Fire safety due diligence to de-risk property transactions

Portfolios often comprise buildings of varying ages, construction types, usage patterns, and regulatory histories, frequently assembled through previous acquisitions. Fire safety data will often mirror this complexity and, as a result, can be fragmented and produced to different standards over time. By consolidating the existing fire strategy, as-built records, product certifications, and operation and maintenance manuals, we can help acquirers better understand how current fire risks present and are distributed across the estate. In doing so, they can not only make more informed decisions about the initial investment but build a clearer post-acquisition strategy too. More importantly, if any documents are missing or incomplete, this can be flagged early enough to allow the seller to address them before exchange – preventing delays, protecting valuation, and reducing the risk of disputes after completion.

Even if it is fully comprehensive, documentation alone cannot confirm what has actually been installed, maintained, or altered on site. As part of every due diligence fire review, we carry out visual inspection and intrusive sampling of fire doors, compartmentation, and key penetrations – including service risers, ceiling voids, and cavity barriers – to assess the integrity of workmanship and materials in situ. Defects in these passive fire protection measures are often hidden from view and therefore undetected for years, until a failure occurs or opening up works take place, meaning liability for failures – and the cost of putting them right – transfers to the buyer the moment ownership changes hands. This emphasises the importance of such an intensive, forensic investigation, also known as a latent fire liability assessment. M&A transactions depend on having absolute clarity on what is being acquired, so risk can be priced, allocated, or remediated before the deal completes.

Findings are categorised into latent defects and maintenance failures, each assigned a clear risk rating, proposed remediation programme, and projected cost. Rather than presenting risk as a single, undifferentiated figure, this structured approach allows fire safety exposure to be fully quantified from the outset, giving both parties a shared, evidence-led basis for negotiation. Furthermore, because multiple sites and conclusions are presented in one clear view, every fire safety due diligence report is inherently easy to understand, whether concerning a single asset or an entire portfolio.

We present key findings directly to boards, translating detailed fire safety evidence into clear, actionable guidance for executive, legal, and financial stakeholders alike. This way, decision makers not only understand the immediate risk and cost implications of purchasing a property, but what they are inheriting – and will be accountable for – throughout ownership, supporting well-governed decisions during the transaction and well beyond.

Where issues are identified, we deliver practical recommendations for remediation aligned to agreed timeframes. Rather than stalling transactions, this allows deals to progress on the basis of shared understanding, minimising disruption while giving both parties confidence that identified risks are being addressed to protect value, timelines, and long-term relationships. We prioritise repairs where possible, drawing on proven remediation techniques to restore fire-resisting performance without the cost, waste, or disruption of unnecessary blanket replacement programmes. Every repair is also delivered with the building occupants in mind – free of noise and dust – and digitally logged, so remediation carried out post-acquisition feeds directly into the same golden thread of information relied upon at the point of sale.

Available upon request, we provide letters of reliance to enable third parties – such as lenders, buyers, or tenants – to rely on our survey findings and cost assessments for their own decision making, without needing to commission a separate report. This turns our findings into a shared reference point across the deal, helping to quantify and price fire safety risk with confidence, rather than being treated as an unresolved unknown by every party involved.