Free Residential Fire Risk Assessment Template: Download in PDF or Word

You can download a free residential fire risk assessment template on this page, as a print-ready PDF or an editable Word document, with no sign-up and no email address. It covers blocks of flats, HMOs, sheltered housing and other residential premises, and it follows the structure of BS 9792:2025, the British Standard for fire risk assessment of housing.

We built it because most free templates in circulation are general workplace forms with the word fire added to the title. Residential buildings raise questions those forms never ask: flat entrance doors, compartmentation, external walls, evacuation strategy, residents who would need help to get out. This template asks them.

What does the template include?

The template is a complete recording document, laid out in nine parts so that a filled-in copy is the record the law expects, not just a findings box.

• Premises, responsible person and scope. Building details, the evacuation strategy, and the type of assessment carried out (Type 1 to Type 4, from a non-intrusive look at the common parts to an intrusive assessment that enters dwellings). It also records the responsible person and their UK contact address, which Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022 requires the record to include.
• People at risk. Who sleeps in the building, occupancy by day and night, and a table for residents who would need help to evacuate, including their evacuation capability and whether a person-centred plan is in place.
• The checklist. Sources of ignition and fuel, fire detection and warning, firefighting equipment, emergency lighting, escape routes, fire doors, signs and notices, the emergency plan, internal and external fire spread, compartmentation, and the management side: maintenance, testing, training and records. Every question has Yes, No and N/A boxes and an observations column beside it.
• Risk rating. A simple likelihood and consequence matrix producing a banded rating from Trivial to Intolerable, with each band defined so the conclusion means something.
• Findings and actions. A summary of significant findings and a prioritised action plan, from P1 Immediate (24 to 48 hours) to P4 Low (3 to 6 months), with an owner and a target date for every item.
• The record over time. A review record, a declaration page, and a Trail of Records page for anything excluded or not checked, with the reason. An assessment that is honest about its limits is a stronger document, not a weaker one.

The PDF is designed for printing or marking up on a tablet. The Word version is for people who would rather type: click into a box, write, and replace a tick box with an X.

How do I fill it in?

Work through the parts in order: the building and the people first, then the checklist, then the rating, actions and review. Three habits make the difference between a form and an assessment:

1. Write observations, not bare ticks. For every question, note what you actually saw and where. The observations are the assessment; an inspecting officer gives little weight to a column of ticks.
2. Every No becomes an action. Each deficiency goes into the action plan with a priority, an owner and a target date. If something serious cannot be fixed quickly, record the interim measures protecting residents in the meantime.
3. Every N/A gets a reason. Anything not applicable, not accessible or deliberately out of scope belongs in the Trail of Records with a short explanation. That shows an informed decision rather than an oversight, and it tells the next assessor exactly where to look.

Then keep it alive. Review the assessment regularly, annually is common practice for residential buildings, and always after a fire or near miss, a material alteration, or a significant change in who lives there. The review record on the last pages exists for exactly this. What the law expects of the ongoing record is covered in our article on fire safety record keeping.

Is a free template enough to be compliant?

Sometimes. The legal test comes from Article 9 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which requires a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment. The law prescribes no form at all, and since 1 October 2023 it requires the assessment to be recorded in full, on paper or digitally. A well-structured template filled in by a competent person can meet that standard in a straightforward building.

The government publishes its own free 5-step checklist on gov.uk, and for a small, simple, low-risk premises it remains a reasonable starting point. The HSE’s well-known risk assessment template, by contrast, is not a fire risk assessment template at all, as we covered in our guide to the HSE template.

The key word is competent. A template asks questions; it cannot judge the answers. If the building is high-rise, if the external walls include cladding or their construction is unknown, if you have any doubt about the compartmentation a stay put strategy depends on, or if residents could not escape unaided, those judgements need a competent fire risk assessor. In that case, use the template to prepare for the professional assessment rather than to replace it.

What if you would rather not do the paperwork at all?

The template is the manual route, and it works. There is also a quieter option: carry out the same assessment in FireRecord. You work through the same BS 9792:2025 structure on site, attach photographs to findings as you go, and the report assembles itself, so there is no evening of formatting at the end. You can preview your finished report without paying anything, and you only pay when you want the report itself, for £14 as a one-off, pay as you go, with no subscription. For a single building, it is worth a look before you commit an afternoon to a blank form.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there an official government fire risk assessment template?

Yes. For England the government publishes a fire safety risk assessment 5-step checklist on gov.uk, together with sector guides for different premises types. It is a genuine recording tool, though it leans towards workplaces and gives little room for observations. Our residential template follows the same five steps but is built around housing and the current law.

Can I carry out the assessment myself instead of hiring an assessor?

The law does not say who must carry it out; it says the assessment must be suitable and sufficient, and it leaves the responsibility for that with the responsible person. The practical test is competence. Government guidance supports self-assessment only for the simplest, lowest-risk premises, and residential buildings rarely qualify: people sleep there, and judgements about fire doors, compartmentation and evacuation strategy have serious consequences if they are wrong. For most residential buildings the safer course is a competent fire risk assessor, with this template used to prepare for the assessment and to understand the report that comes back. When you choose one, an independently accredited assessor is always the best option: look for third-party certification, such as BAFE SP205, or registration with a recognised professional body such as the Institution of Fire Engineers, because it means their competence has been checked by someone other than themselves.

Does the law require a specific fire risk assessment form?

No. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires a suitable and sufficient assessment but prescribes no format. Since 1 October 2023 the record must cover the whole assessment and name the responsible person, including a UK contact address, which this template captures on its first pages.

Is there a free fire risk assessment template for flats and HMOs?

Yes, the one on this page. It is structured to BS 9792:2025, covers blocks of flats, HMOs and sheltered housing, and is a direct download in PDF or Word with no sign-up.

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Both versions of the template are free to keep and share: download the PDF or the Word version.

FireRecord replaces blank templates with structured PAS 79-1:2020 and BS 9792:2025 checklists, captures findings and photographs on site, and turns them into a fully recorded report with a complete version history. Find out more at firerecord.co.uk.