Fire doors and escape routes in rented homes

Why it matters

Fire is the hazard with the least tolerance for compromise, and it is the area where local authority enforcement is quickest and least negotiable.

Legal requirements

• Smoke alarms are required on every storey used as living accommodation.
• Carbon monoxide alarms are required in rooms with a fixed combustion appliance other than a gas cooker.
• HMOs require a fire risk assessment and typically fire doors on the escape route.
• Alarms must be tested and confirmed working at the start of each new tenancy.

Common mistakes

• Fitting a fire door but leaving the frame, intumescent strips or self closer wrong.
• Storing bikes, bins or furniture in a shared hallway that forms the escape route.
• Battery alarms with no testing record in a multi occupied property.
• Treating a fire risk assessment as a one off document rather than a living record.

Practical guidance

• Get a written fire risk assessment for any shared or multi occupied property and review it annually.
• Check doors as a set: leaf, frame, hinges, strips, seals and closer.
• Keep escape routes clear and say so plainly in the tenancy agreement.
• Record alarm testing at the start of each tenancy and at every inspection.

What a fire risk assessment covers

It identifies the ignition sources, the people at risk, the escape route and its protection, the detection and alarm arrangements, emergency lighting where needed, signage, and the management arrangements including testing and record keeping. It then lists actions with priorities and dates. Councils ask for it during licensing and after any incident, and a generic template with no property specific findings is treated as no assessment at all.

Doors and detection in practice

On a protected route, doors are usually thirty minute fire resisting with intumescent strips and cold smoke seals, correctly hung with the right hinges and a self closing device that actually closes the door onto the latch. Detection specification depends on the building type and occupancy, and in larger HMOs a mains linked system with heat detection in kitchens is normal. Get the specification from the assessment rather than from a general internet answer.