Morning all How would you expect a self employed or a company Fire Risk Assessor to quote to carry out a fire risk assessment? For example, would you expect them to do a pre-visit to the specific building to determine the scale of the assessment or would you expect them to just turn up and carry out the assessment (in other words on the hoof). I have quotes from several sources some of whom did a pre-visit whilst others just sent in what looks like a standard price. I did give a brief description of the buildings concerned. Over to you fire experts for your views. Cheers a bunch. Rich

As JJ notes, a pre-visit is useful to establish how complex the site is, so that a suitable and sufficient assessment can be done. I have turned up at a converted Victorian warehouse which had become a rabbit warren of staircases, partitions, balconies, offices, workshops, paint spray booths, numerous 'fire exits' (all locked!), lots of flammable solvents and combustible materials etc etc and the report could only be compiled adequately using photographic evidence, around 50 photographs. Doing the FRA report and cross-referencing to the photographs, uploading all the photos onto a webpage for convenience, and writing up the conclusions and recommendations, took as long as the on-site inspection, so I told them I'd be charging a whole day. Then there was the 'after' visit to see what had been implemented so that I could give them the assessment document that they wanted, saying they had taken suitable steps to comply with The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, so they were charged another 1/2 day for that review. JohnW

Thanks guys for the prompt replies. How much can I expect to pay for a competent person to carry out an FRA along the lines stated by John W above? This would be for a charity with limited funds - do you consultants ever give better (read cheaper) quotes for charities or are your quotes according to the complexity of the job and thus standard? Cheers Rich

Hi Rich, Are we talking about what looks like a small church on the south coast? I'd guess at visit time and write up to be about 8hrs max, so day rate. 1/2 day rate would be pushing it a bit.

Sorry Rich, I'm an in-house fire risk assessor so don't have any personal PL insurance.