Fire Alarm Servicing and the Responsible Person

Once a system is commissioned and handed over, the obligation transfers. The installer’s job is finished; somebody in the building now owns a life safety system and the duty to keep it working.

Who the Responsible Person is

In England and Wales the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 creates the Responsible Person - in a workplace, the employer, and otherwise the person with control of the premises. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own equivalent legislation using different terminology for the same idea.

The duty includes keeping fire safety equipment in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair. The legislation does not specify intervals or methods; it sets the outcome and leaves the how to the standard.

Identify the Responsible Person by name for any building you are involved with. In multi-occupied or managed buildings, the answer is frequently unclear and the resulting gaps are exactly where maintenance lapses.

Weekly testing

A manual call point is tested each week, rotating through the call points so that all are covered in turn over time. It is done by the Responsible Person or trained staff, takes minutes, and confirms the system responds and that occupants recognise the sound.

Every test goes in the logbook. This is the part that is skipped most often and asked about first.

Professional servicing

BS 5839-1 recommends inspection and servicing by a competent person at intervals not exceeding six months - two visits a year, spaced apart rather than bunched. The 2025 edition of the standard allows a five to seven month window between visits, which gives useful scheduling latitude without weakening the intent.

If that recommendation is not followed, the system should be considered no longer compliant with the standard. An annual gap is not compliant even where two visits technically fall inside a twelve-month period.

Across a twelve-month period the maintenance regime should achieve full functional coverage of relevant devices and functions, normally by splitting the work across the two visits. Service reports should show which devices and areas were tested on each visit, so annual coverage can be reconciled against the asset list and proved rather than assumed.

Six months is the minimum, not the target. Higher-risk premises - care homes, hotels, large or complex addressable systems - often warrant quarterly attention, and the trigger for increasing frequency is the fire risk assessment rather than a guess. A maintenance contract that disagrees with the fire risk assessment means one of the two is wrong.

A new system is not exempt in its first year. The first periodic service visit should fall within the first year of operation, ideally at the six-month point.

The logbook

The logbook records weekly tests, service visits, faults, false alarms and modifications. It is the evidence that the duty has been discharged, and it is what an enforcing authority or insurer will ask to see.

Keep it on site and current. A system that has been perfectly maintained by a contractor with no corresponding logbook entries is, evidentially, a system that has not been maintained.

Choosing a maintainer

The standard asks for a competent person and does not define competence by naming a scheme. Third-party certification under BAFE SP203-1 for the maintenance module is the most straightforward evidence available - see what BAFE SP203-1 covers, and check the module rather than the registration.

Training

Level 3 BS 5839-1 covers the maintenance requirements alongside design and commissioning. For companies working toward third-party certification, there is the Level 3 BAFE SP203-1 competency training pathway.