Fire Risk Assessment in Mansfield
Letting a terrace inside one of Mansfield’s selective licensing areas, running an HMO, or managing a shop with flats above it? Describe the building in a few lines and a single qualified assessor based in the area will price it before anything is booked.
Who needs a fire risk assessment in Mansfield, and what it costs
Businesses, HMO landlords and whoever controls a converted building’s shared hallway need a written fire risk assessment. In Mansfield, Mansfield Woodhouse and Forest Town your licensing council is Mansfield District Council, and since 13 September 2025 it has run a selective licensing scheme across five parts of the district. For most Mansfield jobs the bands that matter are a converted terrace’s shared hallway (from £280), a three or four bed HMO (from £250) and a town-centre shop under 200 m² (from £200).
Sutton-in-Ashfield is in Ashfield district, so Mansfield’s licensing rules do not apply there, but enquiries from Sutton still go to a local assessor in the same way.
Mansfield licensing compared with Nottingham City
Mansfield licenses fewer HMOs than the city, but its selective scheme catches family lets on named streets.
| Rule | Mansfield District Council | Nottingham City Council |
|---|---|---|
| HMO licensing | Licence needed for an HMO with 5 or more people in 2 or more households sharing a kitchen, bathroom or WC (council HMO page) | Additional licensing citywide since January 2024, catching HMOs with 3 or more people in 2 or more households (city page) |
| HMO licence fee | £850 for up to 6 bedrooms, plus £50 per extra bedroom. £490 is paid with the application | £1,607 standard fee at April 2026 rates, covering HMOs of nine bedrooms or fewer |
| Selective licensing | Five designated areas, around 1,200 homes, enforceable 13 September 2025 to 10 September 2030 | Second scheme from 1 December 2023, covering over 30,000 privately rented homes in a designated area |
| Selective licence fee | £800 (£500 application plus £300 issue), with £100 off for landlord scheme members | £950 standard fee per property (from 1 April 2026) |
| Fire paperwork | HMO conditions ask for fire alarm servicing to BS 5839 and emergency lighting tests to BS 5266, with certificates sent within 14 days of a request | Check the city’s own licence conditions |
Which Mansfield lets are caught?
- Five or more unrelated sharers under one roof? That is a licensable HMO anywhere in the district, Warsop and Mansfield Woodhouse included. The council publishes the LACORS fire safety guide with its HMO documents, the usual yardstick for alarms, doors and escape routes.
- A family or couple let on a listed street? You need a selective licence. The street list names streets such as Victoria Street and Portland Place (Area 1), Broomhill Lane and Tucker Lane (Area 2), Fenwick Street in Market Warsop (Area 3), Newgate Lane and Bentinck Street (Area 4), and Wood Street, Byron Street and parts of Rosemary Street (Area 5).
- Already a mandatory HMO? The council’s FAQ says those properties are exempt from selective licensing, as are homes run by social housing providers.
- A block of flats on a listed street? Each privately rented flat needs its own licence, says the same FAQ.
Mansfield buildings: what comes up
Shops with storage or empty floors above, around the viaduct
The council’s Market Place conservation area appraisal says the railway viaduct, built between 1872 and 1875 and now Grade II listed, “dominates this area”. Around White Hart Street it notes that above the shops “either storage or vacant space is contained”. Once those floors become flats, the assessor looks at the floor and stair separating shop from home, whether the flat has its own exit, and whether a shop alarm would wake anyone upstairs. More on our landlord page.
Victorian terraces split into flats or HMOs
Most selective licensing streets are tight Victorian terraces. Converted into two or three flats, they usually have one narrow staircase as the only escape. Common findings: flat doors that are not fire doors, unlinked battery alarms, and unlined meter cupboards in the hallway. See our HMO landlord page.
West Gate and Wood Street: knitters’ houses and back-to-backs
The West Gate conservation area appraisal records framework knitters’ houses, “two rare survivals of ‘back-to-back’ industrial housing” and Victorian warehouses on Wood Street. It notes the Lawn Mill became the Rosemary Centre, and No.65 West Gate’s upper storeys are now apartments. Wood Street sits in licensing Area 5. Back-to-backs have no rear exit, so early warning and the front escape route matter most.
Old brewery and warehouse buildings
The Old Maltings on Midworth Street “was used as a malt house for the Mansfield Brewery”, and the appraisal says buildings in the brewery and warehouse district “are often vacant or in a poor condition”. Half-empty buildings mean stored goods, unwatched rooms and blocked exits. Our warehouse and industrial unit page sets out what the assessor reviews.
What people actually ask about buildings like Mansfield’s
“Is this sufficient? I am conscious if a fire starts in the shop/ stairwell, the flats may not hear the alarm??” (as written)
An adviser to a landlord client, posting on Safelincs Fire Safety Forum, November 2022
The shop and the flats’ stairs shared one alarm, with separate alarms in each flat. The worry was right. A system that only sounds in the shop and stairs may not wake someone asleep behind a closed flat door, so assessors usually expect sounders inside each flat’s hallway, often with a heat detector, tied into the communal system. Own a Mansfield shop with flats above? Ask the assessor what the bedrooms can hear.
“Fire alarms currently battery operated grade F not interlinked. Can these be battery operated or must be hard wired?” (as written)
An owner of one of the two flats, posting on Safelincs Fire Safety Forum, June 2024
This was a terraced house converted into two flats with a small shared lobby, the same shape as many conversions on Mansfield’s licensing streets. Grade F means battery alarms. For a shared lobby the usual starting point is mains-wired alarms with battery backup; the LACORS guide Mansfield publishes covers when lobby and flats should be linked. The reply on the thread pointed out that a written fire risk assessment would be needed to settle it.
What the law asks of Mansfield landlords and shopkeepers
- Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. Whoever runs a shop, office or unit, or controls the stairs and landings of a converted house, needs a written assessment of the fire risks and has to carry out what it finds (legislation.gov.uk). Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service enforces it, up to prohibition notices and prosecution.
- Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022. In blocks of flats with common parts, the responsible person must give residents fire safety information and, where the building is over 11 metres, check flat entrance doors and communal fire doors (the regulations). See our blocks of flats page.
- Housing Act 2004. The law behind both Mansfield schemes. Letting without a licence in Mansfield can bring an unlimited fine or a civil penalty of up to £30,000, according to the council. In 2023 the council issued a £17,000 penalty to a landlord who had not licensed a six-bedroom HMO.
- Which standard the assessor uses. A Leeming Street shop or an office gets judged against PAS 79-1:2020. For an HMO or the hallway of a split terrace, the yardstick is BS 9792:2025, which superseded PAS 79-2 for homes in 2025.
A typical Mansfield job
An illustrative example based on the guidance and prices on this page. Not a real customer or property.
Take a Victorian mid-terrace inside selective licensing Area 5, split into three flats off one shared staircase. Each flat needs its own £800 selective licence. The owner books an assessment of the communal hallway and stairs, which falls in the converted house band from £280. The assessor checks the flat doors, the hallway alarm, the meter cupboard and the single escape route. A written report with a list of fixes follows. Timings are agreed with the assessor at booking.
A licensable Mansfield HMO of five to seven bedrooms starts from £350. Mansfield’s remaining building types are priced on the cost guide; the free landlord fire safety check helps if you are unsure which applies.
Mansfield fire risk assessment FAQs
Nottingham Fire Assessments is an introducer: a single qualified assessor near Mansfield receives your details, then quotes and does the work. Updated October 2026.
Get a Fire Risk Assessment Quote in Mansfield
Tell us about the building. One qualified local assessor reads your enquiry and gets back to you with a fixed quote. No obligation.
Prefer to talk? Call 0115 647 8715 · lines are open Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.