What Happens If You Don't Have a Fire Risk Assessment for Your HMO?

At 3:25am on a February morning in Sheffield, eleven people were trapped inside a burning building. When fire investigators arrived, they found no fire alarm, no emergency lighting, poor-quality fire doors, and no staircase ventilation. The staircase itself collapsed during the incident, and a firefighter fell through it. The landlord was prosecuted under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and sentenced to six months in prison — suspended — plus 250 hours of community service and £10,000 in prosecution costs.

That landlord did not have a compliant fire risk assessment. This is what not having one actually looks like.

Your legal duty in plain terms

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (RRO 2005) — the main fire safety law for rented properties — requires the responsible person to carry out a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment of the common parts of the property and put appropriate fire precautions in place. In an HMO (House in Multiple Occupation), the responsible person is almost always the landlord. This applies to all HMOs, regardless of size, storey count, or whether the property is licensed.

Since 1 October 2023, every fire risk assessment must be recorded in writing. A mental note or an informal walkthrough is not sufficient. If you can't produce a written document, you don't have a compliant FRA — full stop.

Here's what not having one actually costs you. There are five enforcement routes, and they escalate in severity. Most landlords are only aware of the first two.

1. Enforcement notice

The Fire and Rescue Service can issue an enforcement notice requiring you to take specific fire safety measures within a set timeframe. The notice will specify exactly what must be done and by when. Ignore it, and non-compliance is itself a criminal offence — separate from the original breach that triggered it.

Local housing authorities can issue equivalent notices under housing legislation. A single non-compliant HMO can attract enforcement action from two separate bodies simultaneously. So you're not just dealing with one set of problems — you're dealing with two.

2. Prohibition notice

Where a property presents a serious risk to occupants, the enforcing authority can issue a prohibition notice. This prevents you from using or letting the property — immediately. The income stops. The tenants may need to be rehoused. The notice stays in place until you can demonstrate compliance.

Important: prohibition is not a last resort reserved for the worst cases. It's used wherever inspectors judge the risk to be serious enough to warrant it. A property with no fire detection, inadequate means of escape, or missing fire doors qualifies. Plenty of landlords have been caught out thinking they were nowhere near that threshold.

3. HMO licence refused or revoked

A local authority cannot grant an HMO licence unless it's satisfied that adequate fire precautions are in place. No compliant fire risk assessment means no licence — and without a licence, you cannot legally let a mandatory or additional licensing HMO.

If you already hold a licence, it can be revoked if you fail to produce fire safety documentation when requested. The practical result is the same: the property generates no income until compliance is demonstrated. For a breakdown of what individual councils require as part of the licence process, see our guide to HMO licence fire risk assessment requirements by council.

4. Criminal prosecution

Under Article 32 of the RRO 2005, prosecution can result in an unlimited fine in the Crown Court and up to two years in prison. These are not theoretical maximums — they are applied in real cases.

The Sheffield case above is one example. A Harrow landlord was also prosecuted after fire safety failings at an HMO, resulting in a substantial fine. Courts take into account the number of occupants put at risk, the nature of the failings, and whether warnings were ignored before prosecution was brought.

This is genuinely important — don't skip this bit. If a fire occurs and someone is injured or killed, the charge can escalate to manslaughter or corporate manslaughter. At that point, a missing fire risk assessment isn't just a compliance gap — it's evidence of criminal negligence.

5. Rent Repayment Orders

This is the consequence most landlords don't see coming.

Under the Housing and Planning Act 2016, both tenants and local authorities can apply to the First-tier Tribunal for a Rent Repayment Order (RRO) — a legal order requiring the landlord to repay up to 12 months of rent received during a period of non-compliance. The trigger includes operating an unlicensed HMO, but also other housing legislation breaches that local authorities choose to pursue.

For a four-bedroom HMO in a mid-sized city charging £600 per room, 12 months of rent across all tenants is over £28,000. There is no upper cap that protects the landlord — the tribunal decides the amount based on conduct and circumstances.

Tenants can bring these claims themselves. They don't need the council to act first. And once a prosecution or civil penalty is on record, the legal threshold for a successful RRO application drops significantly.

What about civil penalties?

Separate from criminal prosecution, local authorities can issue a civil penalty of up to £30,000 per breach — a figure that rises to £40,000 under the Renters' Rights Act 2025, which also extends Awaab's Law to private landlords and introduces the Private Rented Sector database. Civil penalties don't require a court hearing — the council can issue them directly. They can be issued alongside other enforcement action, not instead of it. So yes, you can face a civil penalty and a criminal prosecution at the same time.

"My managing agent handles this"

This is one of the most common and most dangerous assumptions in the HMO sector. A managing agent can take on day-to-day responsibilities, but unless they have explicitly assumed the role of responsible person in writing, the legal liability under the RRO 2005 remains with the landlord. If there's no compliant FRA, you're the one facing enforcement — not them.

Check what your agent actually provides. If they can't produce a written fire risk assessment document on request, you don't have one.

The written record requirement

Before October 2023, smaller premises could maintain a mental record of their assessment. That exemption no longer exists. Every HMO in England now requires a written FRA — signed, dated, and covering all common areas including hallways, stairwells, kitchens, and any shared rooms. The assessment must also cover fire detection, alarm systems, emergency lighting, fire doors, escape routes, and the means of raising the alarm. For a full picture of what a compliant assessment covers, see the complete HMO fire risk assessment guide.

Alarms and detection systems are part of that assessment — if you're unsure whether your smoke alarms and CO detectors meet the legal standard, see our guide to smoke alarm and CO detector requirements for HMOs.

The bottom line

Five separate enforcement routes. Unlimited fines. Up to two years in prison. Rent repayment orders worth tens of thousands of pounds. Licence revocation. All of it avoidable with a written, compliant fire risk assessment that you review regularly.

If you need to get sorted quickly — before an inspection or licence renewal — FRASafe guides you through a BS 9792:2025-aligned assessment that's specifically built for HMO landlords. It's free to complete, £45 for the council-ready PDF. It covers every area the RRO 2005 requires: escape routes, fire detection, alarm grades, emergency lighting, fire doors, and more.

Also applies to holiday lets — the 2026 STL Registration Scheme requires proof of compliance. If you run a small business from commercial premises, find out whether your small business needs a fire risk assessment — the same obligations apply.

Start your HMO fire risk assessment on FRASafe.