a late fee or enforcement action. A landlord who still has not applied faces a £250 late application surcharge, civil penalties of up to £30,000 per offence, or prosecution and an unlimited fine, and a tenant or the council can seek a rent repayment order of up to 12 months’ rent. Home Safe helps the council manage applications, inspections and compliance, and every licensed property will be inspected. The full scheme is set out in Reading Borough Council’s announcement of the scheme.
A house or flat with five or more occupiers from two or more households still falls under Reading’s mandatory HMO licence, and a property that already holds a mandatory licence does not need a second one under the new scheme. The council also plans selective licensing for rented homes let to a single household, starting in Battle ward and then moving to Park and Redlands, but it had not made those designations when we read its pages. None of these licences is a fire risk assessment, and the fire duty under the 2005 Order applies to a let shared house whether it holds a licence or not.
How Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service checks Reading premises
Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service enforces the Fire Safety Order across Berkshire on behalf of the Royal Berkshire Fire Authority, under a published fire safety enforcement policy. Reading’s fire safety work is run from the West hub at the service headquarters, Newsham Court in Calcot, which also covers Wokingham and West Berkshire. Its officers visit and audit premises across the county, the offices are open from 9am to 5pm on weekdays, and out of hours the headquarters reception answers on 0118 945 2888.
Inspectors have the power to enter premises at any reasonable time and to require the records the Order says you must keep, and that includes the written assessment. If the service finds a serious risk that is not being dealt with, it can serve an enforcement notice that allows at least 28 days for the work, and if the risk is so great that the building must be closed or its use restricted, a prohibition notice takes effect immediately. Where practicable, the service notifies the council’s housing team before it serves a prohibition notice on an HMO. Any notice can be appealed at the magistrates’ court within 21 days. The penalties listed on gov.uk run up to £5,000 for a minor offence and, for a major one, to an unlimited fine and up to 2 years in prison. The service may be able to advise you if you are unsure whether your assessment was done properly, but it cannot do the assessment for you.
Premises in Reading that need an assessment
Reading had around 174,200 residents at the 2021 Census, and 31.9% of its households rented privately, up from 26.1% in 2011, which the Office for National Statistics counts as the second-largest rise in the South East. Where a home is let as a shared house, the fire duty covers the shared parts such as the hall, the stairs and the landings. The council’s guidance says the key points in a share are early warning from the alarm system and a way out through the corridors or through windows, and the main fire safety guide its officers refer to is LACORS Housing Fire Safety.
Purpose-built blocks of flats have their own government guide. Once a block is more than 11 metres high, the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 require checks of its communal fire doors every 3 months or more often, and best endeavours to check each flat’s front door at least once in every 12 months. Every block with two or more flats and shared parts that residents would use to escape must also tell residents about fire doors, for example that they should be kept shut when not in use. Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service points owners of tall blocks to the Building Safety Act 2022 and the Building Safety Regulator, and its legislation page flags new rules on residential personal emergency evacuation plans from 6 April 2026. Our fire door regulations page sets out the door checks in full.
Workplaces need an assessment too, and the government publishes a separate guide for each main type of premises, from offices and shops, factories and warehouses and sleeping accommodation to residential care, schools and places of assembly. If you rent your home from Reading Borough Council or a housing association, the fire duty for the shared parts sits with your landlord, so raise any concern about them there first.
Where the licence ends and the fire duty starts
The additional licence is a housing licence, handled by Home Safe for the council, and its inspection checks the licence conditions. Under additional licensing the council does not expect, at first, to find fire precautions beyond the Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (England) Regulations 2015, which require at least one smoke alarm on each storey, and it says any further precautions will come either from your own fire risk assessment or from its inspection. With the application it asks for safety documents that include an electrical installation condition report, a gas safety certificate, an energy performance certificate where one is required, a fire alarm test certificate if the house has an alarm panel, and a floor plan. How often a panel system should be tested and serviced is covered on our fire alarm maintenance page. The fire risk assessment is a separate record, and it is the one Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service will ask to see.
What the assessment covers and what the report should record
The government’s five steps are to find what could start a fire, work out who would be at risk, weigh those risks and remove or reduce them, write down the findings along with an emergency plan and training, and keep the assessment under regular review. Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service’s own guide to those steps asks practical questions, such as how many floors and staircases the building has, where the exits are, and what alarms, signs, emergency lighting and extinguishers are in place.
By law the written record sets out what the assessment found, the measures already taken or still to come, and any group of people it identifies as especially at risk. The assessment must be reviewed regularly, and in particular when there is reason to suspect it has stopped being valid, or when something significant about the premises or their use has changed. For a licensed share in Reading, a useful report also says which licence the house needs, where each smoke alarm is, and how people get out if the one staircase is blocked. For a block it should give the height, cover the communal and flat entrance doors, and state the evacuation strategy.
Who the responsible person is
The Order puts the duty on a responsible person. For a workplace under an employer’s control that is the employer; otherwise it is the person in control of the premises in connection with a trade or business, or failing that the owner. For the shared parts of a let building, gov.uk says the responsible person is the landlord, freeholder or managing agent. You can carry out the assessment yourself with the government’s guides, and if you lack the time or the expertise you need to appoint a competent person, such as a professional risk assessor. Handing the work to an assessor does not hand over the duty, which stays with the responsible person.
Choosing a competent assessor for a Reading property
Fire risk assessors in England do not have to join any national register, so there is no official list to check a Reading assessor against. The Home Office’s 2024 survey of assessors notes that they are not a formally recognised profession and that no single professional body oversees the work, and the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s Phase 2 report recommended that the government set up mandatory accreditation of assessors. Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service advises anyone hiring a professional assessor to read the National Fire Chiefs Council’s Fire Safety Risk Assessment Guidance first. Before you book, ask each assessor:
- which qualifications they hold, and which professional body or certification scheme they belong to;
- whether they carry professional indemnity insurance, and for how much;
- for a sample report on a building like yours, with the names taken out;
- how long they will spend on site, and how soon the written report follows;
- whether a return visit after the remedial work is included in the price.
What an assessment costs in Reading
The size, layout and use of the building set the price rather than the postcode. As one named example, the national firm UK Fire Risk Assessments advertises prices from £245 plus VAT. Our fire risk assessment cost guide gives typical ranges by type of premises and what moves a quote within them. To compare quotes fairly, send every assessor the same written description of the building, and ask each for a fixed price that states whether VAT is included.
Elsewhere in the South East, this site covers fire risk assessments in Oxford and fire risk assessments in Southampton.
Fire risk assessment questions from Reading
My flat has three sharers. Do I need a licence?
Yes, if the three sharers form two or more households and share facilities, wherever the flat is in the borough. That has been the rule since 1 March 2026, whatever the number of storeys, and a flat in a purpose-built block is included.
Does the licence replace the fire risk assessment?
It does not. The licence deals with housing standards, and the council expects your own fire risk assessment to pick up any fire precautions needed beyond the smoke alarms. Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service can ask to see the written assessment whether the house is licensed or not.
What happens if I did not apply by 31 May?
The £250 late application surcharge applies, and the council can take enforcement action, which can mean a civil penalty of up to £30,000 per offence. Apply as soon as you can through the council’s licensing pages.
Do the shared areas of a block need their own assessment?
Yes. The Order covers the common areas of buildings where more than one household lives, such as a block’s entrance hall, corridors and staircases, and the duty for those parts sits with the landlord, freeholder or managing agent.
What happens on the day of the assessment?
The assessor goes round the whole building looking for fire hazards and for anyone who would be at risk, and checks the floors, staircases, exits, alarms, signs, emergency lighting and extinguishers, the points Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service lists in its guide to the five steps. Ask beforehand how long the visit will take, so someone can let them into every room and plant area.
What should I have ready?
Put out any earlier fire risk assessment, a floor plan, and the latest fire alarm test certificate, electrical installation condition report and gas safety certificate. These are the same documents the council asks for with a licence application, so a licensed share should already have them.
How often should the assessment be reviewed?
The Order says regularly, so that it stays up to date, and in particular when there is reason to suspect it is out of date or the building or its use has changed significantly. It sets no fixed number of months, so ask the assessor to recommend a review date and put it in the report.
What if the fire service is already involved?
Check the dates on the notice straight away: an enforcement notice gives at least 28 days to do the work, and any appeal to the magistrates’ court must be lodged within 21 days. Send the assessor a copy of the notice with your enquiry so the quote covers what the fire service has asked for.
How do I compare quotes from assessors covering Reading?
Use the form below to tell us the type of premises, the postcode and anything that affects the job, such as how many storeys there are, whether anyone sleeps there, and whether it is a small three or four person share, an HMO with five or more people, or a block of flats. We send it to fire risk assessors covering Reading, so you can compare their quotes side by side.
Not in Reading? Every town and county on this site is listed on our fire risk assessment near me page.