What do legionella consultants charge per day?
On this page
Key points
- Think in jobs, not day rates. Most assessments are quoted fixed-price: £150 to £450 for small commercial, £400 to £900 for a care home, £800 to £3,000 for a hospital.
- Where day rates apply, they work out at a few hundred pounds a day for routine work, more for healthcare and industrial specialisms. Indicative only: compare written quotes.
- You are buying competence plus a paper trail: survey, schematic, written assessment to ACOP L8, and a written scheme of control.
- Check Legionella Control Association registration and BS 8580-1 methodology before price.
- A quote far below the market usually means missing scope, not a bargain.
Legionella consultants and risk assessors rarely advertise day rates, because most of their work is quoted as a fixed price per job. When you translate the fixed prices into time, competent assessors work out at a few hundred pounds per day for routine commercial assessments, with healthcare and industrial specialists charging more. Everything on this page is general market guidance, not verified pricing data: the reliable move is always to compare two or three written quotes on identical scope.
Translating day rates into job prices
The most useful way to read a rate is backwards from the deliverable. A small commercial assessment is typically half a day to a day on site, walking every outlet and taking temperatures, plus a similar block of time writing the report and the written scheme of control. Such jobs typically price at £150 to £450 all-in, which tells you the implied day rate without anyone quoting one. The table below does the same arithmetic across the building types our cost data covers.
| Job | Typical all-in price | Typical time basis |
|---|---|---|
| Single let or small office | £150 – £450 | Half to one day on site plus report |
| School, hotel or dental practice | £250 – £800 | One day on site plus report |
| Care home | £400 – £900 | One day plus; TMV and vulnerability checks add time |
| Leisure centre or factory | £400 – £2,500 | Multiple days; plant rooms, towers and process water |
| Hospital or large multi-building site | £800 – £3,000+ | Several days, often a rolling programme |
Three forces push a consultant above the routine rate: specialism (working to HTM 04-01 in healthcare, or surveying cooling towers under HSG274 Part 1), scope (schematic drawings, a full written scheme of control, training your staff), and geography, with London and the South East typically pricing above the rest of the UK. None of these is padding; each is a real difference in what you receive.
What the day actually consists of
Knowing what a competent assessor does with the hours is the best defence against paying for the wrong thing. A proper survey day covers: tracing the water system from the incoming main to every outlet; identifying storage, dead legs and little-used outlets; taking temperature readings at outlets and checking hot water reaches 50°C within a minute and cold stays below 20°C; inspecting calorifiers, tanks and any TMVs; and noting the people at risk. The desk time afterwards turns that into the written assessment to the ACOP L8 structure, following the methodology in BS 8580-1, plus the written scheme of control. A consultant who quotes a day but delivers only a walk-round and a two-page letter has sold you half a product.
Free legionella risk assessment template
A structured Word document following the five-step approach in ACOP L8. Covers risk identification, written scheme, monitoring, and records. If it isn't written down, you can't evidence it.
Follows ACoP L8 and HSG274 Part 2. Free. No spam.
Day rate or fixed price?
For a defined assessment, fixed price wins almost every time: it caps your exposure and forces the scope into writing before work starts. Day rates have their place, but it is the open-ended work, not the routine survey: helping a large site build a water safety plan, auditing a regime that has drifted, supporting the response after a positive sample, or acting as an expert in a dispute. In those cases agree the day rate, the expected number of days, and the deliverable per day in writing, the same discipline as any consultancy.
Checking competence before comparing prices
Price comparisons are only meaningful between genuinely competent assessors, so screen first. Ask whether the consultant is registered with the Legionella Control Association, whether their assessments follow BS 8580-1 and the ACOP L8 structure, and for a sample report or a reference from a building like yours. Competence under ACOP L8 is defined as sufficient training, experience and knowledge, and a real assessor evidences all three without hesitation. The responsible person guide explains how competence works where you keep the role in-house, and remember the duty itself cannot be contracted out: appointing a consultant does not transfer it.
Do not ask what a consultant charges per day. Ask what the job costs, what the report contains, and how they evidence competence. The day rate is just the job price wearing a different outfit.
Before you brief anyone, run the cost calculator for an indicative range for your building type, and read what an assessment costs for the price bands by sector. If your system is simple, the alternative to hiring anyone is a structured self-assessment through the free assessment builder: it records, it never certifies.
Free legionella risk assessment template
A structured Word document following the five-step approach in ACOP L8. Covers risk identification, written scheme, monitoring, and records. If it isn't written down, you can't evidence it.
Follows ACoP L8 and HSG274 Part 2. Free. No spam.
Frequently asked questions
What do legionella consultants charge per day?
As general market guidance, competent legionella risk assessors typically work out at a few hundred pounds per day for routine commercial work, with specialist healthcare and industrial work commanding more. You can sanity-check any day rate against the job: a small commercial assessment is usually half a day to a day on site plus report writing, and such assessments typically cost £150 to £450 all-in. Rates vary by region and scope, so treat any figure as indicative and compare written quotes.
Why do legionella consultant rates vary so much?
Because competence and scope vary. A generalist assessing a small office is a different product from an assessor who works to HTM 04-01 in a hospital or surveys cooling towers under HSG274 Part 1. Travel, the written scheme of control, schematic drawings and report turnaround all move the price, and London and the South East typically price above the rest of the UK.
Should I pay a day rate or a fixed price for a legionella risk assessment?
For a defined assessment, a fixed price is usually better: it caps your exposure and forces the scope to be written down. Day rates suit open-ended work such as helping a large site build its water safety plan, auditing an existing regime, or expert support after a positive sample. Whatever the basis, agree in writing what the deliverable is: the assessment report, the schematic, and the written scheme of control.
How do I check a legionella consultant is competent?
Ask three things: whether they are registered with the Legionella Control Association, whether their assessments follow BS 8580-1 and the ACOP L8 structure, and for a sample report or reference from a similar building. Competence under ACOP L8 means sufficient training, experience and knowledge, and a genuine assessor will have no trouble evidencing all three. Be wary of anyone who leads with a certificate rather than a methodology.
Is the cheapest legionella quote ever the right one?
Sometimes, for the simplest systems where the work is genuinely light. But a quote far below the market usually means something is missing: no site visit, a template report with your address merged in, no written scheme of control, or an assessor whose real product is the monitoring contract that follows. Compare quotes on scope and deliverables, not headline price.
Related water hygiene products and services from trusted UK providers will appear here.