As a landlord, you have a number of responsibilities to your tenants that are enforced by law. Anyone that has lived in rented accommodation will know the merits of having a landlord when the toilet decides it won’t flush anymore or the boiler decides it’s time for a rest, but landlords also have a lot of other responsibilities that are a little more subtle.
Chief among these is their responsibility to ensure adequate fire safety is provided in the accommodation. This month, we’ll be looking at some of the key areas of fire safety landlords need to worry about when renting out a property.
Accessible Escape Routes
One of the main areas of focus you’ll need to concentrate on involves ensuring your tenants always have access to an escape route in the property. In a large building, this may mean ensuring that all occupants have access to a fire escape and the fire doors are never locked. In a house, though, this would pertain to ensuring there is easy access to the front and back doors from all areas of the house.
Fire Alarms / Smoke Detectors
If there were a cornerstone of modern fire safety legislation, it would have to be the fire alarm. No other piece of technology has more use than the fire alarm and smoke detector in the fire safety field. As a landlord, you have a duty to provide adequate smoke detector coverage in your properties and ensure that they are working. We have written in detail about fire alarms in the past, but to ensure your property has fire alarms installed correctly throughout, it’s always worth contacting a professional.
Carbon Monoxide Alarms
Carbon Monoxide (CO) is a lethal yet odourless gas that you need to take precautions against. It usually appears wherever gas isn’t being burned properly, most likely due to a fault with a boiler or gas oven. If CO goes undetected and is inhaled by a human being, they will soon feel sleepy because their brain is deprived of oxygen – prolonged exposure could result in brain damage and even death. CO detectors work to alert tenants to the presence of CO in the room so they can take appropriate action and evacuate.
All Provided Furnishings Must Be Fire Safe
If you are going to provide your tenants with furniture, you must ensure that it meets fire safety standards. For instance, any settees or mattresses you provide must be made of a fire retardant material. This is to protect your tenants in the event of a fire by slowing the progress of the blaze.
Fire Extinguishers
Ideally, a fire will never break out in your property and your tenants will never be in any danger; however, it always pays to be prepared. In large houses with multiple occupation, you must ensure that appropriate fire alarms and extinguishers are provided. The size of the property and how many tenants there are will determine how many and what kind of fire extinguisher you provide. Once provided, you may then need to have it serviced regularly to guarantee full fire safety compliance.
If you’re a landlord looking to make sure your property meets all the highest standards in fire safety, don’t hesitate to contact Protect & Detect today. We offer a range of services to ensure your property meets all fire safety regulations, including a comprehensive installation and safety check on fire extinguishers and fire detection devices in a variety of business fields. For more information on our services throughout Ipswich, Colchester and Norwich.