Fire Risk Assessment Leasehold Flat

[Guest Giuseppe]

Hello all

I am about to buy a flat in leasehold. The solicitor told me the Fire Risk Assessment documents are missing and there is no way to find them. The last evidence of Fire Risk Assessment is a report dated more than 3 years ago. She also told me it's strongly recommended to either ask the owner to do it before the purchase (it would take 3-4 weeks) or to buy the property and request it as soon as possible.

I would rather not to wait 3-4 weeks cause the purchase has already taken longer than expected and I am also keen to pay for the Fire Risk Assessment. Am I authorised to pay for the Fire Risk Assessment of the whole building? Or should I go through the management company anyway? How much would it cost? I have seen the figures are around £200.

What's your opinion on this?

Thanks

[Tom Sutton]

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005  defines and requires the Responsible Person (RP) or Persons to carry out a FRA. In this case I would think it would be the Management Company and they should have a copy of the latest FRA. I would suggest you speak to them and see if they will provide you with a copy unfortunately they have no legal requirement to do so, but speak to them nicely they may be cooperative.

The problem with conducting a FRA the RP has to act on the significant findings which can be very expensive.

I have no idea on the possible costs.

[Guest Giuseppe]

On 25/10/2019 at 20:08, Tom Sutton said:

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005  defines and requires the Responsible Person (RP) or Persons to carry out a FRA. In this case I would think it would be the Management Company and they should have a copy of the latest FRA. I would suggest you speak to them and see if they will provide you with a copy unfortunately they have no legal requirement to do so, but speak to them nicely they may be cooperative.

The problem with conducting a FRA the RP has to act on the significant findings which can be very expensive.

I have no idea on the possible costs.

Thanks Tom for your answer. Unfortunately, it seems they have only the copy of a FRA taken 7 years ago. I will for sure speak to them about the possibility to do another FRA, but I guess if they don't cooperate I can contact the local fire and rescue authority?

[Tom Sutton]

That's the route I would take, the only problem is they might not provide you with a copy for spite.

[Guest Giuseppe]

23 hours ago, Tom Sutton said:

That's the route I would take, the only problem is they might not provide you with a copy for spite.

Thanks Tom

I guess if they did the FRA, they would be the ONLY keeper of the ONLY copy of the document, wouldn't they? In other words, i would not be able to get the document from someone else, let's say: the local fire authority....

[Tom Sutton]

Yes the RP conducts the FRA pays for it and has the only copy, also there is no requirements for the RP to provide copies to residents other than goodwill.