Additional HMO Licencing and fire safety 'advice' from council - is it excessive?

[Guest Lubka]

I am a leaseholder of a council 2 bed flat and the council will be introducing additional HMO licencing.  I rent the flat to 3 people as rooms, shared areas are kitchen (with a folding, always open door), bathroom and hallway.  I have a smoke detector alarm and a carbon monoxide detector in the hallway, across from the kitchen and boiler.

I recently had an unrelated inspection of my flat by the council and in light of the requirement for licensing this HMO bedsit from 1 Nov 2015 I was advised to install

1)      Smoke detectors in the living room and 2 bedrooms;  
2)      A heat detector in the kitchen; 
3)      A carbon monoxide detector in any room containing a gas appliance and 
4)      Fire doors are to be installed in all rooms with the exception of the bathroom

Are these excessive - is there a legal requirement to have smoke detectors in bedrooms or a heat detector in the kitchen?

Also, can someone advise on legal requirements for HMOs and internal fire doors?  What would be the best way to check / verify if the doors I already have are what is required by law?

Thank you!!!

[Tom Sutton]

The local council enforces the Housing Act and in their opinion your premises is a HMO and requires a licence, the conditions of that licence, requires you to carry out the above work. You do have the right of appeal but you would need to justify an appeal and this would most probably require you to employ a fire consultant to assist you, also he would be able to advise you if the required FD30 doors are needed. If you only require advice on the fire doors you could seek the services of a fire door inspector check out http://fdis.co.uk/