Compliance guide
How often must a fire alarm be serviced?
Two service visits a year, plus a test you do yourself every week. Here is where those numbers come from, what each visit covers, and what an inspector will ask to see.
In short
A fire alarm system in a commercial building in England and Wales should be inspected and serviced by a competent person at intervals not exceeding six months, following BS 5839-1. That is normally two visits a year. Separately, the person responsible for the building should test the system weekly using a different manual call point each time, and record it. The legal duty comes from the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which requires fire safety equipment to be kept in efficient working order. BS 5839-1 is the recognised way of showing you have met it.
How often must a fire alarm be serviced?
At least every six months, by a competent person. BS 5839-1 sets the interval at no more than six months between service visits, which in practice means two visits a year. Across those visits, every device on the system should be tested at least once a year. On top of that, you carry out a weekly test yourself.
Most building owners hear "six-monthly" and picture one engineer doing the same thing twice. It is not quite that. The servicing regime is designed so that over a twelve-month cycle every detector, every call point, every sounder and the panel itself has been proven to work. A larger building might see the engineer more often, with the work split across four quarterly visits instead of two, because there is simply more to get through.
Your fire risk assessment can also push the interval down. A building with a history of false alarms, heavy dust, or a system serving sleeping occupants may justify more frequent attention. Six months is the ceiling, not the target.
What the law actually says
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 does not name a six-month interval. Article 17 requires that fire safety equipment is maintained in efficient working order and in good repair. BS 5839-1 is the British Standard that translates that duty into a specific, defensible schedule, which is why enforcement officers use it as the benchmark.
This distinction matters more than it sounds. Because the law asks for an outcome rather than a frequency, "we service it sometimes" is not a defence, and neither is a stack of invoices with no engineer reports attached. What you are being asked to demonstrate is that the system works and that you can prove it.
The standard to know: BS 5839-1 covers fire detection and alarm systems in non-domestic premises. BS 5839-6 covers dwellings. Older guidance, and a surprising number of live websites, cite the wrong one. If a document about your office quotes BS 5839-6, treat everything else in it with suspicion.
The weekly test is your job, not the engineer's
Someone at the building should operate one manual call point each week, using a different call point in rotation, and confirm the sounders operate and the panel registers the alarm. Record the date, the call point tested and the result in the fire log book. This is a duty holder task, not something your maintenance contract covers.
The rotation is the part people miss. Testing the same call point by the front door every Monday for three years proves that one call point works. Working through them in sequence proves the whole system does, and it surfaces a dead zone before an inspector or a fire does.
How long should it sound? Long enough that everyone in the building hears it and recognises it, then stop. In most premises that is well under a minute. Let people know the test time in advance and keep it consistent, so an unexpected alarm is always treated as real.
- Weekly: test one manual call point, rotating through them. Log it.
- Monthly: where fitted, check emergency lighting and any standby power arrangements.
- Six-monthly: inspection and service by a competent person.
- Annually: across the year's visits, every device tested at least once.
Not sure when your system was last serviced?
We will inspect your existing fire alarm, report on its condition in writing, and quote to take over the servicing. The audit is free and there is no obligation to switch.
What happens during a six-monthly service
The engineer checks the panel and its log, tests a proportion of the detectors and call points so that all are covered across the year, confirms the sounders reach the required level throughout the building, inspects the standby batteries, verifies any links to other systems, and records every defect found. You should receive a written report and a signed record.
A service visit that produces no paperwork has not really happened, as far as an enforcement officer is concerned. The report is the evidence. It should name the engineer, list what was tested, state what failed, and say what needs doing next. If your current provider leaves nothing behind but a sticker on the panel, that is a gap in your compliance file.
Batteries deserve a mention of their own. Standby batteries are the single most common reason a system fails when the mains drops, and they are consumable. Expect them to be flagged for replacement on a predictable cycle rather than treated as a surprise.
What happens if you miss a service
The system does not stop working the day you go past six months, but your evidence trail breaks. If a fire occurs, or an inspection happens, you are the one who has to explain the gap. Insurers may also ask for maintenance records when assessing a claim, and a lapse can complicate that conversation.
Enforcement under the Fire Safety Order sits with the local fire and rescue authority. In practice, most cases start with an audit rather than a fire: an officer visits, asks for the fire risk assessment and the maintenance records, and works outwards from what is missing. A tidy log book answers half the questions before they are asked.
If you have already drifted past the interval, the fix is straightforward. Get the system inspected, deal with whatever the report finds, and restart the cycle from that date. Nobody is helped by waiting until the anniversary comes round again.
Who is allowed to service a fire alarm?
A competent person, meaning someone with the training, experience and equipment to work on your specific system. There is no licence, which is why third-party certification exists: BAFE registration is independent evidence that a company has been assessed against the standard rather than simply claiming to meet it.
The word "competent" carries real weight here, because the duty to choose a competent person sits with you. If the company you appoint turns out not to be, that is your problem to explain, not theirs. Third-party certification and manufacturer registration are the two practical ways to check before you appoint rather than after.
We are BAFE approved, Fike registered and C-TEC certified. If your panel is a Fike or C-TEC unit, that registration is the difference between an engineer who knows the platform and one who is reading the manual on your time.
Read next
Who is the Responsible Person?
The Fire Safety Order puts the legal duty on a specific person. Find out whether that is you, and what it obliges you to do.
Read the guide Practical guideHow to switch fire alarm provider
You are not tied to whoever installed the system. What a takeover involves and how to move without a gap in cover.
Read the guide Systems guideAddressable or conventional?
What actually separates the two, and which suits your building. Written for owners, not engineers.
Read the guideFire alarm servicing, your questions answered
How often should a fire alarm be serviced in a commercial building?
BS 5839-1 recommends inspection and servicing by a competent person at intervals not exceeding six months, which in practice means two visits a year spaced roughly six months apart. Over the course of a year, every device on the system should be tested.
How long should a weekly fire alarm test last?
Long enough for everyone in the building to hear it and recognise the sound, then stop. In most buildings that is under a minute. The point is to prove the sounders work and to keep staff familiar with the alarm, not to run a full evacuation every week.
Do I need a fire alarm certificate every year?
There is no single annual certificate in law. What you need is evidence that the system is maintained in efficient working order: servicing records, the weekly test log, and the engineer's reports. We issue documentation after every visit so the evidence trail is complete.
Can I service my own fire alarm?
You carry out the weekly test yourself. The six-monthly service must be done by a competent person, which means someone with the training, equipment and knowledge of the specific system. Servicing your own panel does not meet that bar.
What if my building is empty or only used occasionally?
The servicing interval does not change because a building is quiet. The system still has to work on the day it is needed. If occupancy has genuinely changed, that is a reason to review your fire risk assessment, not to skip maintenance.
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