Are you protected against fire? 🔥

Fire is the most destructive thing which can happen to your property and it’ll often be caused accidentally, often by a tenant. You might...

Fire is the most destructive thing which can happen to your property and it’ll often be caused accidentally, often by a tenant.

You might think this will never happen to me but we deal with a couple of fire-damaged properties a year. It’s incredibly daunting when dealing with fire damage, firstly you have to deal with a tenant who has been made homeless as well as having a fire damaged property that will need refurbishing.

The only way to deal to pay for this, realistically, is via your insurance who will often require you to have met all the legislative requirements.

Do you know what they are?

From 1 October 2015 landlords are required to install alarms in their properties. The regulations stipulate that:

• Smoke alarms are to be installed on every level of the property and
• a carbon monoxide alarm in any room containing a solid fuel-burning appliance.
• Once installed, the landlord (or someone acting on their behalf) must ensure all alarms are in working order at the start of each new tenancy.

After the landlord’s initial test on smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors on the first day of the tenancy, tenants should take responsibility for their safety and test alarms regularly to make sure they are in working order.

Testing monthly is the recommended frequency for smoke alarms. If tenants find that their smoke alarm or carbon monoxide alarm is not working during their tenancy, they are advised to arrange the replacement of the batteries or the alarm itself with the landlord.

The regulations are there to ensure the safety of private sector tenants.

If the local authority has reasonable grounds to believe the landlord has not adhered to the regulations a notice will be issued, detailing the suspected breach and the action needed to resolve the issue.

If the landlord proves compliance to their local authority or demonstrates they have taken all reasonable steps short of legal proceedings, to become compliant within 28 days of the notice being issued then they will be spared the civil penalty – which could be up to £5,000.

So are you compliant?

If you don’t believe fires happen see below a property we recently visited: