If your audit flagged no FRA, you are not in a crisis. You are in a 30 to 60 day gap that closes with one quote-request email. Price, supplier checklist, and draft email below.
Before you look into this any further, we want to bound the problem. Because a lot of what you have read online about fire safety was written about Grenfell-era high-rise buildings. Most residential blocks are not that. Here is what a Fire Risk Assessment looks like for a normal block.
For a Type 1 FRA (non-destructive) on a residential block under 18m. London & SE runs higher. Mixed-use, accessibility plans, and over-18m all add. See calculator below.
Visual inspection of communal areas, stairs, fire doors, signage, means of escape. No building work. No residents disturbed.
Annually for high-rise or high-risk. Every 2 to 3 years for standard low-rise residential, depending on the assessor's rating.
If no FRA exists, you are not in a crisis right now. You are in a gap that needs closing in the next 30 to 60 days. The fix is: commission one, file it, move on. This page walks you through it.
Pick the card that matches you. Each one has a different fix, a different timeline, and a different draft email.
Most likely: one exists, but the managing agent or previous directors have not shared it. This is the quickest version to close.
What to do. Send a written request to your managing agent or freeholder asking for a copy of the current FRA, the assessor's name, and the date it was carried out. You are entitled to this information. Give them 14 days. If they do not respond, repeat the request and cc the other directors. If still no response after 28 days, treat this as State 2 and commission a new one.
Common in converted terraces, small self-managed blocks, and buildings that changed hands recently. Also common when the last assessor went out of business and nobody replaced them.
What to do. Commission a new FRA. Use the price calculator below to budget. Use the supplier checklist to pick an assessor. Use the draft email to request three quotes. Expect 1 to 2 weeks to receive quotes, 2 to 4 weeks from instruction to written report.
A surprising number of FRAs are tick-box documents that do not actually protect the building. Before you act, check the four indicators below.
If it fails any of these, treat the FRA as not fit for purpose and move to State 2 to commission a new one.
Enter your building's basics and we will estimate a realistic range. If you came from the audit, some of this is already filled in.
All figures are indicative ranges based on published rates checked April–May 2026. Always compare three written quotes for your specific building. Last reviewed for accuracy on the page legal-check date shown above.
You do not need to be a fire expert to instruct a good one. You need to know which accreditations to insist on, and which six questions to ask before you pay a penny.
This email is written to meet the checklist above. It asks for exactly what a good quote contains. If an assessor pushes back on any of it, you have your answer about their quality.
The calculator above updates the unit count, era, height, and mixed-use line automatically. Everything in the amber slots is for you to fill in before sending. Send to at least three assessors so you have a market check on the price.
A Fire Risk Assessment is a legitimate service charge expense under almost every lease. The question is not whether it is recoverable. It is how you demand it without tripping Section 20.
If you plan ahead, include the FRA in your annual service charge budget and recover it through your normal quarterly or half-yearly demands. Attach the invoice to the year-end accounts. No Section 20 consultation required because the cost is within normal operating expenses and not a "qualifying work".
If the reserve fund is empty and you need to commission urgently, issue a one-off service charge demand specifically for the FRA. The demand must include the Section 21B summary of rights and obligations, or it is not legally enforceable. Most leaseholders understand when the reason is a statutory safety duty. Be clear: "This is a legal requirement and the directors are personally liable without it."
Section 20 consultation is required when the cost to any single leaseholder exceeds £250. For a standard Type 1 FRA at £300 to £600 total, split across 8 or more leaseholders, you are comfortably below the threshold. It becomes a risk in very small blocks (3 or 4 units) or mixed-use Building Safety Act buildings where total cost can run to £1,500 or more. If the per-leaseholder share exceeds £250, you must run the Section 20 long consultation (two notices, 30 days each, 60 days total) before instructing. Failure to consult means you cannot recover any amount over £250 per leaseholder through the service charge. The FRA still has to happen; you will just be short on funds.
Keep the written report, the assessor's accreditation details, and the invoice on file permanently. These are the evidence you produce if the fire authority or a buyer's solicitor asks. Note the review date in your diary now so you do not miss the next one.
These answers are extracted so search engines and AI assistants can cite them directly. If your question is not here, the answer is most likely in the sections above.
"Building Trust is built by Adam Street, a director of Hafer Road Flats Limited (16-flat SoF in Battersea). Every page reflects what we do at HRFL or wish we had been told sooner. The fee benchmarks calibrate against real building data."
Read the Hafer Road case study →When BLOCK-iQ audits your block, every gap it flags comes with a page like this one. Pre-populated with your building's data, your leaseholder count, and your management type. You get the same clear path from red flag to quote request sent, for asbestos, EICR, gas safety, Section 21B, accounts, management agreement, and the rest of the list. No more writing quote-request emails from scratch. No more guessing what a fair price is.