Fire Risk Assessment in Melton Mowbray
Fire risk assessments for shops with flats above, old inns, listed buildings, shared houses and food businesses across Melton Mowbray and the Melton villages. Most premises cost £200 to £500. Melton Borough Council only licenses larger shared houses, but its own website says every HMO needs a fire risk assessment, licensed or not.
Updated October 2026
What each council asks for with an HMO licence
Melton has the simplest licensing in the county: no additional scheme and no selective scheme, just the national rule for houses with five or more occupants. Where Melton differs is the paperwork. It asks for proof that the fire alarm has been tested, which neither of its neighbours puts at the top of their lists.
| Melton Borough Council | Leicester city | Charnwood (Loughborough, Syston) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Which shared houses need a licence | Five or more occupants only | Five or more sharers everywhere. Smaller HMOs too, but only inside the selective licensing areas | Three or more unrelated people, anywhere in the borough, until 31 March 2028 |
| First licence fee | £669 + £334 = £1,003, plus £28 per room over 5 | £900 mandatory; £1,290 selective (£1,032 + £258) | £395 + £305 = £700, plus £10 per bedroom over 6 |
| Renewal fee | £508 + £254 = £762 | Not shown on the council’s HMO page | £395 + £220 = £615 if made before the old licence runs out |
| Fire paperwork with the application | A current fire alarm test certificate, and an emergency lighting test certificate if the house has emergency lighting | Not listed on the HMO page, which reminds landlords to keep smoke alarms fitted and working | A fire risk assessment, plus a floor plan showing where the alarms and detectors are |
| Fire risk assessment | Required for all HMOs, “not just licensed HMOs” | A legal duty for the shared areas of every HMO, whether licensed or not | A legal duty for the shared areas of every HMO, whether licensed or not |
Sources: Melton Borough Council houses in multiple occupation (2026 to 2027 fees, page updated 12 August 2026); Leicester City Council’s HMO and selective licensing pages; Charnwood Borough Council property licence fees, HMO licensing FAQs and additional licensing notice. Checked October 2026.
What assessors find in Melton Mowbray buildings
Georgian town houses with shops below
The council’s conservation appraisal describes Market Place as mostly three-storey Georgian or early Victorian former town houses in brick, and counts 97 listed buildings inside the town centre conservation area. Some still have first-floor shop display windows. Behind those fronts, the rooms above are reached by a stair that often starts in the shop’s back room or a rear yard. The assessor’s first questions are whether the way out from the flat runs through the shop, and whether decades of new pipes and cables have left holes in the floor that separates them.
Medieval buildings that are hard to alter
Some of Melton’s oldest buildings are still in use. The appraisal dates 7 King Street to 1330, with its timber frame exposed to view. In March 2026 the council said it would not sell or let that building until a full conservation assessment is complete. Anne of Cleves House on Burton Street is listed Grade II*, built of coursed stone rubble with medieval doorways and windows. In buildings like these the usual fixes, such as a new door set or boxing in a stair, can need listed building consent. A good assessment says which actions touch historic fabric and suggests ways to reach the same standard with less change.
Pubs in old inns and coaching houses
Anne of Cleves House is now a pub serving Everards beers. The appraisal also lists the George Hotel, a former coaching inn with a central carriageway, the Harborough Hotel with its old carriageway arch, and the Bell Hotel on Nottingham Street, whose front is listed. A pub with a flat or letting rooms upstairs is a sleeping risk above a commercial kitchen and a bar. Assessors look at how the upstairs is separated from the trade areas, whether the alarm covers both, and whether old carriageways and back passages still give a clear way out.
Food production and its warehouses
Melton is a food town. Mars Petfoods still employs about 1,000 people in the town, and the Melton Mowbray pork pie won protected (PGI) status in April 2008, so every genuine pie is made in a defined area around the town. Stilton was made at the Tuxford & Tebbutt creamery from 1780 until Arla proposed closing it in June 2024. In smaller bakeries and food units the findings tend to be fryers and ovens without a clear shut-off, extraction ducts thick with grease, and fire doors wedged open for trolleys.
Shared houses near the town centre
Because Melton only licenses houses with five or more occupants, most smaller shared houses here are never inspected when they are let. The council’s licence application asks for a current fire alarm test certificate, and that is a useful benchmark even for a house that does not need a licence. If you cannot show when the alarm was last tested, the assessor will put that near the top of the action plan.
Sources: Melton Borough Council, Melton Mowbray conservation area appraisal and conservation area consultation news, March 2026; Historic England, Anne of Cleves House and the Former Corn Exchange; Melton Mowbray CAMRA, Anne of Cleves; Melton Mowbray and Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association; Food Manufacture, July 2024. Checked October 2026.
Questions landlords and owners have asked
“I recently completed a fire door survey which highlighted around 95% of the doors failing due to a mix of original panel doors”A fire door surveyor writing about a Grade II listed building, Safelincs Fire Safety Forum, February 2024
Expect the same in many of Melton’s 97 listed town-centre buildings. Original panelled doors rarely match a modern fire door, but a failed door survey is not the same as an action plan. The fire risk assessment decides which doors actually matter: usually the ones onto the escape stair and around kitchens, stores and plant, not every cupboard. Those doors can often be upgraded in place, with seals, closers and thickened panels, which keeps the historic fabric. Any change will usually need listed building consent from Melton Borough Council, so agree the approach before buying anything.
“Had a Selective Licensing inspection on a flat above a shop recently. They said I had to put in interlinked smoke alarms.”A landlord writing to the OpenRent Community, June 2023
Melton has no selective licensing, so nobody from the council will inspect a single flat above a shop on Sherrard Street or Nottingham Street just because it is let. The question still matters. If the flat and the shop share a stair, hall or exit, the Fire Safety Order covers them, and someone has to have a written assessment of them. Alarms that link the shop to the flat are one of the most common recommendations in these buildings, because a fire that starts in a closed shop at night can block the only way out before anyone upstairs hears it.
Sources: Safelincs Fire Safety Forum, 20 February 2024; OpenRent Community, 17 June 2023.
Two big fires in Melton in one summer
On 30 May 2008 Melton Borough Council’s own offices on Nottingham Road largely burnt down. The council kept services running because staff had contingency plans ready. That summer a second fire destroyed the Asfordby Storage & Haulage warehouse in Melton, which held packaging for Mars’s pet food operations. The B606 Saxby Road was closed for several days while crews damped down.
Neither fire is a story about blame. They show what an assessment is really for: knowing where a fire is likely to start, how people get out, and what the business does the next morning. The council now works from Parkside on Burton Street, opened in 2011.
Sources: Borough of Melton; Geograph, council offices after the fire, 1 June 2008; House of Commons early day motion 1691, 2007 to 2008; Commercial Motor, 1 August 2008. Checked October 2026.
Licensing a five-person Melton house: the assessment
A Victorian terrace let to five tenants, Melton Mowbray
The house: a three-storey Victorian terrace a short walk from the centre, let room by room to five unrelated tenants who share a ground-floor kitchen. Five occupants means a mandatory HMO licence, so the landlord is preparing an application to Melton Borough Council.
Getting a price: the landlord explains that the licence form wants a current fire alarm test certificate, and nobody knows when the system was last serviced. From room sizes and a sketch of each floor, a fixed price of £340 comes back, a figure inside the £250 to £400 range for shared houses of 3 to 5 bedrooms.
The visit: close to two hours, with tenants agreeing access to each bedroom, the second floor and the alarm panel in the hall.
What turned up: no test record for the alarm, and a detector on the top landing painted over. The kitchen has a smoke alarm that tenants keep silencing over toast, and no heat detector. Two bedroom doors have lost their closers. The top-floor tenant’s only way out is a stair passing the kitchen doorway.
What to fix: straight away, book an alarm engineer to service the system, replace the painted detector and issue the certificate the licence needs. High priority: a heat detector in place of the kitchen smoke alarm, and a fire-resisting, self-closing kitchen door to protect the stair. Medium priority: refit the bedroom door closers. Revisit the assessment whenever a tenant or the layout changes.
Outcome: a written report to BS 9792:2025, the housing standard, kept on file beside the alarm certificate that goes in with the licence application.
Areas covered in the Borough of Melton
Outside the borough, there are pages for Leicester and Leicestershire, Loughborough and Hinckley.
Melton Mowbray fire risk assessment questions
Which Melton houses need an HMO licence?
Only if the house has five or more occupants from more than one household. Melton has no additional or selective scheme on top of that. A first licence costs £669 plus £334 in 2026 to 2027, with £28 more for each room over five, and usually lasts five years.
My shared house has three tenants. Does it still need a fire risk assessment?
Yes. Melton Borough Council’s HMO page says all HMOs, not just licensed ones, must have a fire risk assessment. It covers the shared kitchen, hall, stairs and the route out, and it should be written down and kept current.
What fire paperwork does Melton ask for with a licence application?
A current, valid fire alarm test certificate, plus an emergency lighting test certificate if the house has emergency lighting. Gas and electrical safety certificates, an EPC and photo ID are also on the list.
How much does a fire risk assessment cost in Melton Mowbray?
Melton’s town centre is mostly shops with rooms or flats over them, and those fall in the £200 to £350 band. A shared house with 3 to 5 bedrooms is £250 to £400. Bakeries, food units and warehouses get a quote based on size rather than a band. The cost guide shows what moves a price higher or lower.
My building is listed. Will the fire safety work need consent?
Often, yes. Altering a door, its frame or the wall it sits in can need listed building consent from Melton Borough Council. The assessor can flag those items and suggest gentler alternatives, and the conservation officer should see them before any contractor is booked.
Do you cover Asfordby, Bottesford and the other Melton villages?
Yes, across the Borough of Melton, from Asfordby and Old Dalby to Bottesford and Waltham on the Wolds. Your enquiry goes to one qualified local assessor; you get a fixed quote before anything is booked. You can also get in touch first with any questions.
Price up your Melton Mowbray premises
Let us know the postcode and the kind of building: a shop with a flat, a pub, a listed building, a shared house or a food unit. For an HMO licence, mention whether you have a recent alarm test certificate.
You can read the HMO guide and the cost guide first, or phone 0116 497 6683.