Tom Sutton

If it is the front door that leads from the communal hallway to outside then it does not need to be a fire door, there could be a situation where a fire doors could be needed but that is very rare.

Have you tested the batteries to check their state of charge because even new batteries need checking, they can discharge in the packaging. (shelf life)

For an HMO you need to check it with the local council (housing department) as they are the enforcing authority for HMO registration however, Article 18 of The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, any person assisting the Responsible Person must be a competent person which means having sufficient training and experience or knowledge and other qualities properly to assist in undertaking the preventive and protective measures and I believe that should apply to your carpenters/joiners. Other persons who assist the RP have third party accreditation, fire extinguisher engineers, fire alarm engineers, fire door inspectors and fire risk assessors but I am not aware of anything for carpenters/joiners however it would be a good idea for one of the association to consider the possibility.

I will assume it is a conversion also the common areas have a FRA done by a competent person and is satisfactory. You have been using ADB volume 1 for dwelling houses not volume 2 for flats, and in your case described as a multi storey flat.(Maisonette) So you need to check out vol 2. clause 2.16 page 23. and Clause 2.21 page 27 however I did not find it easy to understand.

You would need to check all fire doors required for means of escape but unfortunately not all are labeled, you would need to identify all doors that need to be fire doors, this could be achieved by studying the Fire Risk assessment, the fire strategy, or the DCLG guide relating to your premises. http://www.firesafe.org.uk/regulatory-reform-fire-safety-order-2005/ All newel installed fire door sets should be certified or at least have documentation that guarantees they meet to required standards. All existing doors could be checked by a qualified FDIS inspector and you would receive a report but you would need to speak to them for more information. Fire Door Inspection Scheme After September 2019, all fire resisting doorsets supplied in the EU (including the UK) must be CE marked in compliance with the standard. Approved Document B (Page 5) also states that one way of demonstrating that proper materials have been used is to use products bearing CE marking in accordance with the Construction Products Directive (89/106/EEC). CE marking of essential hardware will be compulsory from July 2013. Check out http://www.firecode.org.uk/

Could you confirm that this is a house converted into 3 self contained flats and a maisonette?

Sorry Ahmed I do not wish to get that involved, I am sure safelincs would agree with me, we are not an online fire consultancy agent and you would have to employ the services of a fire consultant/assessor to check out your evacuation measures. As you are aware we will show you where to find the information how to comply with the fire safety order but that is as far as I would go.

I would not always rule out a rotary bell and Aico Radiolink System is for dwellings ( BS 5839 part 6) I think in your case your require a BS 5839 part 1 system, which sounds like you have had priced, and using beacons I do not see how you could use any other. The guidance for you is Small and medium places of assembly and section 2 page 52 is all about fire alarms.

I am assuming this is part of a thread which I cannot find,sorry.

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 is the relevant legislation and article 3 defines who the Responsible Person is, consequently if that person or persons has control they have to implement articles 8 to 22 nobody else. This includes article 9 which require a fire risk assessment to be conducted by the RP and a competent person to assist the RP if required. The FRA must take account of all the different uses the premises is used for and reducing or preventing the spread of fire is only part of the FRA. If it is a business then the employer will be the RP or it could be the owner or the person running it on behalf of the owner, so the first thing is to decide who the RP is. If there are certain article under the control of another person then they are responsible for that article or joint responsibility. Without knowing the full details of a premises and the occupier it is very difficult to give a definitive answer I have to make assumptions. Check out http://www.firesafe.org.uk/regulatory-reform-fire-safety-order-2005/ for more information. http://www.firesafe.org.uk/fire-risk-assessment/

Here are two standards BS 5839 part 1 for non-domestic premises and BS 5839 part 6 for domestic dwellings. Part 1 has only one grade so it is irrelevant but does have three categories, further split detailing the coverage (M, L1 to L5, and P1 to P3). Part 6 has 6 grades A to F and two categories further split detailing the coverage (LD1 to LD3, PD1 to PD2). Part 1 has only one testing and maintenance requirements check out http://www.firesafe.org.uk/fire-alarms/ Part 6 is a little more complicated. Part 6 Testing. All Grades should periodically be tested to ensure that there has been no major failure. This does not require any specialist knowledge, and can normally be carried out by the occupants, with some simple instructions how to. Grade A systems should be tested every week in accordance with the recommendations contained in BS 5839-1. All systems, other than Grade A systems, should be tested at least every week by operating the fire detectors in the premises. In the case of smoke alarms and any heat alarms, the weekly test may be carried out by use of a test button. If the dwelling has been unoccupied for a long period of time, the occupier should check immediately on reoccupying the dwelling that the system is still operating. Maintenance It is essential that the system is subject to periodic inspection, to ensure the reliability of the system. In dwellings in which a Grade A system is provided, periodic inspection and servicing needs to be carried out competent service engineer. Grade A systems should be inspected and serviced at periods not exceeding six months in accordance with the recommendations of BS 5839-1. Batteries in any radio-linked devices should be changed by the service engineer before the low battery warning condition is likely to be given. Grade B and Grade C systems should be serviced every six months in accordance with the supplier’s instructions. Smoke alarms in Grade D, Grade E and Grade F systems should be cleaned periodically in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions, in more dusty locations more frequent cleaning and the fire detectors should be replaced approximately every ten years. Check out http://www.firesafe.org.uk/fire-alarms/ for details on testing and maintenance of a grade A system. Check out your user instructions that accompany your fire detectors for D to F grades.

You need to state which grade of fire alarm we are discussing and you say "there are breakers on each floor" what are breakers? In the flats it is likely to be a grade D, E or F in the common areas it could be any. Check out http://www.cieh.org/policy/fire_safety_existing_housing.html section 22 page 23 for information. http://www.safelincs.co.uk/pages/bs5839-6.html

Because it is a HMO under additional licensing the Housing Act is the principal legislation the local council is the enforcing authority but most enforcing authorities accepted the Guidance on fire safety provisions for certain types of existing housing as the national guidance. You have not provide sufficient information but I would say the fire alarm required is a grade A or D depending on how many floors, which to my knowledge there is no facility to connect a manual call box on a grade D but there is on a grade A. You need to study the attached guide to see which type of fire alarm you have and require according to the guide.

CBS is when there is a bank of batteries in a central position usually the meter room, on trickle charge which feeds all the emergency lights in the premises, now most premises use individual units with individual batteries Managing an emergency network is a significant responsibility: ensuring you comply with current legislation and best practice, keeping the occupants of the building safe at all times, and keeping energy and maintenance costs as low as possible. I assume it will do this automatically and will test the lights without any intervention from you. But I suspect there are many different systems you would need to check if any particular system if it is suitable for you.

If you are checking fire doors the Fire Door Inspection Service maybe of some help and the Architectural and Specialists Door Manufacturers Association have excellent downloads on fire doors check out the Knowledge Centre. But lift doors are something I have not considered although they do have some FR but they are usually in a FR lobby consequently no problem, check out the following attachments which maybe some help. http://www.firesafe.org.uk/fire-doors/ http://www.lift-report.de/index.php/news/177/368/EN-81-58-Lift-Landing-Doors-Fire-resistance-test

As far as I am aware there are no third party certification schemes for carpenters who fix, repair or modify fire doors, so who ever did the job would not be able to provide a certificate. Without inspecting your work I would not be able to say it was satisfactory but as you informed your client at the beginning you would not be able to provide a certificate have you considered taking them to the small claims court.

The building must, of course, have a fire alarm and consideration on the use of Dorgard should be carried out by the employer through a risk assessment procedure. Where to use a dorgard would depend on the fire risk assessment and which category it meets according to BS 7273-4 2007 and the type of premises. The problem with any active fire precaution is what happens if it fails to operate correctly. There are some cases where the use of Dorgard may be inappropriate, e.g. on doors protecting a single staircase building, and doors giving direct access to rooms in a premises that have been risk assessed as high risk, e.g. kitchens, boiler rooms, etc. all will depend on the FRA.

I am not aware of any legal/regulatory requirements or of any third party certificate systems for contractors fitting or repairing fire doors but I think there should be. I would contact the Fire Door Inspection Service they may be able to advise you.

Is it a breach of her tenancy agreement would depend on what the tenancy agreement says, that is between the landlord and the tenant how the landlord enforces it you would have to ask a solicitor. If death or serious injury result from a fire can the landlord or tenant be held responsible, yes and a number have gone to jail and/or heavy fines. I think the final action would be eviction and I just cannot see how you persuade a person who will not listen. You could contact the enforcing authority the local fire and rescue service and see if confronting them with an uniform would work

Because it is a HMO under additional licensing the Housing Act is the principal legislation the local council is the enforcing authority but most enforcing authorities accepted the Guidance on fire safety provisions for certain types of existing housing as the national guidance. You have not provide sufficient information but I would say the fire alarm required is a grade A or D depending on how many floors, which to my knowledge there is no facility to connect a manual call box on a grade D but there is on a grade A. You need to study the attached guide to see which type of fire alarm you have and require according to the guide.

The Fire Risk Assessment is not all about means of escape it is also about preventing fire and a fire spreading. You would have to see the FRA to see what measures the risk assessor had put in place to mitigate the possibility of problems from the gas fired boiler but if you have any concerns you should contact somebody in safety management or the enforcing authority the local fire and rescue service about it.

Most carpet has to have some degree of fire resistance. When buying carpet look out for reference to BS5287 and BS4790 on labelling and informational documentation. Compliance with these would indicate a 35mm radius of fire spread which is the specification for low fire spread carpets to be used in protected fire escape routes or other sensitive areas. In a normal household any standard carpet should have sufficient fire resistance to be suitable for use in most occupied areas. Carpet used in escape route need to pass the hot nut test as described in the above BS's and if you find a fire resistant spray, it would need to certify the carpet to that standard

I is difficult to say without knowing the layout of the room concerned but heating boilers are usually enclosed in a fire resisting enclosure. You should bring it to the attention of somebody in safety management.

Halon is still used on board aircraft but very expensive new, however there are a few floating about second hand (Talking recently to an airport fire fighter and extinguisher buff BS5306-3 doesn't apply and the maintenance regime for on board extinguishers is such there is some extremely old stuff in service!). Whilst some cut off dates have been and gone the small aviation sector still seems to be using halon based on the EU 2025 deadline. http://www.boeing.com/commercial/aeromagazine/articles/2011_q4/3/ http://www.fia.uk.com/resourceLibrary/eu-commission-regulations.html It depends on the type of aircraft you fly but I do accept it is very confusing. Halotron is illegal in the EU, water and halon is the principles in use although Novec 1230 & FM-200 are also available. Whilst FE-36 is the EU's main portable halon replacement it doesn't appear to tick the boxes for aircraft use. UK supplier of Halon portables for on board use: http://www.transair.co.uk/pp+Aircraft-Halon-Fire-Extinguishers-From-FFE+2787 US manufacturer of halon & halon alternatives: http://www.h3raviation.com/products.htm Compose with the help of AnthonyB

There are companies that install and repair maglocks one of those most probably be best but I am sure a competent electrician would be acceptable. But if it is on an escape route and connected into the fire alarm whoever repairs it needs to know what they are doing, then it might require the attendance of a fire alarm engineer.