Advice/recommendations on fire/asbestos assessments

I’m selling a leasehold flat with share of freehold and am being asked for fire and asbestos assessments. The last flat sold around 5 years ago and no-one has any recollection of providing any of these items.

It’s an older Victorian property, converted in the late 80s with three flats sharing a communal hallway and the basement with its own door. Each flat has fire doors on their entrance, we have fire extinguishers in the hallway and smoke alarms in the communal hallway. We have an unwritten policy of not blocking the hallway with stuff or smoking in there.

My head is spinning over what is actually required in a fire assessment given the age of the building. I believe we should have one - but despite some sites saying it doesn’t have to be written down as we have no employees, we obviously need to if we need to show it when people are buying/selling the flats. We only have one flat let out so I don’t think we are classed as an HMO despite the building being converted before 1991. Does anyone have any expertise or could recommend someone who will understand all the nuances of the building regulations through the ages?

With the asbestos, I’m not sure whether we actually need a full survey for it or whether we can make an assumption that there might be some and just have a policy for dealing with it if there are works planned.

Any advice or recommendations gratefully received as I’m sure others must have gone through this.

With asbestos I’m pretty sure assumptions can be made as there is no way to know for sure without disturbing it. For ours it was assumed to be in the front doors of the flats and the hallway coving.

A fire risk assessment will assess the fire escape route more than whether the building is actually up to fire reg standards (if it’s a period property it’s very unlikely to be). So they will be looking at what kind of lock you have on the front communal door, whether you have vision panels at the front door so emergency services can see in, etc.

You can pay consultants to get them done. We recently had a fire safety inspection done following some fire safety upgrades.in our block. It was required by our insurers.

Any recollection of who you used? The other freeholders and I are happy to pay for it if that’s what’s needed - but we do want someone who is familiar with period properties.

@HillLife - agree on the escape route although from reading up, there’s also an element on whether ‘stay in place’ is provable or not if built pre-1991. I don’t want to sell an unsafe property but equally, I don’t want to cause a big bill for all my neighbours if we need to bring it up to very modern standards.

I’m not sure, we employ a managing agent so they organised it.

I wonder if the fire brigade might be able to recommend someone.