If you run an HMO, two different regulators can approach you about fire safety — enforcing two different laws, on two different parts of the same building. That catches a lot of landlords out. Here's how the Fire Safety Order and the HHSRS divide up, where they overlap, and why being fine under one doesn't mean you're fine under the other.
The Fire Safety Order route
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 is enforced by the fire and rescue authority. In an HMO it covers the common parts — the shared hallways, stairs, landings and escape routes — and it's where the Article 9 duty to hold a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment sits. This is the regime a SimplyNeat assessment is built around.
The HHSRS route
The Housing Health and Safety Rating System sits under the Housing Act 2004 and is enforced by the local housing authority — the council's housing team, not the fire service. It assesses the condition of the living accommodation itself, and fire is one of the 29 hazards it scores, rated by how likely harm is and how serious it would be. Where that produces a Category 1 fire hazard, the council is obliged to act.
Where they overlap — and where they don't
The rough dividing line in a converted HMO is common parts (Fire Safety Order) versus the dwellings themselves (HHSRS) — but the two overlap around shared spaces and can both apply to the same building at once. That's the trap: a landlord can hold a clean fire risk assessment for the common parts and still be exposed on an HHSRS fire hazard inside the units, or the other way round. One assessment under one regime doesn't automatically discharge the other.
Why this matters for enforcement risk
Understanding how the two regimes interact — not just one of them — is where experience shows. I spent my career on the fire-authority side of enforcement, which means I read a building the way a Fire Safety Order enforcer does and I know where that regime meets the housing one. The aim is simple: nothing falls down the gap between the two.
What a SimplyNeat assessment covers
To be clear about scope: a SimplyNeat fire risk assessment addresses your duty under the Fire Safety Order. Where the HHSRS side is also in play, I'll say so — so you know exactly which regime your report covers, and where the housing authority's requirements may still need dealing with separately. What you won't get is a document that quietly leaves you assuming one assessment covered both.