Fire strategy plan for £425
When a house becomes flats or a shared home, building control and the licensing officer both ask the same question: how does everyone get out? We draw the answer.
£425 fixed fee, no VAT to add
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The short answer
A fire strategy plan shows how a building is made safe in a fire: escape routes, doors, partitions, alarms and the separation between flats or bedrooms. It supports the building regulations application and an HMO licence. Our fee is £425, no VAT to add, with no survey needed if we already hold one.
Fire strategy plan
from £425
- Fixed fee
- £425
- VAT
- None to add
- A plan of every floor with the escape routes marked, from each room to the final exit
- Fire doors and fire-resisting partitions shown, with the rating each needs
- Detection and alarm layout: where smoke and heat alarms go, and the system grade
- Escape windows for basement and upper rooms, with the openable size checked
- The compartment lines between flats or units, and how pipes and cables pass through them
- A short statement setting out the strategy, in a form building control and a licensing officer can read
£425. A starting fee: we confirm one fixed figure after checking your address. The council’s own fee, where there is one, is paid to the council.
Get my fixed feeHow the plan is produced
Use the survey
We work from the measured survey of the house, with its stairs, floors and openings.
Choose the strategy
We decide whether the stair is protected, whether a sprinkler or other route is better, and where each unit’s escape lies.
Draw it
Escape routes, doors, partitions and alarms go onto the plans, with ratings noted.
Statement
A short statement explains the strategy and the standards it follows.
Submit and answer
The plan goes with the building regulations application and, for an HMO, the licence, and we answer the officers.
Why a conversion triggers the fire rules
Turning a house into flats or a shared house is a material change of use under regulation 5, because the building gains rooms for residential purposes. That brings the fire safety requirements of building regulations into play for the whole building, not only the new part.
The guidance in Approved Document B is written for dwellings, and a conversion into several units is judged against it with the extra care that shared stairs and hallways need. Where it does not fit, we say so and explain the alternative route.
The rules we draw to
Every dwelling needs a fire detection and alarm system, at least Grade D2 Category LD3, with mains-powered alarms and a standby supply. A large dwelling of three or more storeys needs Grade A Category LD2, according to Approved Document B. Where a new storey is created above 4.5 metres, fire doors rated E 20 and partitions rated REI 30 protect the escape route.
A basement room used for living needs either an emergency escape window or door, or a protected stair to a final exit. An escape window must open to at least 0.33 square metres, with a clear height and width of at least 450 millimetres and its bottom edge no more than 1,100 millimetres above the floor.
- Alarms: Grade D2 Category LD3 at least; Grade A LD2 for large three-storey homes
- Protected escape route above 4.5 m: E 20 doors and REI 30 partitions
- Escape window: 0.33 m² openable, 450 mm clear, 1,100 mm cill height at most
Fire and the HMO licence
A licensed HMO is inspected by the local housing authority, and operating one without a licence is an offence under section 72 of the Housing Act 2004. Councils set their own fire standards for licences, often above the building regulations minimum, so the plan is drawn to the stricter of the two.
We tell you what your council asks for before the plan is final, and show the same strategy on the licence drawings and the building regulations drawings, so you answer one set of questions, not two.
Fire rules in numbers
4.5 m
A storey above this height needs a protected escape route with fire doors and fire-resisting partitions.
Source: Approved Document B (fire safety) volume 1: Dwellings (GOV.UK)
E 20
Minimum rating of fire-resisting doors on that route.
Source: Approved Document B (fire safety) volume 1: Dwellings (GOV.UK)
REI 30
Minimum rating of fire-resisting partitions on that route, and of new floors in a loft conversion.
Source: Approved Document B (fire safety) volume 1: Dwellings (GOV.UK)
LD3
Minimum category of fire detection and alarm system for every dwelling, at Grade D2.
Source: Approved Document B (fire safety) volume 1: Dwellings (GOV.UK)
LD2
Category of alarm system, at Grade A, for a large dwelling of three or more storeys.
Source: Approved Document B (fire safety) volume 1: Dwellings (GOV.UK)
0.33 m²
Smallest openable area of an escape window.
Source: Approved Document B (fire safety) volume 1: Dwellings (GOV.UK)
1,100 mm
Highest the bottom of the openable part of an escape window may be above the floor.
Source: Approved Document B (fire safety) volume 1: Dwellings (GOV.UK)
Reg 5
A building that gains a room for residential purposes has a material change of use.
Source: Building Regulations 2010, regulation 5: material change of use (legislation.gov.uk)
Questions about fire strategy
Is a fire strategy the same as a fire risk assessment?
No. The strategy is the design: how the building is made safe. A fire risk assessment is a continuing check on a building in use, and the person responsible for the building carries it out.
Do I need sprinklers?
Not always. The guidance gives a sprinkler-based route as an alternative for some open-plan layouts, and a protected stair is the usual route. We compare the two for your house.
Do you issue the fire certificate?
There is no certificate. Building control approves the design and inspects the work, and a licensing officer inspects an HMO. Our plan is what they check against.
Do I need a survey as well?
We need an accurate survey to draw the plan. If we have already surveyed the house for drawings, we use it, and if not, we can arrange one.
Get everyone out, on paper and in practice
Send the address and the use you plan. We reply with the scope and a fixed fee, from £425.