Fire Risk Assessment in Kirkby-in-Ashfield
Own a stone cottage near Kirkby Cross, a shop on Station Street with rooms upstairs, or a unit on Lowmoor Business Park? Send the details through the form and one qualified local assessor will price the job in writing before you commit to a visit.
Who in Kirkby needs one, and what it costs
If you employ people, open premises to the public, let a house to sharers, or own a building where two or more flats share a hall or stair, the law wants a fire risk assessment on paper. Kirkby is Ashfield District Council’s home town: the council offices are on Urban Road, NG17 8DA. Nottingham City’s landlord schemes stop well short of here. Prices start from £250 for a three or four person shared terrace and from £350 for a warehouse or industrial unit.
After walking the building, the assessor sends a written report ranking each hazard. The assessor confirms timings when you book.
Kirkby, Sutton and Nottingham City: which landlord licence applies?
Kirkby and Sutton share a council but not a licensing map. Ashfield’s selective scheme sits in two pockets of Sutton, a few minutes up the road. The four schemes side by side, from the councils’ own pages:
| Licence | Which homes | Cost | Fire documents requested |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ashfield mandatory HMO licence (the only licence that reaches Kirkby today) | Any house let to at least five people who are not one family and who use a shared kitchen or bathroom | £1,031.10 for a new licence covering up to 6 tenants, plus £91.35 for each extra tenant | No document list on the council’s HMO page. Ask Environmental Health Residential on 01623 450000. |
| Ashfield selective licence | Private lets on chosen streets in Stanton Hill and around New Cross in Sutton. Kirkby is not part of it. | £350, or £250 for members of a landlord accreditation scheme | Gas certificate, EICR and EPC. A condition requires alarms, escape routes and firefighting kit to be checked yearly by a competent person. |
| Nottingham City additional HMO licence | Since January 2024, any city home shared by at least three unrelated people in two or more households | £1,607, or £1,210 with Nottingham Rental Standard membership (up to 9 bedrooms, April 2026) | A written fire risk assessment if one exists; alarm panel and emergency lighting certificates are compulsory |
| Nottingham City selective licence | Rented homes in a mapped zone of over 30,000 properties, since 1 December 2023 | £950 standard, £759 reduced rate | Depends on the property |
Kirkby rental: licence or not?
- Five or more sharers in a Kirkby house: you need Ashfield’s mandatory licence. It can run for up to five years.
- Three or four sharers: no Ashfield licence for now, though it is still legally an HMO. A council report in April 2026 talked about building capacity for “an expanded HMO licensing scheme”, so this may change. Move the same tenants to a house in Nottingham and the city’s additional licence would apply.
- A family let in Kirkby, Annesley, Selston or Jacksdale: no selective licence. In March 2022 Ashfield’s Cabinet renewed the Sutton scheme and agreed to explore whether it could spread to “other areas in Ashfield”. Nothing new has been designated.
More for sharers’ landlords on the HMO landlords page.
Kirkby-in-Ashfield buildings: what comes up
Kirkby began as a farming village around Kirkby Cross, where a market was granted in 1261 and the cross still stands on Sutton Road. Coal changed it. Kirkby Colliery opened in 1890 and shut in 1968. Bentinck was sunk in 1895 and closed in the early 1990s. The council’s 2021 town centre masterplan says the town “rapidly expanded during the Victorian era”, and much of today’s rented stock dates from then.
Listed stone buildings in Kirkby Cross
Ashfield’s 2004 appraisal of the Kirkby Cross conservation area, designated in 1975, counts 16 Grade II listed buildings. Most are coursed stone or rendered brick under slate and pantile. The listed stables and barn at 12 to 16 Chapel Street are now several homes. Typical findings: sloping floors leaving deep gaps under fire doors, lofts open across a row, and a single stair. Altering a listed building can need consent.
Empty shops on Station Street and Kingsway
The masterplan calls Station Street and Kingsway the “more historic retail/service core” and records ground floor vacancy at 13.7% in October 2019, against a 10% national average. It says the council will back turning vacant retail units into homes where appropriate. Each conversion with a shared entrance, or a trading shop with tenants above, needs that shared part assessed. See converted houses and flats.
Victorian and pit-era terraces let to sharers
When one of these terraces is let room by room, the assessor tends to meet the same faults: a kitchen opening onto the only staircase, smoke alarms that are not linked to each other, and one bedroom reached through another.
New apartment blocks near the station
Ashfield approved a three-storey block of 20 apartments on the old factory shop site on Ellis Street in March 2026, part of the North Kirkby Gateway. Twelve one and two-bed flats next to Kirkby station, which opened on the Robin Hood Line in November 1996, got approval in December 2025. Blocks like these bring shared stairs, fire doors to maintain and a duty to brief residents.
Units on Lowmoor Road and at Sherwood Business Park
Lowmoor Business Park is mostly commercial and industrial units. At Wheatleys Business Park, also on Lowmoor Road, work started in 2022 on warehouse units of 2,852 to 8,556 sq ft. Park Lane Business Park houses small firms. At Annesley, Sherwood Business Park covers 135 acres off junction 27 of the M1, with over 70 large businesses. Racking, pallet stacks, forklift charging and blocked exits are the usual issues. See warehouses and industrial units.
What people actually ask
“I’m struggling with reducing the gaps under our fire doors and would really like some advice on what we can do to make us compliant.”
The person responsible for a 19th century manor house, on Safelincs Fire Safety Forum, November 2022
Old stone houses around Kirkby Cross have exactly this problem. Smoke slips through a deep gap under a fire door. A threshold plate, local levelling of the floor, or refitting the door with new smoke seals are the usual options. In a listed building, repairing the existing door is often easier to get approved than replacing it.
“I am wondering if our landlord is responsible for providing a fire risk assessment.”
A small business tenant on Safelincs Fire Safety Forum, February 2014
Normally the business in the unit arranges it, because it controls the space, the staff and the work. On a multi-let estate such as Lowmoor or Park Lane, the landlord deals with shared yards, corridors or alarms, and both sides must cooperate. Who pays for building work depends on the lease.
Fire safety law for Kirkby buildings, in plain terms
- Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005: the person running a workplace, shop or shared hallway must assess its fire risks and record the significant findings. Enforcement falls to Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service, whose Ashfield station is on Sutton Road in Kirkby.
- Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022: these began on 23 January 2023. Every resident of a block should get written fire instructions and an explanation of how fire doors protect them. A three-storey block like the Ellis Street one sits under the 11 metre line, so the quarterly and annual door checks are not compulsory, but the doors must still be maintained.
- Housing Act 2004: sets the mandatory licence for big shared houses and lets councils add additional or selective schemes. Ashfield uses the selective power in Sutton only.
- The standards: PAS 79-1:2020 covers shops, offices and units. BS 9792:2025 covers shared houses and flats, and it replaced the older PAS 79-2 last year.
Letting in Kirkby? The landlord fire safety check is free, and the landlords guide goes further.
The price bands that matter in Kirkby
Three bands cover most Kirkby enquiries. A terrace shared by three or four tenants starts from £250. A former shop or house split into two to four flats starts from £280 for the shared areas. A unit on one of the Lowmoor Road estates or at Sherwood Business Park starts from £350. For anything else, see the cost guide.
Typical job: a Station Street shop turned into two flats
An illustrative example based on the guidance and prices on this page. Not a real customer or property.
An owner converts an empty Victorian shop near Station Street into two flats sharing a front door and stair. Once both are let, the assessor inspects the shared hall and finds a meter cupboard with no fire-resisting door, a single light on a timer, and no fire instructions for tenants. The report lists each fix by priority. Price: from £280, the rate for communal areas in a house converted into 2 to 4 flats.
Kirkby-in-Ashfield questions, answered
Have a building in Kirkby, Annesley, Selston or Jacksdale in mind? Use the form below, or visit the homepage for the rest of Nottinghamshire.
Updated October 2026
Get a Fire Risk Assessment Quote in Kirkby-in-Ashfield
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