The official guidance allows owners to assess their own simple properties, but it also points clearly to professional help where it is needed. Knowing when to bring in a competent fire risk assessor is one of the most important judgement calls an Oxfordshire holiday let owner makes. Get it right and you protect both your guests and yourself.
When a competent fire risk assessor is the right call
The Home Office guidance says that if you do not feel confident to interpret and apply the guidance to your property, you should engage a competent assessor. In practice that points to a professional whenever your property has any of the following: multiple floors, an open-plan layout, bedrooms reached only through another room, a heritage or listed building, a converted barn or outbuilding, or sleeping accommodation for larger groups.
The reason is depth. A professional assessment reaches well past the obvious, covering compartmentation and fire-stopping, travel distances and door widths, detection coverage and siting, fire safety management, and accessibility for guests who cannot self-evacuate. These are not things most owners are trained to judge.
What a professional examines that owners miss
To give a sense of the breadth, a thorough survey works systematically through combustibles and storage, compartmentation including roof spaces, voids and ducting, escape routes and final exits, fire detection and alarm coverage, firefighting facilities, fire safety management and evacuation planning, signage, ignition sources, lighting, ventilation and accessibility. Most owners would not know to check fire-stopping where pipes pass through a wall, or whether a final exit is wide enough. That is the gap a professional fills.
You stay responsible either way
One point the guidance hammers home: even if you employ someone, you remain the responsible person and must act on the outcome. It also advises you to record the identity of whoever carried out the assessment, because you must pass that on if responsibility ever changes hands. So choosing a genuinely competent assessor matters.
How to choose one
The Fire Sector Federation publishes a guide to choosing a competent fire risk assessor, which also lists the certification and registration schemes worth looking for. Always carry out reasonable checks that the person is suitably competent, ask about their experience with accommodation like yours, and make sure any advice you receive is of sufficient quality. Your local service, Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service, can offer general business safety advice, though it cannot carry out the assessment for you.
The value beyond compliance
A good assessor does more than tick boxes. They spot the risks an owner becomes blind to, keep you current with changes like the Building Safety Act recording duty, and leave you with a defensible suitable and sufficient assessment. For anything beyond a simple modern property, that is money well spent.
How to check someone is genuinely competent
There is no single licence for fire risk assessors, so the responsibility falls on you to check. Look for assessors on a recognised third-party register, ask which scheme they are certified under, and ask to see an example assessment so you can judge the depth. The Fire Sector Federation publishes guidance on choosing a competent person and the certification schemes worth looking for. A good assessor will happily explain their qualifications and will want to see the property rather than work from photographs. For a complex or older building, that scrutiny matters far more than the headline fee.
Get the right advice for your property
Want a genuinely competent assessor to look at your property? For advice tailored to your property from a competent professional, speak to Jamie at ESI: Fire Safety on 01276 300 351.
