Fire alarm system in flat beneath HMO

[Matt123]

Hi,

We have a licensed 7 bed HMO which occupies the ground floor, first floor and second floor of a large terraced house. In the basement is a separate two bed flat that we also own (also rented to tenants, but different tenants to the HMO above) that was converted in 2007. At the time the conversion work was inspected by the council and signed off by building regs. The basement flat is fully self contained with its own front and rear doors, it does not share any communal areas with the licensed HMO above other than the rear and front gardens. The basement flat is not included or mentioned on the HMO license for the 7-bed house above and the council did not mention any concerns regarding the basement flat when they inspected the 7-bed HMO as part of the license application.

The fire alarm and detection system in the HMO is Grade A, category L1 but it is not connected to the fire alarm and detection system in the basement flat. The control panel for the HMO's grade A L1 alarm is in the HMO's entrance hallway, to which the basement tenants do not have access. The fire alarm and detection system in the basement flat is a standalone Grade D2, category L1.

Two questions:

1. Is it a requirement under current regulations that the HMO alarm system and the basement flat alarm system be interlinked / connected?
2. If the answer to no.1 is "no", then does the grade D2, category L1 alarm in the basement need updating anyway? Would that be to a D1 L1 system or another?

Also, there is emergency escape lighting in the HMO but not in the basement flat. Normally a 2-bed basement flat would not require emergency lighting, does this basement flat require emergency lighting as a result of it being located underneath the HMO?

Thank you.

Kind regards,

Matt

 

 

 

 

[AnthonyB]

Hi,

Based on the information the premises appear compliant as is (on the assumption the Building Regs approval didn't include linking the alarms as LABC/AI were happy the required fire compartmentation was in place) and the basement system is in excess of the requirement being LD1. Yes, it's D2 not D1, but this didn't exist at the time of installation so there is no automatic requirement to change until the system is 10 years old and the detectors are end of life and need replacing anyway - that's when you would put D1 units in