What happens if you do not have one?

Nothing happens on the day you decide not to bother. That is what makes this duty easy to postpone, and expensive to have postponed.

Who actually checks

The fire and rescue authority is the enforcing authority for the Fire Safety Order. They do not inspect every building on a schedule. They arrive when something prompts them: a complaint from a resident, a referral from the council, a licensing application for an HMO, a fire in a similar building nearby, or a fire in yours.

What they ask for first

The written record of the significant findings. Not your intentions, not the work you had planned — the assessment itself, and evidence you acted on it. If there is no assessment, there is nothing to discuss and the conversation starts badly.

What follows

• An informal notice setting out what needs fixing, where the risk is modest.
• An enforcement notice with a deadline, where it is not.
• A prohibition notice, which can restrict or stop the use of part of the building — including stairwells and flats — and takes effect immediately.
• Prosecution for serious breaches. Penalties are unlimited fines and, in the worst cases, imprisonment.

The quieter costs

Enforcement is not the only exposure. Insurers ask for the assessment after a claim. Lenders and buyers ask for it during a sale. Managing agents ask for it before taking a building on. An HMO licence can be refused or revoked without one. Each of these is routine, and each stops dead if the document does not exist.

The reasonable position

A communal-area assessment is not an expensive document, and it is the only evidence that you took the duty seriously. Having one that is a few years old and acted upon puts you in a defensible position. Having none puts you in an indefensible one.