A fire risk assessment usually costs between £200 and £800, and most small businesses pay somewhere around £300 to £500. That is the short answer. The longer answer matters more, because the gap between a £150 assessment and a £450 one is not the paperwork, it is whether anybody actually looked at your building.
This page sets out what the published price guides say, what sits inside a reasonable fee, why quotes for the same premises come back so far apart, and the figure below which you should assume you are buying nothing.
Typical prices by type of premises
These are the figures published by three UK sources that quote real numbers and date their pages. All exclude VAT unless stated.
| Premises | Typical fee | Time on site |
|---|---|---|
| Small office, under 500 square metres | £200–£350 | 1.5 to 2.5 hours |
| Shop or retail unit | £200–£350 | 1.5 to 2.5 hours |
| Warehouse or industrial unit | £250–£450 | 2 to 3 hours |
| Block of flats, communal areas | £300–£500 | 2.5 to 4 hours |
| Pub, restaurant or hotel | £300–£550 | 2.5 to 4 hours |
| School or nursery | £300–£600 | 2.5 to 4 hours |
| HMO or shared house | £350–£600 | 3 to 5 hours |
| Care home or supported living | £450–£800 | 3.5 to 6 hours |
The time column is the useful one. It tells you roughly how long somebody should be in your building. If a quote is at the bottom of the range and the assessor is in and out in forty minutes, you have not bought the assessment described above.
Larger and more complicated buildings
Above the sizes in that table the numbers climb steeply, and they climb with complexity rather than floor area.
- Medium commercial premises: £600 to £900, generally a full day on site.
- Large multi-floor buildings and hotels: £1,200 to £2,000, one to two days.
- High risk or genuinely complex premises: £2,000 and upwards, two days or more.
- Larger or complicated HMOs: £800 to £1,200, well above the standard HMO range, because more sleeping accommodation means more to assess.
One source puts the honest overall span at £300 to £2,000 plus VAT across everything, which sounds unhelpfully wide until you realise a two bedroom flat above a shop and a 200 bed hotel are both on that list.
What the guides disagree about
Worth knowing, because you will find all of these figures quoted at you.
- Checkatrade prices by “level” rather than premises type, giving £149 to £499 for low level work, £249 to £599 for mid, and £349 to £1,000 for high. Its overall range is £200 to £1,200 and it puts a simple cafe, shop or salon at about £300.
- The date matters. That Checkatrade guide was written in 2022 with costs refreshed in 2024, while the other two were updated in 2026. Treat older figures as a floor rather than a current price.
- Nobody publishes a reliable London premium. Assessors will tell you location affects the fee through travel and demand, but no source we found puts a number on it. Expect London to sit at or above the top of each range rather than in the middle.
How assessors actually work out your fee
Most are pricing their time, then adding for risk and paperwork.
- Sole traders charge roughly £50 to £80 an hour.
- Consultancy firms charge roughly £80 to £120 an hour.
- A day rate of £600 to £900 typically covers two or three assessments, which is why several small premises done together cost less each than one done alone.
- Annual contracts usually come in 10 to 20 per cent below the one-off price, so if you have several properties it is worth asking.
The practical consequence: if you own four small rental properties in the same town, do not ring four times for four separate quotes. Ask one assessor to price all four in a day and you should see a meaningful reduction.
What the price should include
A fee at the ranges above should buy all of the following. If any are missing, you are not comparing like with like.
- An assessment carried out to the recognised standard, PAS 79 being the one most assessors work to.
- A written report setting out what was found, where, and why it matters.
- A prioritised action plan with timescales, so you know what to fix this week and what can wait.
- A statement of who carries the legal duty and what that means for you.
- A stated review date, and what would trigger an earlier one.
- A follow-up period, commonly 30 days, during which you can ring and ask what something means.
Below £150, assume you are buying nothing
This is the single most useful number on the page. An assessment priced well under the market, and under £150 for a residential block in particular, usually means one or more of the following.
- Not enough time on site. The table above shows two and a half to four hours for a block of flats. Nobody does that for £120.
- A generic template with your address typed into it, which could describe any building on the street.
- No action plan, which is the part you actually needed.
- An assessor without the competence or the insurance to stand behind the document if it is ever tested.
The risk is not that you wasted £120. It is that you now hold a document you believe protects you, and it does not. If there is a fire, the responsible person is prosecuted, and “I bought the cheapest one online” is not a defence.
Six things that move your price
- Whether anyone sleeps there. Sleeping accommodation raises the work more than any other single factor, which is why HMOs and care homes sit at the top of the table.
- Number of storeys and staircases. Escape routes are the heart of the assessment and each additional floor adds to it.
- How many separate occupiers. Shared buildings mean shared escape routes and shared responsibility, and both take longer to untangle.
- What is stored or done in the building. Flammable stock, commercial kitchens and industrial processes all change the risk picture.
- The condition of what is already there. A building with recent alarm certificates and a tidy plant room is quicker to assess than one where nothing can be found.
- Location and travel. Rural premises and anything requiring a long drive will carry that cost somewhere in the fee.
What you are paying somebody to do
The hours in that first table look generous until you see what has to happen inside them. This is why a proper assessment is not a walk round with a clipboard.
- Identify the fire hazards and every source of ignition actually present, and where they are, rather than in general terms.
- Identify who is at risk, including anyone sleeping on the premises, anyone with a mobility or sensory impairment, lone workers, and visitors who do not know the layout.
- Walk and time the escape routes, checking travel distances, final exits, and whether they work when the building is full rather than empty.
- Examine the fire doors and the compartmentation, which is the part of the building meant to hold a fire in one place long enough for everyone to get out.
- Check detection, alarms and emergency lighting, whether the coverage suits the building, and when each was last tested.
- Write it up with an action plan that ranks what needs doing and by when.
The last of those is usually done back at the office, so the time on site is not the whole job. It is also the reason a cheap assessment tends to have no action plan: the writing is the expensive part.
What it costs to not have one
Worth holding against the fee. Government guidance sets out the penalties plainly.
- Minor breaches: fines up to £5,000. That is ten times a typical assessment.
- Major breaches: unlimited fines and up to two years in prison.
- An enforcement notice tells you what to put right and by when, once the fire service has found a serious risk that is not being managed.
- A prohibition notice takes effect immediately and can restrict or ban access to the premises. For a business that means closing, on the day, until it is resolved.
You have 21 days to appeal a notice to the magistrates’ court, or you can ask the fire authority for an informal review first. Neither is a cheaper option than having had the assessment.
How to compare two quotes properly
Two quotes for the same premises can differ by hundreds of pounds and both be honest, because they cover different work. Get every quote to answer these before you look at the totals.
- How long will you be on site? Compare that against the time column above for your premises type.
- Is the action plan included, or extra? This is the most common thing to be quoted separately.
- Is there a follow-up period, and how long? Thirty days is standard.
- Is a return visit included once you have done the remedial work?
- What is your professional indemnity cover? Ask for the figure. This is what stands behind the assessment if it turns out to be wrong.
- Is VAT included in the number you have quoted me? Most published figures exclude it, so a £400 quote is often £480.
A quote that answers all six is worth more than one that is fifty pounds cheaper and silent on half of them.
Ways to pay less without buying less
- Bundle several properties into one visit and ask for the day rate rather than individual quotes.
- Ask about an annual contract if you will need reassessments every year, which most premises will.
- Have your paperwork ready. Alarm and emergency lighting test records, previous assessments, floor plans. An assessor hunting for documents is an assessor charging you for the hunt.
- Make sure access is arranged to plant rooms, roof spaces, cupboards and locked areas before the visit, rather than during it.
- Do not pay for a survey you do not need. If your premises is small, simple, single storey and nobody sleeps there, the law does allow you to carry out your own assessment using the free government guides.
Questions people ask about the cost
Is VAT included in these figures?
Generally not. Most assessors quote excluding VAT, so add 20 per cent to the numbers on this page unless a quote says otherwise. Always ask, because it is the commonest reason a bill comes in higher than expected.
How often will I have to pay this?
There is no fixed legal interval, but the assessment has to be reviewed regularly and whenever it stops being valid. In practice most premises are looked at annually, and immediately after building work, a change of use, new occupiers or a near miss.
Is a more expensive assessor a better one?
Not automatically. Price tracks time on site, building complexity and the firm’s overheads more than it tracks quality. What tells you about quality is their qualifications, their certification, their insurance figure and a sample report, not the fee.
Can I get one for free?
No, not from a competent assessor. Your fire and rescue service may visit and advise, and some offer free business safety guidance, but that is not the same as an assessment and does not discharge your duty. If your premises is simple enough, doing it yourself with the government guides is the free route.
Does my insurer pay for it?
No. Insurers frequently require an assessment by a competent third party as a condition of cover, but the cost sits with you. Worth checking your policy wording, because a refused claim after a fire costs considerably more than the assessment did.
Why is my HMO more expensive than my shop?
Because people sleep in it. Sleeping accommodation is the hardest category to assess and takes three to five hours against one and a half to two and a half for a small retail unit. Local licensing conditions often add requirements on top.
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Sources: Checkatrade, uRisk, AssessKit, and GOV.UK on penalties. Prices published by others are estimates and were correct when checked on 14 August 2026. They are not a quote.