Fire Risk Assessment in Coalville
Fire risk assessments for shared terraced houses, flats over shops, workshop buildings and industrial units in Coalville, Whitwick, Thringstone, Hugglescote and Ibstock. Most premises cost £200 to £500. In North West Leicestershire a shared house needs a licence from five sharers up, and the council will not take the application without a written fire risk assessment.
Updated October 2026
North West Leicestershire against Leicester and Charnwood
A house in Coalville shared by four people needs no licence. The same house in Loughborough would need one, and in parts of Leicester it would too. Where Coalville is stricter than you might expect is the paperwork: the council will not process a licence for a bigger shared house without a fire risk assessment attached.
| North West Leicestershire (Coalville) | Leicester city | Charnwood (Loughborough area) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shared by 3 or 4 people | No licence. No local scheme on the council’s site | Depends on the street: selective areas only | Needs an additional licence anywhere in the borough |
| 5 or more sharers | Licence required under the national scheme | Licence required, as everywhere in England | Licence required, same national rule |
| Council fee | £947 in two parts: £410 with the application, £537 before the licence is issued | £900 mandatory; £1,290 selective (£1,032 then £258) | £700 in two parts: £395 then £305 |
| How long it lasts | 5 years | Selective areas since October 2022, due for review October 2027 | Additional licensing from 1 April 2023 until 31 March 2028 |
| Fire paperwork | Fire safety risk assessment and fire alarm test certificate sent with the application. Floor plan must mark fire doors, escape windows and detectors | Required for the common areas of every HMO, with or without a licence | Required for the common areas too, whatever the licence position |
Sources: North West Leicestershire District Council, Houses in multiple occupation (page last updated 20 April 2026); Leicester City Council HMO licensing and selective licensing; Charnwood Borough Council additional licensing designation and property licence fees. Checked October 2026.
What assessors find in Coalville buildings
Colliery-era terraces let to sharers
Coalville exists because of coal. William Stenson sank Whitwick Colliery in the 1820s and Snibston followed in 1831. The collieries in and around the town closed between 1983 and 1991, but the housing stayed: the centre of Coalville is still mostly streets of plain terraces, and similar rows run through Whitwick, Hugglescote and Ibstock. When one of these is let to sharers, layout matters more than age. In a two-up, two-down the stairs often rise straight out of the back room or kitchen, so a fire in the kitchen can cut off every bedroom at once. That layout, and whether a door or a short partition can close it off, is usually the first thing the assessor looks at.
Rooms above shops on Belvoir Road and High Street
The council’s conservation area appraisal describes how early houses in the centre were turned into shops on the ground floor “with accommodation above”, and how a row of mid-19th century terraced houses on High Street became shops. It also records Belvoir Road buildings in generally poor condition and high shop vacancy. Where a flat sits over a shop, check whether the only way out runs through the shop, whether the shop has a working alarm, and whether anything links the two.
The wagon works building on Mantle Lane
J.W. Stableford set up a railway wagon works in Coalville in 1865 and enlarged it in 1884. The surviving building on Mantle Lane, of heavy brick with a saw-tooth northlight roof, is now the Springboard Centre, home to small businesses. A row of houses next to it was built for wagon works families who moved from the Black Country. A big Victorian shed split into small units brings its own questions: does each unit have a route out that does not pass through a neighbour’s space, who tests the shared alarm, and who holds the assessment for the corridors? As a rule, the corridors and shared plant fall to the landlord, while each business answers for the space it rents.
Distribution sheds at Bardon
Amazon announced a one million square foot fulfilment centre at Mountpark Bardon in February 2016, with 500 new permanent jobs and opening due that autumn. The council’s own planning evidence names Hermitage, Whitwick Business Park and Stephenson as the three large industrial estates inside the town, with the Bardon employment area alongside. For a large warehouse the assessment is a bigger job than for a house: travel distances, sprinklers, rack storage, battery charging areas and how the night shift is evacuated all come into it.
Food production sites and what follows them
Whitwick Business Park sits on the old Whitwick Colliery site. Food has been a large local employer too: in September 2022 Pilgrim’s UK put 350 jobs at risk when it proposed closing its Coalville factory, and later confirmed the closure. Food sites carry particular fire risks, from fryers and smokehouses to insulated panel walls in cold stores. When a site like this is split up and re-let, the new occupiers need their own assessment rather than relying on the old one.
Sources: North West Leicestershire District Council, Coalville Conservation Area appraisal (May 2014) and Coalville Urban Area site assessment; Coalville (colliery dates, terraced housing, Springboard Centre, Whitwick Business Park); Amazon, press release, 18 February 2016; Food Manufacture, 7 September 2022; Meat Management, Pilgrim’s UK sites at Coalville and Bury St Edmunds to close. Checked October 2026.
Questions landlords and tenants have posted
“This is the installation of two fire doors and the construction of a wall separating the kitchen/living area from the stairs.”A landlord preparing for an HMO licence inspection, writing to LandlordZONE, July 2020
This is the job that comes up again and again in Coalville’s older terraces, where the stairs come straight down into the room with the cooker. If the house has five or more sharers, North West Leicestershire will want the fire risk assessment with the licence application, so it makes sense to have the assessment done first and let it set the scope of the building work. If the house has three or four sharers, there is no licence, but the open stair is just as dangerous. A short stud wall and a fire door at the foot of the stairs is often cheaper than people fear, and the assessor can tell you whether a lesser fix would do.
“I feel our Landlord may be violating the Fire Safety Act. It’s a one floor, first floor if you will apartment, above a shop on a main road.”A tenant writing to the MoneySavingExpert forum, June 2017
There are plenty of flats like this along Belvoir Road, High Street and Hotel Street. A single flat over a shop is not an HMO, so the council licence rules do not apply, but the Fire Safety Order does cover any part of the building used by both the shop and the flat, such as a shared entrance or stair. The shop’s operator and the landlord each have duties and must share what they know. As a tenant, the first step is to ask the landlord for the fire risk assessment. If nothing changes, the council’s private sector housing team can inspect the flat itself under the Housing Act.
Sources: LandlordZONE forum, July 2020; MoneySavingExpert forum, 7 June 2017.
Which body deals with what in Coalville
| Law | Where it applies in Coalville | Enforcing body |
|---|---|---|
| Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 | Shops, workshops, warehouses, business centres, and the shared parts of HMOs and flats. Written assessments for all premises from 1 October 2023 | Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service (inspections and notices) |
| Housing Act 2004, with the HMO management regulations | Fire hazards inside rented homes, licence conditions, and the manager’s legal duty to keep exits unblocked and alarms in working order | North West Leicestershire District Council |
| Building Regulations | Turning a shop’s upper floor, a house or an industrial building into flats or units | Building control |
Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service lists the notices and prosecutions it brings on its enforcement page.
One Coalville job from enquiry to report
Five-bedroom shared terrace, applying for a licence
The house: an end-of-terrace Victorian house near the town centre, extended at the back and into the loft, let to five working sharers who share one kitchen. Because there are five of them, it needs a North West Leicestershire HMO licence, and the landlord has the application form open.
Booking: the landlord sends a rough floor plan and photos of the stairs and kitchen. The assessor prices it at £360 fixed, within the £250 to £400 band for shared houses of three to five bedrooms. The visit is set for a time when the tenants have been told and the loft room can be seen.
On the day: close to two hours. The assessor goes room by room, tests the alarms, opens the cupboard under the stairs and the meter cupboard, and checks the loft room’s way out.
Problems found: the stairs open into the kitchen-diner, so there is no protected route from the bedrooms. Bedroom doors are hollow internal doors. The alarms are mains-powered but the loft room has none. The electric meter cupboard under the stairs is unlined and full of stored boxes.
Recommended work: first, a partition and a fire door between the kitchen-diner and the foot of the stairs, a linked alarm in the loft room, and clearing and lining the meter cupboard. Then fire doors to the bedrooms. A second look once the builders leave, and yearly after that.
Paperwork: a report set out to BS 9792:2025, the housing fire risk assessment standard, ready to upload with the licence application next to the alarm test certificate and a floor plan marking the doors and detectors.
Source for the housing standard: BSI on BS 9792:2025, which took over from PAS 79-2 in 2025.
Areas covered in North West Leicestershire
Local assessors also cover Leicester and the rest of Leicestershire, with separate pages for Loughborough and Hinckley.
Common Coalville questions
Does a Coalville shared house need an HMO licence?
Only when it is home to five or more tenants, not all one household, who share facilities. The district’s HMO page lists mandatory licensing only, so three or four sharers can live there without one (checked October 2026). A licence costs £947 in total and lasts five years.
What fire documents does the council want with a licence application?
A fire safety risk assessment and a fire alarm test certificate, plus a floor plan showing fire doors, escape windows, smoke and heat detectors, carbon monoxide alarms and fire blankets. Have the assessment done before you send the form, not after.
My Coalville house has four sharers and no licence. Do I still need an assessment?
Yes. Once tenants from different households share the kitchen, bathroom or hall, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applies to those areas. The assessment should be in writing and reviewed regularly.
What does a fire risk assessment cost in Coalville?
Most Coalville enquiries are for shared terraces, and a house of three to five bedrooms costs £250 to £400. A flat above a shop on Belvoir Road or High Street, or a small office, is £200 to £350. Industrial units have no fixed band. Everything else is in the cost guide.
I rent a unit in a business centre. Is the fire risk assessment my job or the landlord’s?
Usually both. The landlord or managing agent covers the corridors, stairs and shared alarm. You cover your own unit and what you do in it. Ask to see the landlord’s assessment so that yours agrees with it on escape routes.
Do you cover Whitwick, Ibstock and Hugglescote?
Yes, and the rest of North West Leicestershire, including Thringstone, Ellistown, Ashby-de-la-Zouch and Castle Donington. Your enquiry goes to one qualified local assessor, and the fixed quote comes from them.
A fixed quote for your Coalville property
Send the address or postcode and tell us what it is: a shared terrace, a flat over a shop, a workshop or a unit. If you are applying for an HMO licence, say so, as the council wants the report with the form.
Background reading: the HMO guide and the cost guide. Or ring 0116 497 6683.