There is no expiry date in law. There is a duty to keep it up to date, which is a different and slightly harder thing.
No interval is written into the Fire Safety Order. The duty is to review the assessment regularly, and to review it whenever there is reason to suspect it is no longer valid or there has been a significant change. Anyone quoting you a legal twelve-month rule is repeating a convention, not the law.
That convention is not a bad one. An annual review is proportionate for most stable premises and it is what insurers and licensing officers tend to expect to see. But it is a floor, not a ceiling, and it is not the test you would be judged against after a fire.
Anything that moves a wall, adds a room, changes a staircase or opens up a ceiling. Even work that looks cosmetic often breaches compartmentation.
A shop that becomes a café, a barn that becomes a wedding venue, an office floor that becomes a flat. The rules that apply change with the use.
More of them, different ones, or people who need help to get out. A change in who sleeps in the building is the most significant of all.
New stock, a new machine, battery charging, a new gas or fuel store. This is also the point where DSEAR may start to apply.
However small. A bin fire that went out on its own is information about your building that you did not have last week.
The 1 October 2023 change in Wales invalidated a great many perfectly good older assessments overnight.
| Premises | Sensible review |
|---|---|
| Sleeping risk: hotels, HMOs, care, holiday lets | Annually, and after any change |
| Blocks of flats, communal areas | Annually, with fire door checks more often |
| Pubs, restaurants, retail | Annually |
| Offices and small units, stable use | Annually, full reassessment less often |
| Any premises after building work | Immediately, before reoccupation |
Whatever interval you settle on, write down that you did it and what you found. An undated review is indistinguishable from no review.
No. There is no expiry date in law and no legally fixed interval. The Fire Safety Order says the assessment must be reviewed regularly and kept up to date. Twelve months is a widely used convention, not a rule, and plenty of buildings need looking at sooner.
Because insurers, licensing officers and framework contracts often ask for a review date within the last twelve months, and because an annual habit is easier to keep than a judgement call. It is a sensible default. It is not the legal test.
Any significant change: building work, a change of use, new or different occupants, a change in the number of people, new equipment or stored materials, a near miss or an actual fire, or new guidance. If nothing has changed at all, an annual look is proportionate.
Not usually. A review confirms the assessment still describes the building, checks the action plan has been carried out, and records the date and who did it. A full reassessment is warranted when the building or its use has genuinely changed.
Almost certainly not, for a reason beyond age: the law changed in Wales on 1 October 2023. Section 156 of the Building Safety Act removed the five-employee recording threshold and requires the assessment to be recorded in full. A short pre-2023 tick sheet does not meet the current requirement whatever its date.
Section 156 and why older assessments stopped being enough.
Ten things worth fixing before anyone inspects your premises.
The first thing they ask for is the recorded assessment.
Tell us the building and we will give you a price on the phone. Most assessments are booked within the week.