Fire Risk Assessment in Newark-on-Trent
Newark’s old centre is full of listed shops with flats over them, coaching inns and converted riverside buildings. Describe yours in the form and one qualified fire risk assessor who works locally gets back to you with a fixed price.
Who needs a fire risk assessment in Newark, and what it costs
Running a business, letting an HMO or managing the shared stairs of flats in Newark? Then you are the person fire law holds responsible, and you need a fire risk assessment in writing. In practice that means Market Place shops with flats upstairs, pubs, guest houses, offices, and the hallways of converted buildings along the Trent.
The council here is Newark and Sherwood District Council, not Nottingham City. Fire safety enforcement for businesses and common parts sits with Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service.
For a small Newark shop under 200 m², budget from £200. Shared areas in a house converted into two to four flats begin at £280. Every other band is on the cost guide.
Newark and Sherwood licensing compared with Nottingham City
Landlords who also let in Nottingham often assume the city rules apply here. They do not. From each council’s own pages, October 2026:
| Question | Newark and Sherwood District Council | Nottingham City Council |
|---|---|---|
| Mandatory HMO licensing | Yes. Large HMOs: 5 or more people forming more than 1 household, sharing facilities | Yes, across the whole city, for five-plus occupiers from at least two households |
| Additional HMO licensing (smaller HMOs) | No scheme listed on the council’s HMO page | Yes, covering the whole city since January 2024, for three-plus occupiers from at least two households |
| Selective licensing (single-household lets) | No scheme listed on the council’s HMO page | Yes, in part of the city only (more than 30,000 rented homes). The current, second scheme began on 1 December 2023 |
| HMO licence fee | £790 single application, £600 for multiple applications, £60 to vary a licence | £1,607 standard or £1,210 for accredited landlords (up to 9 bedrooms) |
| Selective licence fee | Not applicable | £950 standard or £759 for accredited landlords, from 1 April 2026 |
| Fire safety on the licence | Council page says landlords must provide adequate fire detection, fire separation and emergency lighting. The council usually visits after an application | Licence conditions apply; check the council’s application guidance |
The council’s HMO page also says an HMO with seven or more occupiers will likely need planning consent as well as a licence.
Which Newark lets need a council licence?
- Five or more sharers who are not one household and who share cooking or washing facilities: the district council requires a mandatory HMO licence.
- 3 or 4 sharers: no licensing scheme is listed for the district, but the house is still an HMO and the fire safety standards still apply. See our HMO landlord guide.
- A single family or couple: no licence listed for the district. Your duties are covered on the landlords page.
- Not sure: call Newark and Sherwood customer services on 01636 650 000 before you let.
Newark buildings: what comes up
Newark’s conservation area was first designated in May 1968. The council’s 2022 draft appraisal counts about 5,000 buildings inside it, and 348 of them are listed, including 4 at Grade I and 11 at Grade II* (Draft Newark Conservation Area Appraisal, February 2022). That shapes most fire risk assessments in the town centre.
Listed shops with flats above
Around the Market Place and Stodman Street, the usual pattern is a shop at ground level and one or two flats reached by a stair at the back. The assessor checks whether a fire in the shop could cut off the only way out of the flats, how the floor between them is protected, and whether the doors onto the stair close and seal. In a listed building, upgrading old doors or adding a partition may need listed building consent.
Timber-framed buildings around the Market Place
The Former White Hart Hotel at 34 Market Place is Grade II* listed, timber framed, and has a rear wing dated to about 1312 (Historic England list entry 1196426). It is now an office. The Governor’s House on Stodman Street dates to 1471. Here the assessor looks at hidden voids where smoke can travel, old wiring in timber, and escape from upper floors.
Converted brewery, maltings and riverside warehouses
Newark’s brewing past is now housing. The former Northgate Brewery was converted and extended into 49 apartments in 2010, while its Grade II malt house next door has stood empty since 1964 (Victorian Society). Former warehouses off Mill Gate, such as the Trent Navigation building, have been restored and reused. For flats in these conversions, the assessor focuses on the communal stairs and corridors, flat entrance doors, and whether walls and floors still hold fire back after years of alterations. See blocks of flats.
New estates at Fernwood, Balderton and south Newark
The district’s Amended Core Strategy, adopted in March 2019, plans for at least 9,080 new homes from 2013 to 2033, with 60% going to the Newark Urban Area (Amended Core Strategy). Newer apartment blocks still need an assessment of their common parts. Where a family house on these estates becomes a shared let, the assessor checks the alarm system, kitchen risk and escape route for an HMO.
Pubs, hotels and guest houses
Rooms above bars and old coaching inns are where escape routes get blocked by storage. In April 2014 a fire at the Lord Nelson pub in Winthorpe, just outside Newark, trapped two staff on the second floor; their escape route had been flagged by fire safety officers months before. The landlord received a 27-month suspended sentence and his company was fined £5,000 (Notts TV). More on hotels and guest houses.
What Newark owners actually ask
“The flats already have the normal mains wired alarms. My agent says that recommended works should be taken as compulsory.”
A landlord with four flats above a shop, on Property118, January 2019
Alarms inside each flat protect the person in that flat. They do not warn the flats if a fire starts in the shop or on the shared stair, which is why assessors often look at the common parts separately. A recommendation is not automatically a legal order, but if you skip one you need a good reason, because the fire service will judge whether your precautions are adequate.
“The internal lobby doors need to be upgraded to fire-resistant and their owners argue that the costs should be shared by all 12 owners.”
A residents’ management company on Property118, May 2025
Who pays depends on the leases, not on fire law, so the answer sits in what each lease says the flat owner owns and repairs. Flat entrance doors opening onto a shared stair matter for everyone’s escape, which is why the assessor checks them even though they may belong to individual owners. In Newark’s converted warehouses and listed buildings, check whether the existing doors can be upgraded before anyone orders replacements, as that can need listed building consent.
Newark fire law, without the legalese
- Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. The shopkeeper, publican, employer or freeholder who controls the premises (or the shared parts of flats and HMOs) needs an assessment that fits the building, and must carry out what it finds. Inspections and notices in Newark come from Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service, and its notices go on a public register.
- Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022. These took effect on 23 January 2023. Where flats share a hall or stair, as in Newark’s converted brewery and warehouses, residents have to be told what to do in a fire and why fire doors matter. Taller blocks, above 11 metres, add door inspections: the shared fire doors every three months and each front door to a flat once a year (NFRS guide).
- Housing Act 2004. Sets HMO licensing and the HHSRS scoring the district council uses when it visits. Fire is one of the hazards it scores.
- Working standards. For a Market Place shop, pub or office, assessors follow PAS 79-1:2020. For flats and HMOs they follow BS 9792:2025, the housing standard that took over from PAS 79-2 last year (BSI).
A typical Newark job
An illustrative example based on the guidance and prices on this page. Not a real customer or property.
A Grade II listed townhouse near the Market Place, converted into three flats with a shared entrance hall and stair. The freeholder needs an assessment of the communal areas under the Fire Safety Order and the 2022 regulations.
The assessor would look at the flat entrance doors and self-closers, the alarm and emergency lighting on the stair, storage in the hall, and gaps around old timber where pipes and cables pass. The written report sets out actions by priority.
Price: from £280, the band for shared areas in a house split into two to four flats. The assessor confirms timings when you book.
A shop below 200 m² starts at £200 and a full block’s communal areas at £300; the rest sit on the cost guide. Letting flats above a shop? The free landlord fire safety check is a quick first look.
Questions Newark owners ask about fire risk
More towns and building types are on the home page. Updated October 2026
Get a Fire Risk Assessment Quote in Newark-on-Trent
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.