Does My HMO Need a Fire Risk Assessment?

Here is the mistake that lands HMO landlords in front of a magistrate: assuming that because their property is small, or does not need a licence, it does not need a fire risk assessment. That assumption is wrong, and it is expensive. Fire and rescue authorities can issue unlimited fines, push for up to two years' imprisonment, and apply for banning orders that stop you managing rental property at all. None of that depends on whether your HMO is licensable.

So let me answer the question directly. Does your HMO need a fire risk assessment? Yes. Every HMO does, without exception. There is no size threshold, no occupant count, and no licensing test that gets you out of it. If you let a property that meets the definition of a house in multiple occupation, you have a legal duty to assess the fire risk and now, since October 2023, to record that assessment in writing.

Where the duty actually comes from

The obligation is not buried in HMO licensing rules. It sits in the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, usually shortened to the RRO. This is the single most important piece of fire law for landlords, and the part that catches people out is how broadly it applies.

Under Article 9 of the RRO, the "responsible person" must carry out a "suitable and sufficient" assessment of the fire risks to the people in and around the building. In an HMO, the responsible person is whoever has control of the premises: usually you as the landlord, or your managing agent if you have handed over day-to-day control. The duty covers the common parts, the escape routes, the shared kitchens, the hallways and stairwells, and anywhere a fire could start or trap a tenant.

The trigger for this duty is simply that the building is an HMO with parts people share. It is not the licence. It is not the number of storeys. It is not whether you have five tenants or three. The RRO applies to the common parts of every HMO in England and Wales, full stop.

Licensing and fire safety are two different things

This is the confusion at the heart of nearly every "do I need one" question, so it is worth being blunt about it. Licensing and fire safety are separate legal regimes, run by different authorities, with different triggers.

Mandatory HMO licensing applies to HMOs occupied by five or more people forming two or more households. The old three-storey requirement was scrapped by the 2018 Order, so plenty of two-storey houses now need a licence. On top of that, many councils run additional or selective licensing schemes that pull smaller HMOs into the net. Councils enforce all of this.

Fire safety is different. The RRO is enforced by the fire and rescue authority, and it does not care about your licence status one bit. A three-bedroom house let to three sharing tenants can sit below every single licensing threshold and still be an HMO that legally requires a fire risk assessment. Landlords who hear "you do not need a licence" and assume that means "you do not need an FRA" are reading the wrong rulebook.

And the risk is not theoretical. Fires are up to four times more likely in HMOs than in single-family homes. That is precisely why the law treats them more strictly, and why councils almost always demand a written FRA as a condition of granting a licence in the first place. If your HMO is licensable, you effectively need the assessment twice over: once because the RRO says so, and again because your council will ask to see it.

The written-record rule changed in 2023

There used to be a genuine carve-out here, and it is the source of a lot of out-of-date advice still floating around online. For years, Article 9 only required you to record the significant findings in writing where five or more people were present, or where the premises were licensable. A landlord with a small unlicensed HMO could, in theory, do the thinking without writing it down.

That changed on 1 October 2023. Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022 amended the RRO so that the responsible person must now record the fire risk assessment in writing regardless of the size of the property or the number of occupants. There is no longer a small-HMO exemption from the written record.

In plain terms: if you let a three-person unlicensed HMO, you need a written fire risk assessment on paper, dated, with the significant findings and the action plan recorded. An assessment that lives only in your head is no longer compliant, and "I knew the risks" is not a defence an inspector will accept.

Which properties actually count as an HMO?

If you are unsure whether your property is even an HMO, here is the short version. Your property is generally an HMO if:

• At least three tenants live there, forming more than one household (so not a single family), and
• They share a toilet, bathroom, or kitchen facilities.

It becomes a large HMO requiring a mandatory licence when five or more people from two or more households share in this way. Bedsits, shared houses let room by room, and many house shares all fall within the definition. Converted houses and flats above shops frequently qualify too.

The point of listing this is not to find an exit. It is the opposite. Once your property meets the HMO definition, the fire risk assessment duty switches on automatically, and the moment you start letting rooms to separate households sharing facilities, you are almost certainly in scope. If you are genuinely on the borderline, treat the assessment as required rather than gambling on a technicality. The cost of being wrong is an unlimited fine.

What the assessment has to cover

A fire risk assessment is not a tick-box form or a certificate you buy. It is a structured look at the building that identifies the hazards, works out who is at risk, and sets out what you are going to do about it. For an HMO, a suitable and sufficient assessment will work through:

• Sources of ignition and fuel, from electrics and cooking appliances to stored items in hallways.
• Escape routes, including whether tenants can get out from every room and whether those routes stay clear and protected.
• Fire detection and warning, meaning the right grade and category of alarm system for the building.
• Fire doors and compartmentation, the passive protection that buys tenants time to escape.
• Emergency lighting and signage where the layout needs it.
• Management arrangements, such as how you test alarms and keep escape routes clear.

It does not stop at the assessment either. The RRO requires you to act on the significant findings and put right what the assessment flags. A written report that identifies five hazards and then sits in a drawer while you ignore them is arguably worse than none, because it proves you knew.

One more thing for 2026: evacuation plans

If your HMO houses anyone who would struggle to get out in a fire, there is a new duty to factor in. The Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) (England) Regulations 2025 require responsible persons to identify residents who need help to evacuate and to prepare personal emergency evacuation plans for them, with the duties beginning on 6 April 2026. For landlords with vulnerable or disabled tenants, this is now part of getting fire safety right, and it flows directly from the same assessment process.

Next steps

The honest summary is this. If your property is an HMO, you need a written fire risk assessment, you needed one before October 2023, and you definitely need one now. Licensing status does not change that. Property size does not change that. The only real question is whether you get it done properly before an inspection or an incident forces the issue.

Once it is in place, keep it current. The law expects you to review it regularly and after any material change to the building or how it is used, which is covered in our guide on how often an HMO needs a fire risk assessment. And if you want to understand exactly what enforcement looks like when landlords get this wrong, read what happens if you do not have a fire risk assessment for your HMO.

FRASafe guides you through a BS 9792:2025-aligned HMO fire risk assessment built specifically for landlords, free to complete and £45 for the council-ready PDF. It walks you through every area above, records your findings in writing the way the law now requires, and gives you a document you can hand straight to your council or your insurer.