Services / Fire Engineering / 09
Fire Advisory & Specialist Support
A fire engineer on call, without the standing overhead.
What it is
Not every fire question needs a commission; some need an hour of clear thinking and a written answer. We provide advisory support across acquisitions and due diligence, peer reviews of third-party fire reports and designs, options appraisals, expert-witness input to disputes and planning inquiries, and specialist advice to negotiations — scoped tightly and priced to the question. A fire safety peer review does not repeat the original work; it tests it. Where a client holds a fire strategy, FRAEW or fire risk assessment from another consultant and wants an independent view on the conclusions, we read the report against the applicable benchmark, trace the key conclusions back to their evidence, and separate findings that are material from those that are cosmetic. We have no interest in the outcome other than accuracy. The output is a short written position you can act on. We accept expert-witness appointments under Part 35 of the Civil Procedure Rules, where the expert's overriding duty is to the court, not to the instructing party. Typical matters are fire safety disputes, enforcement proceedings and planning appeals. We support the full Part 35 cycle: a compliant written report, answers to written questions, joint statements with the other side's expert, and oral evidence where the matter reaches a hearing. The same discipline applies whichever side instructs us — opinion confined to our expertise, reasoning shown, and the facts that do not help the case included alongside those that do.
When you need it
- An acquisition needs fire due diligence inside a deal timetable
- You hold a report whose conclusions you want independently tested
- A recurring portfolio question needs a standing source of advice
- A negotiation, dispute or planning inquiry needs technical fire input
What you receive
- Written advice notes with a clear position and basis
- Peer review commentary on third-party reports and designs
- Retained advisory arrangements where ongoing support suits better
How we do it
- Scoping the question: what is actually being asked, what a useful answer looks like, and what documents are needed — defined precisely, because advisory work is priced to the question rather than the calendar.
- Critical review: reports, drawings, correspondence and the statutory context are read closely, with key assumptions traced back to their evidence rather than taken on trust.
- Written position: an advice note, peer review commentary or Part 35-compliant expert report, as the instruction requires — with the basis, the reasoning and any limits of the opinion stated plainly.
- Follow-through: responses to questions on the report, joint expert statements, attendance at meetings, mediations or hearings, or a retained arrangement where the questions keep coming.
What drives the cost
The main variables are the volume of documentation to review (a single report reads faster than a decade of correspondence), the complexity of the technical question, whether site attendance is needed to form the opinion, and — for expert witness instructions — the procedural stage: a report for pre-action exchange is a different undertaking from one carried through written questions, joint statements and a hearing. Court timetables can also compress the programme. We scope each commission individually and provide a fixed fee before starting.
Common questions
What does a fire safety peer review involve?
You provide the report under review — a fire strategy, a fire risk appraisal of external walls (FRAEW), a fire risk assessment or a remediation specification — together with the drawings and correspondence behind it. We read it against the applicable benchmark, test whether the key conclusions follow from the evidence presented, and check whether anything material has been missed or overstated. The output is written commentary with a clear position: where we agree, where we differ and why, and where the documents do not support a view either way. A peer review examines reasoning rather than repeating fieldwork; if fresh survey work is genuinely needed, we say so.
Do you act as an expert witness in fire safety matters?
Yes. We accept expert witness appointments under Part 35 of the Civil Procedure Rules. Typical matters include disputes over fire safety defects and remediation, enforcement proceedings under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, and planning appeals where fire safety is contested. Part 35 places the expert's overriding duty to the court above any duty to the instructing party, and reports are written to that standard — opinion confined to our expertise, reasoning set out in full, and the report capable of standing up to questions, joint statements and cross-examination.
How is advisory work priced?
To the question, not the day. At scoping we agree what is being asked, what documents are involved and what the deliverable is — then fix a fee for that defined piece of work. A one-off advice note is priced as a one-off; expert witness support is scoped in stages, because the shape of a dispute changes as it progresses; recurring portfolio questions often suit a retained arrangement better than a string of small commissions. Whatever the format, the fee is agreed before the work starts.
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