Fire Risk Assessment.

Sparkingchip:

For a HMO licence the Council may  say an alarm system to BS5839:Part 6 LD2 Grade D1 is required, they won’t supply a plan and specification, they will just do a visual inspection and ask for the alarm and electrical certificates after it’s installed.


Similarly the fire risk assessor may say an alarm system to BS5839:Part 6 LD2 Grade D1 is required, but generally they are not going to give any further information or come back to check it after it’s installed.


Also bear in mind the fire risk assessment is not a one off, the landlord needs to keep the fire risk assessment updated, particularly if there’s a change of circumstances or in legislation.


During the last year a lot of landlords have reduced the number of bedrooms in HMOs, because Council licensing requires more space in communal areas, so rather than trying to extend kitchens and lounges the landlords have reduced the number of bedrooms and used p the empty bedrooms to create en-suite bathrooms and additional shared bathrooms, in one HMO a bathroom has been moved from being off the kitchen into a former bedroom upstairs, then a laundry utility room room created off the kitchen, then the washing machine and dryer moved out of the kitchen into the new laundry, the purpose of these alterations being that the landlords can increase the rent on the bedrooms they are retaining as there are better facilities, so overall they still get around the same income despite having less tenants. But this means the fire alarm system needs altering and the risk assessment needs formally reviewing. 


There should be a lot of input from the electrical contractor, the problem is though from the contractors point of view is that landlords think it’s just a few smoke alarms and don’t consider it to be a fire alarm system that needs design, installation and certification along with ongoing maintenance and checks. When they eventually get someone to check it because they have to get a certificate to renew the licence it is quite common to find expired alarms and/or batteries with a potential cost of over £600 to upgrade the system with new alarms being installed.

This is the chaos that ensues when the "authorities" delegate life saving methods and systems from professionals to the great unqualified unwashed.


Z.

Sparkingchip:

For a HMO licence the Council may  say an alarm system to BS5839:Part 6 LD2 Grade D1 is required, they won’t supply a plan and specification, they will just do a visual inspection and ask for the alarm and electrical certificates after it’s installed.


Similarly the fire risk assessor may say an alarm system to BS5839:Part 6 LD2 Grade D1 is required, but generally they are not going to give any further information or come back to check it after it’s installed.


Also bear in mind the fire risk assessment is not a one off, the landlord needs to keep the fire risk assessment updated, particularly if there’s a change of circumstances or in legislation.


During the last year a lot of landlords have reduced the number of bedrooms in HMOs, because Council licensing requires more space in communal areas, so rather than trying to extend kitchens and lounges the landlords have reduced the number of bedrooms and used p the empty bedrooms to create en-suite bathrooms and additional shared bathrooms, in one HMO a bathroom has been moved from being off the kitchen into a former bedroom upstairs, then a laundry utility room room created off the kitchen, then the washing machine and dryer moved out of the kitchen into the new laundry, the purpose of these alterations being that the landlords can increase the rent on the bedrooms they are retaining as there are better facilities, so overall they still get around the same income despite having less tenants. But this means the fire alarm system needs altering and the risk assessment needs formally reviewing. 


There should be a lot of input from the electrical contractor, the problem is though from the contractors point of view is that landlords think it’s just a few smoke alarms and don’t consider it to be a fire alarm system that needs design, installation and certification along with ongoing maintenance and checks. When they eventually get someone to check it because they have to get a certificate to renew the licence it is quite common to find expired alarms and/or batteries with a potential cost of over £600 to upgrade the system with new alarms being installed.

This is the chaos that ensues when the "authorities" delegate life saving methods and systems from professionals to the great unqualified unwashed.


Z.