Fire Safety Guidance for Landlords

The horrific images of the Grenfell Tower fire in Kensington will remain with many of us for a long time and our thoughts are with those who have lost their lives, lost friends and loved ones or who are displaced. As a response, we thought it would be good to highlight some fire safety guidance for landlords.

Fire Safety Guidance for Landlords: Legislation

Firstly, there are several pieces of legislation that cover fire safety within rented houses:

• Housing Act 2004: Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) – this is not a standard, instead it sets out how to assess the risk of hazards, including fire hazards. It is mostly concerned with the health and safety of the building as a whole and is less concerned about comfort and convenience.
• Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 – again this has moved away from being a prescriptive list of dos and don’ts and places responsibility on the building owner to carry out a comprehensive fire risk assessment in order to identify and address risks.
• The Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (England) Regulations 2015 – Private rented sector landlords in England with single tenanted properties (e.g. NOT Houses in Multiple Occupation) are required, from October 2015, to have at least one smoke alarm installed on every storey of their rental property which is used as living accommodation, and to have a carbon monoxide alarm in any room used as living accommodation where solid fuel appliances are contained (e.g. a coal fire, wood burning stove).
• Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 – these regulations place a responsibility on landlords to ensure that gas appliances, fittings and flues are installed, serviced and maintained correctly and that checks are carried out at least every 12 months.
• Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 1994 – these regulations place an obligation on landlords to ensure that electrical systems and electrical appliances supplied are safe. All electrical equipment supplied after 9 January 1995 must be marked with an appropriate CE symbol.
• The Furniture and Furnishings Act 1988 – furniture and furnishings provided by a landlord must meet levels of fire resistance set out within this Act.

Risk Assessment

Landlords have a duty to take general fire precautions to ensure, as is reasonably practicable, the safety of the people in your property and in the immediate vicinity. For this reason, landlords must carry out a fire risk assessment for the purpose of identifying the general fire precautions and other measures needed to comply with the current legislation.

The aims of the risk assessment are to:

• identify the fire hazards
• reduce the risk of those hazards causing harm to as low as reasonably practicable, and to
• decide what physical fire precautions and management arrangements are necessary to ensure the safety of people inside the premises if a fire does start.

It sounds quite daunting but the process can be broken down into five straightforward steps:

1. Identify the fire hazards
2. Identify those people that are at risk
3. Evaluate the severity of any risks and then remove or reduce those risks
4. Make a record of your findings, actions, plans, instructions and training
5. Review

In addition, here are some questions that can be used as a checklist.

• Have you completed and discussed a risk assessment with your tenant(s)?
• Are smoke/heat detectors fitted on each floor and in working order?
• Have all gas appliances and flues been checked by a Gas Safe Engineer and a copy of the report given to the tenants?
• Are all electrical sockets/appliances supplied in good order?
• Are instruction manuals available for the operation of unfamiliar appliances?
• Does the furniture have a label attached stating it complies with fire resistance standards?
• Are the chimneys & flues cleaned regularly (if applicable)?
• Have you placed fire safety information into start-up packs?

Finally, your local Fire and Rescue Service will be able to provide further advice