If you run a business in Cardiff, take paying guests, let a shared house or look after the common parts of a block of flats, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 names you the responsible person, and that person has to make a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment of the premises. South Wales Fire and Rescue Service enforces the Order across the city. Since 1 October 2023 the law in Wales has required the whole assessment to be written down, with every finding in it, however small the business. In Cardiff the Welsh housing licences come on top of that fire duty, but they come from separate law and never replace it.
Rent Smart Wales and HMO licensing in Cardiff
Since 23 November 2015, anyone renting out a home in Wales on a domestic tenancy must be registered with Rent Smart Wales, and under the Housing (Wales) Act 2014 letting without registering is an offence. Registering and being licensed are two separate processes. A landlord who issues the contracts or manages the home in person also needs a Rent Smart Wales licence, while a landlord who leaves that work to someone else needs no licence of their own but has to appoint a licensed agent. Rent Smart Wales is hosted by Cardiff Council, which is the licensing authority for the whole of Wales and works with the 22 Welsh local authorities.
HMO licensing in Cardiff is run by Shared Regulatory Services, the service Cardiff shares with Bridgend and the Vale of Glamorgan. The Welsh mandatory scheme still has the storey test from the 2006 Welsh order, so a licence is needed for an HMO of three or more storeys lived in by five or more people who do not form one household. England took the storey test out on 1 October 2018, and an English guide can therefore give a Cardiff landlord the wrong answer. Cardiff Council has also declared two additional licensing areas, Cathays and Plasnewydd, and the Shared Regulatory Services page says both schemes apply to every HMO inside them unless the law exempts it. A shared house can count as an HMO once three or more people who are not one household live there, because the law excludes a house shared by two people forming two households, so in Cathays or Plasnewydd even a three-person student share can need a licence, whatever its height.
The Cathays scheme first ran from 1 July 2010 and again from 1 January 2016, and it went live for a third time on 1 February 2023 for 5 years, which carries it into 2028. The Plasnewydd scheme started on 3 November 2014 and went live again on 1 January 2021 for 5 years. The Housing Act 2004 limits a designation to five years, and the licensing page gives no Plasnewydd date later than 2021, so before you decide a house needs no licence, check the address and the scheme in force on the Shared Regulatory Services HMO page.
One application form covers both mandatory and additional licences, and it goes to HMO Licensing at County Hall, Atlantic Wharf, or by email to HMOlicensing@cardiff.gov.uk. Once the application is valid, an officer arranges to inspect the house, a draft licence follows for your comments, and the full licence then lasts 5 years. The fee comes in two parts, and the second part depends on whether the house met the licensing standards at that inspection. For a shared house of up to 4 bedrooms the first payment is £160, and the total is £390 when the house complies or £810 when it does not, so failing the inspection adds £420 to the bill. The council also keeps a public register of every licensed HMO in the city.
How South Wales Fire and Rescue Service enforces the Order in Cardiff
The Fire Safety Order extends to England and Wales only, and in Cardiff the enforcing authority is South Wales Fire and Rescue Service, which serves more than 1.5 million people and runs Cardiff Central Fire Station. Its officers carry out inspections based on risk, and an inspector may come in at any reasonable time under the Order and require you to produce the records it says you must keep, the written assessment among them. Failing to hand that record over when an inspector asks used to carry a fine of up to £1,000, and for an offence committed on or after 1 October 2023 the fine in Wales is unlimited.
Where the service finds a serious risk that nobody is managing, it can serve an enforcement notice that says what must improve and by when, and the Order gives at least 28 days to comply. An alterations notice can follow where the premises already present a serious risk or future changes could create one. A prohibition notice takes effect straight away when the risk to life is so serious that access to all or part of the building has to be restricted, and before serving one on an HMO the service must tell the council’s housing team where that is practicable. You can appeal against a notice to the magistrates’ court within 21 days. Minor penalties can reach £5,000, gov.uk says, and a conviction in the Crown Court can bring an unlimited fine, up to 2 years in prison, or both. The service also passes details of its notices to the national register kept by the National Fire Chiefs Council.
On 18 September 2025 at Cardiff Crown Court, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board was ordered to pay about £95,000 in fines and costs after pleading guilty to an offence under the Order, in a case about an enforcement notice on fire safety procedures at Llandough Hospital in Penarth. The service also gives advice: its Protection Helpline answers fire safety questions free of charge from Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, on 01443232716 or at firesafety@southwales-fire.gov.uk, and a concern that cannot wait for office hours goes to 999, where a specialist officer is on call 24/7. Officers can advise you on the assessment, and gov.uk says they cannot carry it out for you.
What the written record has to hold since October 2023
Before the Building Safety Act 2022 amended article 9 of the Order, a responsible person had to record only the significant findings, and only where the law asked for a record, for example with 5 or more employees or premises under a licence. Section 156 of that Act took out the word “significant” and those limits, and the change came into force in Wales on 1 October 2023. The Welsh Government’s guidance now says the fire risk assessment must be recorded in full, including all the findings, together with the fire safety arrangements for the premises, in every case. The record has to include the measures already taken and those still to come, and name any group of people the assessment identified as especially at risk. When an assessor helped you, the guidance says to note their name and their organisation. South Wales Fire and Rescue Service gives the same message: since October 2023 an assessment is recorded in full, not just its significant findings.
A building with two or more homes carries extra duties. Residents have to be told about any risks the assessment found, the fire safety measures such as the escape routes and what to do in a fire, the responsible person’s name and a UK address for notices, and who helped with the assessment, in Welsh and English where possible. In any premises, not only blocks, an outgoing responsible person has to pass the assessment and review records to whoever takes over. Since the Fire Safety Act 2021, the assessment of such a building also has to take in the structure, the external walls, including cladding and balconies, and the flat entrance doors that open onto the common parts, however tall the building is.
Section 156 also adds a rule that anyone you appoint to make or review the assessment must be competent, but the Welsh Government says that rule will come into force in Wales at a later date, and until then it recommends checking an assessor’s training, experience and knowledge yourself. The Building Safety (Wales) Act 2026 is now law and includes a requirement for the fire risk assessment of certain HMOs to be made by a competent person, and we found no start date for that part. South Wales Fire and Rescue Service points out that the legal responsibility stays with you when you hand the task to an assessor.
Student houses in Cathays and Plasnewydd
Cardiff University had 31,505 students enrolled, 24,645 of them undergraduates, according to its own facts page. A privately let house shared by students who are not one household is an HMO, so the Fire Safety Order covers its shared parts, such as the hall, stairs and landings, and in Cathays or Plasnewydd the additional licence applies too. The mandatory licence applies as well when five or more occupiers live across three or more storeys. When you ask for quotes, give the assessor the number of storeys and sharers, say whether any bedroom has cooking in it, and name the licensing area.
South Wales Fire and Rescue Service’s advice for students is that a landlord should have fitted smoke alarms, usually one on each floor, and that tenants should test them every week, keep the exits clear, bikes included, and never store or charge e-bikes or e-scooters on escape routes or in the communal parts of a shared building. It also tells students to check that their landlord is listed on Rent Smart Wales. An assessment of a student house covers the same ground: an alarm on every floor, a clear route from each bedroom to the way out, and nothing in the hall or on the stairs that could catch fire or block the exit.
If your landlord is Cardiff Council or a housing association and you are worried about the shared stairs, doors or alarms, raise it with them first, because gov.uk puts the duty for shared areas on the landlord, the freeholder or the managing agent. If nothing is done, the Protection Helpline takes reports of fire safety concerns about a building.
Housing law and fire law on one Cardiff rental
A let house in Cardiff can need Rent Smart Wales registration, a Rent Smart Wales licence or a licensed agent, and an HMO licence from Shared Regulatory Services, and every one of those comes from housing law. The fire risk assessment comes from the Fire Safety Order instead, so a landlord can hold every housing document and still owe the fire duty for the shared parts of an HMO. Councils have fire safety powers of their own under the Housing Act 2004, while the Welsh Government names the fire and rescue authorities as the main enforcer of the Order. The Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016, in force since 1 December 2022, adds a duty to keep a rented home fit for human habitation, which covers electrical safety testing and working smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors.
What the assessor checks and what a Cardiff report should say
South Wales Fire and Rescue Service describes a fire risk assessment as a safety review of the premises. Its steps are to find the fire hazards and the people most at risk, weigh up the risks and then take them away or cut them down, write the findings down with an emergency plan, train staff, and keep the whole assessment and plan current. Gov.uk adds the points you have to consider: the emergency routes and exits, fire detection and warning, firefighting equipment, the removal or safe storage of dangerous substances, an evacuation plan, the needs of vulnerable people such as young children, older people or disabled people, and the information and training given to staff. Checkatrade’s Cardiff page says a typical quote covers a full inspection of the premises, the fire hazards and the people at risk, the fire detection and alarm system, the escape routes and emergency lighting, fire door and compartmentation checks, and a written report that rates each risk and sets out an action plan.
A Cardiff report should say which licences the building falls under, how many storeys and occupants it has, where the alarms and detectors are and how each room escapes. For a student house it should name the fire stopping between the bedrooms and up the staircase, and every heading, “common parts” included, should have findings written under it. In a block, the report has to deal with the external walls and every flat entrance door, and South Wales Fire and Rescue Service expects fire doors to be tested and third-party certificated to BS 476 Part 22 or BS EN 1634-1. The report should not use the English fire door checks for blocks over 11 metres, because the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 apply only in England, as our fire door regulations page explains, although the doors in a Cardiff block still have to do their job under the Order. The report should also give the assessor’s name and organisation, which you then keep on record.
The action plan can lead to work on the fire alarm and detectors, the emergency lighting, the fire doors, the extinguishers or staff training. Our fire alarm maintenance guide covers the weekly tests and the servicing an alarm needs. The old fire certificates ended when the Order took effect in 2006, as our fire safety certificate page explains, so the recorded assessment has taken their place as the document a Cardiff business keeps.
Choosing a fire risk assessor for a Cardiff property
You can make the assessment yourself when the premises are simple: South Wales Fire and Rescue Service says the government’s 5-step checklist may be enough, and the Welsh Government publishes one for small premises. Otherwise the service says you will need a professional fire risk assessor, and gov.uk says that someone short of time or expertise should appoint a competent person to help. If you hire one, the service says you must check their competence, and it links to a guide on choosing an assessor. Ask each assessor you are thinking of hiring about:
- Qualifications: which fire risk assessment qualifications they hold, and whether they belong to a professional body such as the IFE or IFSM.
- Insurance: the amount of their professional indemnity cover, given as a figure.
- Welsh rules: whether they have assessed HMOs in Cathays or Plasnewydd and know that the Welsh mandatory licence still uses the three-storey test.
- A sample report: an anonymised report on a building like yours, so you can see the action plan they write.
- Timing: how long they will spend on site, when the report will arrive and whether a return visit to check the actions is in the price.
Fire risk assessment prices in Cardiff
Checkatrade’s Cardiff page lists 8 fire risk assessment businesses and gives an average price of £276, with prices typically from £222 up to £348. It also shows fixed prices from assessors covering the city: £99 for a residential flat, £129 for a residential house and £229 for an HMO, where the assessor looks at the layout, the alarms, the escape routes and the signs. Our fire risk assessment cost guide gives national ranges: most assessments cost £200 to £800, with a small business usually paying about £300 to £500. For the common parts of a block of flats it gives £300 to £500, for an HMO or shared house £350 to £600, and for a larger or more complicated HMO £800 to £1,200.
The building decides where a quote falls. Say two assessors price a four-bedroom student house in Cathays, one at Checkatrade’s £229 fixed HMO price and one at £350, the bottom of our HMO range. Before you compare them, ask how long each will spend on site, whether the report comes with a prioritised action plan, and whether a second visit is included, then send both the same written description of the house, with its storeys, its number of sharers and its licence, and ask for a fixed fee.
How long an assessment in Cardiff takes
Checkatrade’s Cardiff page says most residential assessments take 1 to 3 hours and a larger commercial building a full day or more, and that the written report usually arrives within a few days. Our cost guide puts an HMO or shared house at 3 to 5 hours on site, and the shared parts of a block of flats at 2.5 to 4 hours. The visit goes faster when the assessor can get into every room, the loft and any cupboard holding a meter or boiler, so sort out the keys and give the tenants or staff the date of the visit. Have the last assessment ready, along with the fire alarm and emergency lighting test records and, for a licensed HMO, the licence and its conditions.
When you need an assessment quickly
If the fire service has served a notice on the building already, the date in it sets your timetable, and an enforcement notice gives at least 28 days. Send a copy of the notice with your enquiry, give the date you are working to, and ask each assessor for their earliest visit and how soon the report will follow. After a fire, building work or a change of use, have the assessment reviewed, because the Order requires a review when you have reason to think it may have stopped being valid or when the premises have changed significantly.
Premises in Cardiff that need an assessment
South Wales Fire and Rescue Service lists workplaces, commercial buildings, areas open to the public, the common areas of blocks of flats, premises with paying guests such as B&Bs, guest houses and holiday lets, and HMOs. In Cardiff that takes in offices, shops, pubs, restaurants, hotels, warehouses, care homes, schools and nurseries, along with the hallways and stairs of the city’s blocks of flats. The Welsh Government’s guidance says the recording duties apply to every non-domestic premises and to the non-domestic parts of residential blocks, such as corridors, stairways and plant rooms, and do not apply inside individual homes.
Holiday lets are covered now, because the Order applies to anyone who lets self-catering property to paying guests. Wales is adding a licence on top: the Development of Tourism and Regulation of Visitor Accommodation (Wales) Act 2026 will license self-contained self-catering lets, and its fire safety standard, which calls for a written assessment of the risks to people on the premises and a record of the precautions, starts on 4 March 2030. Hotels, guest houses and B&Bs are outside that licence and stay under the Order alone.
Fire risk assessments near Cardiff
South Wales Fire and Rescue Service runs Cardiff Central Fire Station and has its headquarters at Forest View Business Park in Llantrisant. The other Welsh city on this site is covered on our fire risk assessment Swansea page, and for a property across the Severn in England, where the English rules apply, see fire risk assessment Bristol.
Questions about fire risk assessments in Cardiff
Do I legally need a fire risk assessment in Cardiff?
Yes, if you employ people, run business premises, take paying guests, or control the shared parts of an HMO or a block of flats. A private home lived in by one household falls outside the Order.
How much does a fire risk assessment cost in Cardiff?
Checkatrade gives £276 as the Cardiff average. The fixed prices it lists and our national ranges are in the prices section above.
Do I have to register with Rent Smart Wales as well?
Yes, if you let a home in Wales on a domestic tenancy. Registration is separate from any HMO licence and from the fire risk assessment, and whoever issues the contracts or manages the home needs a Rent Smart Wales licence or has to use a licensed agent.
My HMO is in Cathays. Which licence do I need?
The Cathays additional licence covers every HMO in the area unless the law exempts it, so a house of three or more sharers who are not one household needs one. If the house also has three or more storeys and five or more occupiers, it falls under mandatory licensing, and the same application form covers both schemes. Check the address with Shared Regulatory Services.
Is the fire risk assessment still needed once the HMO is licensed?
Yes. The HMO licence comes from housing law and the assessment from the Fire Safety Order, so a fire safety officer can ask for the full written assessment whatever licences the house holds.
How often should the assessment be reviewed?
The Order sets no fixed interval. It has to be reviewed regularly to keep it up to date, and again whenever it may have stopped being valid or something significant has changed, such as building work, an extension or a change of use. Each review has to be recorded as well.
Do I need a fire risk assessment to sell my flat?
The Order does not reach inside an individual flat, so there is no assessment of the flat itself to produce. The common parts of the block are covered, so if a buyer’s solicitor asks, request the block’s latest assessment from the freeholder, landlord or managing agent who runs the building.
How do I get fire risk assessment quotes in Cardiff?
Use the form below to give the postcode and the kind of premises, and add what sets the price: whether it is a student HMO in Cathays or Plasnewydd, a block of flats, a holiday let, a shop or an office, how many storeys and occupiers it has, and any notice the fire service has served. We pass it to fire risk assessors who cover Cardiff so that you can compare their quotes.
Cardiff landlords and businesses with premises elsewhere can find every town and county we cover on our fire risk assessment near me page.