Should I get a compartmentation survey before buying a building?

Why do it before you buy

Once you own or control a building you will usually be the responsible person under the Fire Safety Order. Article 3 makes the responsible person the employer for a workplace, the person in control of other business premises, or the owner where nobody else is in control. Article 17 requires the fire protection in the building to be kept in efficient working order and good repair. A breach in a compartment wall is a defect you now own.

A survey before contracts are signed gives you three things. It tells you what the problem is, which you cannot see from a viewing. It gives you a defect list you can price with a fire stopping contractor, so the number is real. And it gives you something to put to the seller: a price reduction, a retention, a warranty or an agreement that they fix it before completion.

What a survey looks at

A compartmentation survey inspects the fire-resisting walls, floors, risers and ceiling voids that are meant to contain a fire and smoke, and records every breach with a photo and a location on the plans.

The report is a defect schedule with photos and plan references, in a priority order you can price.

Which buildings need one before purchase

• Blocks of flats and mixed-use buildings. A breach in one flat is a risk to the rest, and the structure and common parts fall under the Fire Safety Order.
• Buildings that have had work. Conversions, refurbishments, fit-outs and cabling projects all put holes in barriers.
• Older buildings. There is rarely a record of what was done, so a survey gives you the first one.
• Higher-risk buildings. In England a building of at least 18 metres or 7 storeys with at least two homes is a higher-risk building under the Building Safety Act 2022, with its own duties on the people responsible for it, so evidence of the structure's condition matters more.
• A building you are financing or insuring. A lender or insurer may ask for evidence of fire separation, and a survey gives it to them.

Surveying before you commit

An intrusive survey opens up ceilings and boxing, and needs the seller's permission and access. Ask early. A non-intrusive survey can sometimes be done on a viewing with access to risers and plant rooms. We can start with a non-intrusive survey and extend to an intrusive investigation if the first findings call for it.

Leave time for the survey and for pricing the repairs before your decision date, and ask what the defect schedule will contain before you book, because a survey with no schedule gives you nothing to negotiate with.

What it costs

For the basics of how compartments work, see fire compartmentation explained.

A compartmentation survey is priced per job, from the plans. Cost is set by the number of cores and storeys, the number of compartment areas, how much opening up is needed, and whether the building is occupied. We do not price per floor or per unit, because the same number of floors can hold very different amounts of work. Send the drawings or the address and we confirm a price and date.

What to send us

• The address and the type of building, and who is selling
• Floor plans, the fire strategy or the last fire risk assessment if you have them
• The number of floors, cores and compartment areas, as far as you know
• Your timetable: the date you need the report by

Surveys are paid for when booked, and the date is confirmed once the payment clears.

Sources

• Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, article 3 (legislation.gov.uk)
• Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, article 17 (legislation.gov.uk)
• Building Safety Act 2022, section 65 (legislation.gov.uk)