Fire Safety When Moving Into New Business Premises: The Setup Checklist

Pre-lease due diligence (the surprises priced early)

• System inheritance audit: alarm panel age/protocol (the takeover honesty from the servicing guides — orphan systems are negotiating points), emergency lighting condition, extinguisher stock status, door estate state (the survey instinct applied pre-signature)
• Compliance file requests: FRAs, service certificates, EICRs from landlord/outgoing tenant — absence is information (and leverage)
• Demarcation reading: lease/heads-of-terms on fire responsibilities (the landlord/tenant splits from the office guides — cores vs demise, who services what; ambiguity now is dispute later)
• Use-class fit: your occupancy vs the building's fire provisions (headcount, processes, sleeping risk God forbid — changes trigger the works the change-of-use guides describe)
• Fit-out forecasting: your layout plans against compartment lines and escape routes (the Cat B warnings — designs touching rated elements need the approvals path priced in)

Day-one duties and the first 90 days

The legal position at occupation: you're the/a responsible person immediately (the duties guide's frame) — and the practical sequence that satisfies it: week one — escape routes walked and cleared for your operation, temporary fire action notices up, staff shown routes/assembly/call points (induction's irreducible core), extinguisher and alarm basics verified working; month one — your FRA commissioned and delivered (occupation-specific: your people, processes, layout — the assessor relationship starting right per the choosing guide), system takeovers contracted (alarm/lighting/extinguisher servicing transferred or established — certificates beginning), log book started (the file from day one); ninety days — FRA actions progressing on plan, fit-out works (if any) compliance-managed (the approvals/documentation discipline), evacuation drill run with your team (the plan proven per the evacuation guide), and the annual calendar set (every rhythm these guides catalogue, scheduled). The pattern: legality immediately, evidence quickly, rhythm permanently.

Costs and the setup-as-relationship view

First-year money for typical small premises: FRA £250–£500; alarm takeover-and-service £200–£400 (remedials per inherited condition — the audit's value visible); lighting test/remedial baseline £150–£400; extinguisher provision/commissioning £150–£400 (inheritance permitting); signage/notices £50–£150; training time internal — totalling £800–£2,500 against premises that arrive compliant-ish, more where inheritance was fiction (the due-diligence ROI). The relationship-purchase argument peaks at setup: providers establishing your file, calendar and systems knowledge in month one become the chase-free compliance infrastructure every subsequent guide assumes (our packages onboard exactly this way — setup surveys, takeovers, the first FRA and the calendar in one engagement). Moving premises is compliance's natural reset moment: bought deliberately, the rhythm starts right and stays boring — the highest compliment these guides know.