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Aipedia: Fire risk assessors
AI can summarise external wall reports for a residential fire risk assessment, but a misread construction detail can put the assessor in fire engineering territory their PI may exclude. Since the Fire Safety Act 2021, external walls sit squarely within the FRA.
Part of: AI in fire risk assessment
In short
The Fire Safety Act 2021 confirmed that, in buildings with two or more sets of domestic premises, the Fire Safety Order covers the structure and external walls, including windows, doors and attachments such as balconies. Assessors may receive external wall reports, cladding surveys and building records, and AI tools can summarise them. The risk is that a summary misstates the wall construction or the conclusions of a specialist report, and that the assessor appears to have given an opinion on the wall itself. Cladding and fire safety exclusions are common in PI, so this is where an AI error can become an uninsured claim.
For a residential block, the responsible person may hand the assessor a large bundle: an external wall assessment, previous surveys, manufacturer data sheets, as-built drawings and correspondence about remediation. Summarising tools can extract the wall types, materials and recommendations in minutes, and some report writers drop that summary straight into the FRA's external wall section. For an assessor juggling many residential jobs, it is a tempting shortcut through hundreds of pages.
The FRA usually needs to record what is known about the external walls and how that affects the fire strategy and the risk to residents. It does not usually require the assessor to assess the wall's fire performance, which is specialist fire engineering work.
Section 1 of the Fire Safety Act 2021 amended the Fire Safety Order so that, for buildings with two or more sets of domestic premises, it applies to "the building's structure and external walls and any common parts", and extends external walls to "doors or windows in those walls" and "anything attached to the exterior of those walls (including balconies)". The assessment of those risks must be suitable and sufficient under Article 9. The MHCLG 2026 consultation proposes restricting higher-risk residential buildings of at least 18 metres or 7 storeys to certified assessors. Our Fire Safety Act 2021 guide and higher-risk building regime page give background.
Summarising specialist reports carries specific risks:
Illustrative scenario: an assessor uses AI to summarise a long external wall report for a residential block. The summary says the balconies are non-combustible; the report said the balcony decking had not been inspected. The FRA repeats the summary and supports the existing evacuation strategy. When a balcony fire spreads, the responsible person and leaseholders point to the FRA. The assessor's insurer then looks closely at the cladding and fire safety terms of the policy.
This is the area where fire risk assessors are most likely to meet exclusions. Many PI wordings contain cladding or fire safety exclusions or restrictions, some broad and some limited to specific materials or building heights. Whether an AI-summarised misstatement about the wall falls within an exclusion depends on the wording and how the claim is framed. Market availability for this work has also been tight. Read fire safety and cladding exclusions in PI and PI availability for fire safety, EWS1 and cladding.
Keep a clear line between reporting information and giving an opinion on it. Controls that help:
See also AI evacuation strategies, complex premises and competence and the fire risk assessment Aipedia hub.
Apex arranges PI for fire risk assessors working on residential buildings. A broker can explain your cladding and fire safety terms and help present your scope controls to insurers.
For buildings with two or more sets of domestic premises, the Fire Safety Order now covers external walls, so the FRA should consider them. That usually means recording known information and its effect on risk, not carrying out a specialist assessment of the wall's fire performance.
Only with careful checking. Summaries can drop caveats, merge elevations or misstate materials. Quoting the specialist's conclusions and attaching the report is safer than relying on an AI paraphrase in the FRA.
Yes, potentially. MHCLG proposes restricting higher-risk residential buildings, at minimum those of at least 18 metres or 7 storeys with two or more units, to certified assessors. No date for legislation has been set.
Many policies exclude or restrict cladding and fire safety claims, and the terms vary widely. Whether a particular claim is covered depends on the wording, so check before taking residential work involving external walls.
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Start a PI quote Request a callbackApex Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered in England and Wales, company number 07014570. This page is general information about how AI is used in the profession and how insurance may respond. It is not legal, regulatory or insurance advice on your circumstances, and it does not guarantee that cover will be available or on what terms.
