Landlords

Hi , i am employed by an RSL and looking for any advice / resources to understand how the key changes in standards will impact Landlords . What should we be doing now ?

As freeholder of a Victorian converted house divided in 1947 into 6 flats with communal electricity entering through and rising up from the garden flat to the main entrance hall raised ground floor cupboard containing 6 flat isolators and a recently installed fire alarm system for the building, my question relates to who should sign-off the installation of fire retardant cupboards and insulation between floors knowing that the garden flat is undergoing a full refurb with building control involved under the leaseholder’s instruction and in parallel the freeholder is having the raised ground floor main entrance hall cupboard brought up to regulatory fire safety standards an…

Good Afternoon Please can anybody assist me. I have just moved into a office that i have a 10 year lease on. Above me is a 1 or 2 bedroomed flat that is rented out through the landlord separately and has nothing to do with my office. I have just had my fire risk assessment completed and it states that i require a suitable interlinked smoke alarm system to provide early warning , of fire in the building including sleeping accommodation. Who is responsible for installing the interlinked system ?? is it the landlord as he owns the building??

As a fairly newly qualified fire door inspector, this past year has seen me return to inspected premises (quarterly/annually) to come to the same conclusion results as previously reported. Many of the inspection findings highlighted excessive threshold gaps, non-compliant hinges, missing combined seals, faulty closing devices among other significant fails. Despite anecdotal reporting of such and recommending remedial options, it appears that some landlords are refraining from their obligations with regard to fire safety. Each of the fire door fails, in one way or another, already compromise the safety of the residents. If these fails are not immediately rectified the…

I live in a First Floor Flat of a Two-Storey residential property which I access via a ground floor shared entrance hall. In the shared ground floor entrance hall there is a high level cupboard built out of 18mm MDF surround and 18mm MDF Doors which houses the electrical distribution boards for the ground floor and first floor flats. I understand that this 18mm MDF cupboard is not compliant - as it does not provide fire protection around the electrical distribution boards. I wanted to open this topic for discussion to find out if I did the following would this make the cupboard fire compliant? Lined the internal MDF cupboard with Gyproc Fireline 12…

Hi my name is martin I own a flat i a block of 12 i live on the second floor as there are.only 2 floors in the whole building I live on the 2nd floor as.therw is 2 flats on that floor there are.no escape roots to the the top.of the building is a small door mate a triple hazard as there only 2 flat's on that floor

Hey, My flat entrance fire door and frame were damaged when the police forced entry to the property (previous tenant). The door no longer closes or locks properly and has been assessed as failing on all key fire-safety criteria, including integrity, smoke seals, and self-closing function. Building is a higher-risk residential building (over 18 m in height and 8 storeys) so i guess i need permission from Building Safety Regulator. But the process is asking for various documents i have no idea about. I'm using Chat GPT to create these but have no idea if this is even legal? Can the contractor provide me with these? It's just replacing the door FD60 but now loo…

Hi, I have recently purchased a mattress (September 2025) and i can't see a fire safety label on it. I have contacted the manufacturer who have said they will email me a certificate. I might be renting my house out in the future so I just wanted to check if an email certificate will cover fire safety regs or if it should be actually attached to the mattress? Many thanks. :)

Just bought a property that has a dog grooming parlour on the ground floor and I want to convert the 1st floor to a flat. Without disturbing the business down stairs or ripping up the floor boards on the 1st floor, how do I provide 60mins fire protection between the 2? Thanks in advance.

Hi a number of leaseholders are receiving letters from the management company informing their front doors (10yrs old) are no longer compliant with recent building regulations for flats and it is the leaseholders responsibility to urgently replace. Apparently a gap of 3mm is the limit and most are 1mm over. My query is not about who is responsible but what are the options? It just seems so wasteful 100s of perfectly newish doors will go to waste and admit not quite understanding the regs is there a retro option to meet the alleged regs?

Hello I share the freehold in a property converted into 3 flats. We want to upgrade our electricity cupboard which houses the units and meters for each flat. Is it sufficient that the cupboard be constructed to 30 min fire resistance or does it have to be metal? I ask because someone mentioned new Wiring Regs. Thank you

I have recently purchased a three story terraced building with a ground floor commercial tenant (betting shop) and a 1st and 2nd floor commercial space, now being turned into flats. The Fire Officer and Building Control have said the existing ceiling in the betting shop offers no fire resistance. They said it should have, for a long time, had a 30min rating and now needs a 60min given it will be residential above. The ceiling will need to be upgraded by sliding sections of fire rated plasterboard through the existing suspended ceiling framework and applying it to the ceiling. The lease states the tenant must keep his space up to date with all fire regulations. Howev…

I've researched it online and people are giving me different results. Could someone give me one answer for it please?

are external door mats a fire risk within a block of 4 flats a fire risk? They are in the corridor. It's a local housing association. Best regards John

I am an upholsterer and have been asked to make a loose cover for a sofa for a guest house. could you advise me on the regulations on furniture restoration. I e. As I am not touching the upholstery and only making a loose cover, is it still my responsibility to make sure the piece meets regulations. Is there a cut off age of a piece where it doesn’t need a barrier; I have been lead to believe that anything pre 1960 doesn’t as wool, hair, down etc is naturally extinguishing and none toxic if in a blaze. Thank you very much. Tara

I live in a small block of flats owned by a housing association. The block comprises of four flats, two flats upstairs and two flats on the ground level, there is also a communal stairs and passageway. My question is that it appears that there is no fire insulation between the ground floor flats and the upstairs flats, just wooden floorboards with a small cavity between for pipes etc. Is there a legal requirement to have some form of fire insulation between different levels?

Hi I wonder if you can help in regard to legislation regarding fire doors in residential flats? I live in a block of flats, on the 5th floor. The fire door on our landing (which leads to the stairs down and out) keeps being propped open with wedges of cardboard and newspaper. Is this illegal? What about insurance? Fire brigade? Would it incur a fine were it to be found? Many thanks - I am concerned about our safety.

We live above a 3 bed flat that currently has students living in. Since they moved in we have had issues with hearing each of their firedoors shutting. I contacted their letting agents who came out and adjusted the fire doors to make them close softer. However, this has not helped and the noise is still persistent. I have fed this back to the letting agents however they have stated there's nothing else they can do, the doors need to shut to meet regulations. Is there anything else I can suggest to the letting agents to prevent or decrease this noise? I've looked at hush pads on Amazon but fear that they would say this would not meet fire regs? Any help would …

Hi all, Though I have consulted this site many times to clarify various elements of fire safety, this is my first time posting as I haven't found a similar query... We own/ manage an office block comprising of 4 floors + basement car park. On each floor there are two office suites. Each office suite has an independent business occupant. There is a full building fire alarm system installed & maintained (conventional, not addressable). One of the businesses have forwarded their recent FRA that has highlighted the below; It was not ascertained due to no access if there was any fixed automatic detection located in the ventilation/extraction shaft, inst…

Hi. I'm hoping someone can provide some advice on alarms in a rented property. I've looked at past threads but can't seem to find anything that is the same issues. I've recently bought a ground floor flat in a converted 2-storey property (I assume conversion is pre-1991). There is a small shared lobby providing access to (i) the ground floor flat front door and (ii) a door leading to the staircase for the upstairs flat (owner occupied). The ground floor flat was let as a single occupancy. I plan to let it again on an AST but there are a number of things that need addressing to bring the property up to requirements. I'm struggling with some aspects of putting in …

DO CUPBOARDS IN THE COMMUNAL AREA OF A BUILDING WITH 3 RENTED FLATS NEED TO BE FIRE DOORS, PLEASE? ONE CUPBOARD HOUSES THE ELECTRICITY METERS FOR THE FLATS AND THE LANDLORD'SUPPLY, AND THE OTHER HAS A WATER METER, STOPCOCK AND IS USED TO STORE A VACUUM CLEANER. THANKS FOR YOUR HELP.

Hello, I am changing non fire rated internal doors to FD30 with new rated linings/intumescent strips and a fire rated door leaf. However I want to fit non fire rated quality solid brass/PVD finish sprung door handles and latches (for design reasons). I intend to upgrade the existing solid timber front door with intumescent strips and door closer, fire rated handles etc, fit smoke and fire alarms etc. I read on the forum that as long as they are fitted correctly with intumescent pads and do not compromise the integrity of the door they could be considered 'nominal' fire doors - have I misunderstood this? It is 1 bed flat (top floor) in a purpose built 3 storey …

I currently rent my house and have some doors that do not close fully, they can be pushed shut but do not have the click. Another door closes but not fully as it seems to big for the frame. Are these in line with the fire safety regulations? The back and front door are fire safe. The house is rented out via an estate agent and they have inspected it and did not say it was a problem and passed inspection for it to be rented out. The house is old and if the doors need replacing then the door frames will need replacing too?

I'm converting a 3 storey house into a HMO. Each floor will house a single self contained dwelling with their own cooking facilities. Each of these 3 dwellings with have their own entrance door leading off the shared stair case. I understand these entrance doors need to be FD30. Please could someone confirm if these need cold smoke seals and an intumescent strip?

Can anyone please help me with some advice regarding whether I require fire rated windows onto an escape route corridor. I have 12 apartments on the first floor and 12 apartments on the second floor with each flat having an entrance door and a kitchen window on to the corridor. I am looking to install a fire alarm to cover the routes of escape which would be both floors and 2 staircase at opposite ends of the building. The corridors previously had window openings and I have now installed building reg complaints windows with fire escape openings. I have been advised of changing the kitchen windows to fire rated windows but I don’t understand why as the corridors have al…