What does your building actually owe?
Four intervals, three standards, and one person legally responsible for all of it. This page sets out what is due and when, so you can check your records against it before somebody else does.
The compliance calendar
Miss one and the gap is in the record permanently. This is the cycle a commercial building with sprinklers and risers runs on.
| Interval | What is due | What it involves | Standard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly | Sprinkler system checks | Water and air pressure gauges, alarm motor test, pump start test where fitted. | BS EN 12845 |
| Quarterly | Flow switch and alarm testing | Proving that water movement actually raises an alarm, not just that the valve opens. | BS EN 12845 |
| Six-monthly | Dry and wet riser inspection | Visual check of inlets, landing valves, cabinets, caps, signage and access. | BS 9990 |
| Annually | Riser pressure test and full service | Risers charged to 12 bar and held for 15 minutes. Full sprinkler service and pump performance test. | BS 9990 · BS EN 12845 |
Weekly checks can be done by a competent person on site and written into the logbook. Everything from quarterly upward needs test equipment and produces a certificate, which is the part an insurer or a fire risk assessor asks to see.
The standards, in plain English
Fixed firefighting systems, automatic sprinkler systems
The standard your commercial or industrial sprinkler system is designed, installed and maintained to. It sets the weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual routines.
Fire sprinkler systems for domestic and residential occupancies
The residential equivalent: blocks of flats, care homes, student accommodation and houses.
Non-automatic fire-fighting systems in buildings
Dry and wet risers. Six-monthly visual inspection, annual pressure test at 12 bar for 15 minutes.
Loss Prevention Council Rules for Automatic Sprinkler Installations
The insurer-facing ruleset that sits alongside BS EN 12845 for risk-rated premises.
FM Global approved equipment
Where an insurer specifies FM Global, the sprinkler heads, valves and pipework used have to carry FM Approval. We work to that requirement and specify approved equipment for it.
National Fire Protection Association standards
The American standards, chiefly NFPA 13, that US-owned occupiers and their insurers often ask for alongside the British ones. We design and test to them where a client requires it.
Who carries the duty
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 names a responsible person for every non-domestic premises in England and Wales. In most commercial buildings that is the employer, the owner, or whoever has control of the premises. In a block of flats it is usually the managing agent or the freeholder for the common parts.
That person has to make sure the fire safety measures are maintained in efficient working order and in good repair, and has to be able to evidence it. Hiring a contractor moves the work. It does not move the duty, which is why the certificate matters as much as the visit.
Since 2023 the Order also requires that fire safety information is recorded and handed on, which in practice means the logbook and the certificates have to exist and be findable, not sit in somebody's van.
The law itself
All of it is published free. If any of this looks like it applies to your building and you are not sure, that is a phone call, not a reading exercise.
- Fire Safety Order 2005The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
The duty itself. Article 17 is the one that matters here: the responsible person must keep firefighting equipment and facilities in efficient working order and in good repair, and must have them subject to a suitable system of maintenance.
legislation.gov.uk
- Fire Safety Act 2021Fire Safety Act 2021
Clarified that the Fire Safety Order covers a building’s structure, external walls and flat entrance doors in multi-occupied residential buildings.
legislation.gov.uk
- Building Safety Act 2022Building Safety Act 2022
The higher-risk regime and the golden thread of information. If a building is in scope, the record of what was installed and when it was last tested is part of the duty, not paperwork about it.
legislation.gov.uk
- Fire safety law and guidanceFire safety law and guidance documents for business
The government’s own plain-English collection, including the guide for the premises type you are responsible for.
UK Government
Questions we get asked
Which system in my building has the shortest interval?
The sprinkler weekly check, which is why it is the one most often missed. After that it goes quarterly for flow switches, six-monthly for riser inspections, and annually for the riser pressure test, the full sprinkler service and the pump performance test. A building with sprinklers, a riser and a pump owes something in every one of those columns.
How often should a sprinkler system be serviced?
BS EN 12845 sets a cycle rather than a single date: weekly checks, quarterly flow switch and alarm testing, six-monthly work on the valve sets, and a full annual service with a pump performance test. The weekly checks can be done by a trained person on site; the quarterly and annual work is what a contractor is for.
What is the difference between a dry riser and a wet riser?
A dry riser is an empty pipe. The fire service pumps water into it from the inlet at ground level when they need it, and it is used in buildings up to 50 metres. A wet riser is permanently charged with water and has its own pump and tank, which is what buildings over 50 metres need. Both are tested to BS 9990, but a wet riser also brings the pump, the break tank and the alarms into scope.
Who is legally responsible for this?
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 puts the duty on the "responsible person", which in most commercial buildings is the employer, the building owner or whoever controls the premises. It is not transferable to a contractor. You can delegate the work; you cannot delegate the duty.
What happens if we miss an interval?
The immediate problem is the record: a fire risk assessment or an insurer sees a gap and the system is no longer evidenced as maintained. The larger problem is that untested systems are where failures are found. Enforcement under the Fire Safety Order ranges from an alterations notice to prosecution, and after a fire where a riser did not work the route to corporate manslaughter is a short one.
Do we need sprinklers in our building at all?
In England, new residential buildings over 11 metres require them, a threshold that came down from 30 metres in 2020. Wales requires them in almost all new housing. Existing buildings are not automatically required to retrofit, but your fire risk assessment has to consider whether the measures in place are still adequate, and that is where the question usually arrives.
The detail behind each interval
Written against the standard each one is judged by, with the figures stated rather than hinted at.
All the guides Types of sprinkler system What a system costs
What we test, and to what
Tell us the building. We will tell you what it is due.
No survey fee to find out where you stand. Describe the site and we will tell you which intervals apply and what the visit involves.