AnthonyB

Once you have gone through the doors there should be additional signage to direct people down stairs, the sign above the door relates to the door only. People went up at Grenfell not because of signs, but because they couldn't go down as the stairs were heavily smoke logged due to a catalogue of failings in the various protective measures in the building.

Current risk assessment guidance recommends it in flats as a lower priority. The emergency lighting standard would expect it as standard. As legally a fire risk assessment must have been completed this should consider this issue.

Fire Alarm: 6 monthly with weekly call point testing Emergency Lighting: 12 monthly with monthly function testing

Usually yes. Building Control will advise in your specific case as part of your approval submission.

Subject to risk assessment and the appropriate measures put in place it should be OK. BB100 design guidance for fire safety in schools will help you too as will other schools design publications

The reason is the usual shoddy workmanship of modern builds and yes it's a fire safety risk. The developer will try and claim it's fine as it has Building Control sign off, but that doesn't cover workmanship, just that the doors and walls are in the right place and this has nothing to do with the ongoing compliance of the premises under fire legislation. The last developer that tried this on my watch ended up having to give in when the fire service served an Enforcement Notice....

BS9991 is a design guide for use as an alternative to Approved Document B, not for application in risk assessments to legacy builds. You should consult the official guidance instead (which contains relevant summaries of all the old legislation from Victorian times onwards) which will proportionately address the situation: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fire-safety-in-purpose-built-blocks-of-flats

Sounds too complex and unique for an internet forum, a proper site inspection may be in order if definitive advice is needed.

If you feel there is a serious risk to people in the flats you should contact the fire safety enforcement department of the local fire service, who will audit the situation & if required take steps to ensure the situation is remedied. Since 2006 your agent should have been having Fire Risk Assessments carried out of the premises which would have addressed this issue well before now. If an alarm system is needed (flats don't routinely need common systems) it needs to be specified correctly - a common system only to the stairway and landings may not activate until it is too late to safely leave your flat (as there already needs to be smoke/fire there to activate it) and wouldn't be loud enough in the flats to wake deeply sleeping occupants. Usually a common fire detection & alarm system needs to include heat detectors & alarm sounders inside the flats so it will wake people and will go off before the fire breaks out of the flat of origin. Individual smoke & heat alarms to flats for the protection of each individual flat alone are outside the scope of the fire regulations, but if a flat is rented housing legislation does have minimum requirements. The guidance to be followed for a conversion, particularly of the age of yours, is here: https://www.cieh.org/media/1244/guidance-on-fire-safety-provisions-for-certain-types-of-existing-housing.pdf

No it isn't (yet - may become so for High Rise Residential Buildings) but is still recommended. You could look for The BWF-CERTIFIRE Fire Door and Doorset Scheme or the similar FIRAS scheme.

Ideally yes

A 2kg CO2 shouldn't be a problem in a typical house room, but it is limited in scope to electrical fires. In the home you really want to have just one extinguisher that does everything which would usually be Water Mist.

You aren't going to get it in the legislation as it's functional and doesn't list individual requirements for compliance. The Housing Act governs fire safety as well and isn't limited to common areas. Article 14(2)(b) is the functional requirement in the Fire Safety Order that a fire door wedged on a protected route would breach. It would also be a hazard under the HHSRS scheme and thus enforceable under Part 1 of the Housing Act. If in doubt invite a multiple agency inspection team to visit and see what they come up with!

The Fire Safety Order is grey in it's ability to enforce issues in this area. Government Guidance is that the Housing Act (which covers all parts of houses and flats, owner occupied or rented) is used for enforcement. I've used Enforcement Notices under the Housing Act issued by local council EHO's for fire safety matters inside flats (doors, vents, floors, walls) that would affect the rest of the premises in the past where the Fire Safety Order is too weak.

Ideally there should only be one fastening, however thumb turns are commonly used in housing. The yale type lock is more of a problem as it looks like the type that can be key locked from the inside.

Here is the guidance: https://www.cieh.org/media/1244/guidance-on-fire-safety-provisions-for-certain-types-of-existing-housing.pdf Depending on the type and thickness and number of layers of board the existing plasterboard may be sufficient.

Yes - extra areas must be included - see: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fire-safety-act-addendum/fire-safety-act-addendum

Depends what the detectors were there for - if part of a common system for full evacuate then heats is the normal provision because of the resultant false alarm risk which leads to vandalism and apathy to the alarm sounding - it would also be a Part 1 system. After all the system is not the for life safety of the flat of origin, that's what the local Part 6 systems to each flat are for. If It's a weird system where one system is trying to be both the common system and local system (not unheard of and common in HMO's and some conversions) then smokes are a must and hush buttons or Cause & Effect programming be used to prevent site wide false alarms.

It depends on what premises you are looking at, there is a lot of training and CPD needed to be a competent risk assessor, the NEBOSH Fire qualification is a basic entry level course.

If the house has been converted into commercial premises it won't be stay put (an individual flat or house isn't stay out anyway!) and should have a suitable fire alarm system and evacuation strategy. If the conversion went through the correct planning permission & building control process then you would have been required to install emergency lighting. You should also have a Fire Risk Assessment which would address all this.

ADB is a design guide not a risk assessment guide for existing premises. Risk assessment guidance contains what you are looking for regarding Perkos For flats use: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fire-safety-in-purpose-built-blocks-of-flats For sheltered housing use: https://www.nationalfirechiefs.org.uk/write/MediaUploads/NFCC Guidance publications/NFCC_Specialised_Housing_Guidance_-_Copy.pdf

Part 6 - but for Grade A systems it simply refers you to the Part 1 service regime (as it's the same kit)

No, it means they have to be assessed as part of a Fire Risk Assessment. Doors and windows wouldn't automatically need to be fire resistant except in the situations they already would have needed to be (usually certain external balcony access situations). The walls will depend on their make up, building height and what other protective measures are present in the block (e.g. sprinklers, full evacuate alarms, etc),

I'd say both - one door is the boundary between the flat (flat front door) and the protected lift lobby and the other is to protect the stair from the lobby, it's the normal set up in this scenario be it flats or commercial premises.

If you feel there is a serious risk to people in the flats you should contact the fire safety enforcement department of the local fire service, who will audit the situation & if required take steps to ensure the situation is remedied. Since 2006 your agent should have been having Fire Risk Assessments carried out of the premises which would have addressed this issue well before now. If an alarm system is needed (flats don't routinely need common systems) it needs to be specified correctly - a common system only to the stairway and landings may not activate until it is too late to safely leave your flat (as there already needs to be smoke/fire there to activate it) and wouldn't be loud enough in the flats to wake deeply sleeping occupants. Usually a common fire detection & alarm system needs to include heat detectors & alarm sounders inside the flats so it will wake people and will go off before the fire breaks out of the flat of origin. Individual smoke & heat alarms to flats for the protection of each individual flat alone are outside the scope of the fire regulations, but if a flat is rented housing legislation does have minimum requirements. The guidance to be followed for a conversion, particularly of the age of yours, is here: https://www.cieh.org/media/1244/guidance-on-fire-safety-provisions-for-certain-types-of-existing-housing.pdf