Fire Risk Assessment in Hinckley
Fire risk assessments for shared houses, flats above shops, converted factories, offices and trade units across Hinckley, Burbage, Barwell and Earl Shilton. Most premises cost £200 to £500. Hinckley & Bosworth only licenses larger shared houses, but every shared house still needs a written assessment.
Updated October 2026
How Hinckley’s rules differ from Leicester’s and Loughborough’s
Hinckley & Bosworth runs the lightest licensing in this part of Leicestershire. A landlord with houses in Hinckley, Leicester and Loughborough is dealing with three different sets of council rules. The fire risk assessment duty is the one thing that is the same in all three.
| Hinckley & Bosworth | Leicester city | Charnwood (Loughborough, Syston) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 or 4 sharers, 2+ households | No licence | Licence only inside the selective licensing areas | Additional HMO licence, whole borough |
| 5 or more sharers | Mandatory HMO licence | Mandatory HMO licence | Mandatory HMO licence |
| Council fee | Around £800 for a smaller licensable HMO, around £1,000 for a larger one. Applying online saves £75 | £900 mandatory; £1,290 selective | £700 |
| Scheme review | No local scheme to end. Mandatory licensing is national | Selective scheme due for review October 2027 | Additional scheme runs to 31 March 2028 |
| Fire risk assessment | Needed for the shared parts of any HMO, licensed or not | Needed for the shared parts of any HMO, licensed or not | Needed for the shared parts of any HMO, licensed or not |
Sources: Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council HMO licence rules and 2025 to 2026 fees (page updated November 2025), Leicester City Council HMO and selective licensing pages, and Charnwood Borough Council’s additional licensing notice. Checked September and October 2026.
What assessors find in Hinckley buildings
Rooms above town-centre shops
Castle Street and The Borough are lined with narrow three-storey buildings: a shop at street level and rooms above. The council’s own conservation area appraisal records that many of those upper floors stand empty, and that some upper-floor staircases have been taken out over the years. When an upper floor is brought back into use as a flat, the first questions are where the way out runs, whether it passes through the shop, and whether the floor between the two still holds back fire and smoke.
Hosiery factories turned into flats and workspace
Hinckley’s knitting trade is usually dated to 1640, when a local man, William Iliffe, bought a stocking frame. The Atkins factory on Lower Bond Street, built in 1875 to 1877 and making hosiery until 2002, is now council-owned workspace, and a former hosiery factory on Hill Street has become apartments. In a conversion like this the assessor will want to know whether the new flat walls were carried right up to the floor above, whether every hole cut for pipes and cables was sealed afterwards, and whether the old factory stair still gives each flat a protected route out.
Terraces in Barwell and Earl Shilton
Barwell and Earl Shilton grew up around shoe, hosiery and knitwear factories, all of which have now closed. The terraced streets built for the people who worked in them make up much of the local rented stock. In one of these houses shared by three or four tenants, the usual findings are a kitchen door that will not hold back smoke, smoke alarms that are not linked, and an old rear workshop or outbuilding that has quietly become part of the let.
Listed buildings in the town centre
The Hinckley town centre conservation area contains 28 listed buildings, from the half-timbered building that now houses the museum to Victorian banks and chapels. Changing a door or running new alarm cable in a listed building can need listed building consent. A useful assessment says which actions are likely to need it and offers options, such as upgrading an existing panelled door instead of replacing it.
Trade units off the A5 and M69
Hinckley’s road links have filled its edges with industrial estates and trade units. In a unit let to one business, the tenant often assumes the landlord holds an assessment and the landlord assumes the tenant does. The law expects whoever controls each part of a building to assess it, and the two to share what they find. If nobody can show you a written assessment, there probably is not one.
Sources: Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council, Hinckley Town Centre Conservation Area appraisal (2013); The Atkins Building history; Knitting Together, the Hinckley stocking frame; Barwell. Checked October 2026.
Real questions from landlords and building managers
“I’m in the process of setting a small unlicensed HMO up.”A landlord writing to Property118, June 2014
That is the normal starting point in Hinckley, where a house for three or four sharers needs no licence. No licence does not mean no assessment. As soon as more than one household is sharing the kitchen, a bathroom or the hallway, those shared spaces fall under the Fire Safety Order and need a written fire risk assessment. Expect the assessor to look hard at the kitchen door, the alarm system and whether every bedroom has a safe way out.
“I manage a block of 4 flats in a Victorian building. When one of the owners decided to sell his flat three years ago, we had a professional Fire Safety Risk Assessment completed.”Someone managing a small block, writing to Property118, July 2016
Small blocks like this are common in Hinckley, in big Victorian houses and in parts of old factory buildings. An assessment is not a one-off. The law says it has to be reviewed regularly and whenever something significant changes. For a small converted block, a review every one to two years is typical, and sooner after building work, a change of use or a fire. A sale is a sensible moment to check it is still current.
Sources: Property118, 30 June 2014; Property118, 7 July 2016.
Who enforces fire safety in Hinckley
| Law | What it covers | Who enforces it |
|---|---|---|
| Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 | Workplaces, shops, offices and the shared parts of flats and HMOs. Requires a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment, recorded in writing for every premises since October 2023 | Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service |
| Housing Act 2004 and HMO management regulations | Fire hazards anywhere in a rented home, including bedrooms, and the HMO manager’s duty to keep escape routes clear and alarms working | Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council, private sector housing team |
| Building Regulations | Fire separation and escape routes when a shop, house or factory is converted to flats | Building control |
Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service publishes the fire safety notices it serves on the national enforcement register. See its enforcement page.
A typical Hinckley job, start to finish
Shop with a flat above, Hinckley town centre
The building: a three-storey Victorian building with a shop on the ground floor, a one-bedroom flat on the first floor and storage on the second. The flat is reached by a stair from a rear yard door that the shop also uses.
Enquiry to visit: the owner sends photos of the stair and the shop’s back room. A fixed quote of £280 comes back, inside the £200 to £350 range for a shop with a flat above. The visit is booked for a weekday morning when the shop is open and the tenant can let the assessor in.
On site: about 90 minutes. The assessor walks the shop, the stair, the flat and the store, tests the alarms and looks under the stair and above the shop ceiling where they can.
Findings: the stair is open to the shop’s back room, with no fire-resisting door between them. The flat’s smoke alarm runs on a battery and is not linked to anything in the shop. Boxes of stock are kept on the stair.
Action plan: high priority to clear the stair and fit a fire-resisting, self-closing door between the stair and the shop; medium priority for linked detection covering the shop and the flat. Review in 12 months, or sooner if the shop changes hands.
Result: a written report in PAS 79-1:2020 format, with the actions ranked so the owner knows what to do first.
Areas covered in Hinckley & Bosworth
Also covering Leicester and the rest of Leicestershire, including Loughborough and Charnwood.
Hinckley fire risk assessment questions
Do I need an HMO licence in Hinckley?
Only if five or more people from two or more households live there and share facilities. Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council runs no additional or selective licensing scheme (its website, checked October 2026), so a house shared by three or four people needs no licence. The fee for a licensable HMO is around £800 to £1,000, usually for five years, and applying online saves £75.
Does a shared house with no licence still need a fire risk assessment?
Yes. When tenants from different households share the kitchen, a bathroom or the hall, those spaces come under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, licence or not. The assessment should be written down and kept up to date.
How much does a fire risk assessment cost in Hinckley?
The same as in Leicester: £200 to £350 for a small office or shop, including a shop with a flat above, £250 to £400 for a 3 to 5 bedroom HMO, £300 to £500 for the common parts of a block of flats, and £400 to £600 or more for a care home. The cost guide explains what moves the price.
My building is listed. Can the assessor still recommend new fire doors?
Yes, but the work may need listed building consent. Ask the assessor to say which actions affect historic fabric and to give options, such as upgrading an existing door. Speak to the council’s conservation team before work starts.
Who is responsible for fire safety in a flat above a shop?
Usually more than one person. Whoever runs the shop answers for the shop. The owner, or the agent who looks after the building, answers for the stair, the route out and anything else both parts rely on. Both have to work together and pass on what they know, so a single assessment of the whole building is often the simplest answer.
Do you cover Burbage, Barwell and Earl Shilton?
Yes, along with the rest of Hinckley & Bosworth, including Market Bosworth, Desford, Ratby and Groby. Your enquiry goes to one qualified local assessor, who gets back to you with a fixed quote.
Get a fixed quote for your Hinckley building
Send the postcode, the type of building and roughly how big it is. If it is a flat above a shop, say whether the shop is let separately.
See also our HMO guide and cost guide, or call 0116 497 6683.