AnthonyB

You don't have to be an electrician to do the 3 hour test, just competent and know what to do. Nothing in law says it has to be.

No, not if fitted properly - this is why a competent fire door contractor should be carrying out these works, I've seen thousands of pounds of wasted work on doors by well meaning joiners.

Roller shutter is easier as you've got the runners installed, check out your existing one, it may actually already be fire rated! Sounds a bit OTT though.

I have to say I think your landlord has lost touch with reality and is using H&S as an excuse for you to not do it. Easiest way for you to solve it is to get your local fire service's Community Safety Team to carry out one of their free home safety visit and mention it then - they will back you up in this.

If it comes from abroad via their warehouse and not direct to you then the loophole doesn't apply, it should comply....

A fire strategy is usually created at the design stage of a building - it demonstrates how the design will comply with the Building Regulations and is particularly important if the architect plans a building where a departure from the 'standard' guidance of Approved Document B is required to allow the design to be viable as it will detail the engineered solution used to meet Building Regulations functional requirements. It then accompanies the building through it's life so the various building owners/users are aware of what has been done in order to correctly maintain it and ensure any limits set are not exceeded. The strategy evolves with the building too, being updated as alterations and refurbishments occur. The Fire Risk Assessment is required for all existing premises other than inside private dwellings under specific fire legislation other than building regulations and is intended to reduce the risks to relevant persons on the premises (which is essentially anyone other than firefighters on site if the premises is on fire) by preventing fire through eliminating or controlling the presence of combustibles and ignition sources, mitigating the effects of fire by containing it via fire resisting structure and doors or extinguishing/controlling it with fixed or portable fire fighting systems and by ensuring persons can escape via fire detection & warning systems, sufficient escape routes with adequate protection and lighting and that there are suitable procedures, training and nominated persons to ensure the right thing is done. The risk assessment would refer to the fire strategy (if there is one) as part of the assessment process. Design fire strategies, unless straightforward, are usually beyond the skills of the architect and so Chartered Fire Engineers usually prepare them. Building Control or the Approved Inspector are the ones checking that the Building Regulations are broadly being met and would vet the strategy not write it.

Seems sensible, the landlord should have had more oversight on this in the first place so relevant fire safety works could have been costed in (or indeed the boiler not be allowed in the common parts and the tenant made to put it in their flat)

If they are drop-shipped direct from overseas they are able to sidestep the UK Furnishing Regs and also there is a greater chance of products being non conforming. Even where a seller states they are UK based, often your goods will clearly have arrived directly from China, not a UK warehouse. Sometimes there is a genuine UK seller using dropshipping, often they don't exist and the UK address is a "poste restant" or similar. If it's priced too good to be true it probably is and a large amount of eBay and Amazon new stock is counterfieit or poor quality and sometimes outright dangerous. If it's a genuine UK based seller and warehouse then there is more recourse against them under trading standards and consumer safety legislation.

With difficulty sometimes, you can find lots of video footage online of US Motorsport fires, some of the race types involve cars using a high alcohol content fuel and fires can be difficult to see - usually liberal amounts of dry powder are discharged all over the spill scene and vehicle with copious amounts of Cold Fire tipped over people and vehicles from buckets and converted water extinguishers just to make sure.

I can't go into much detail as I've not seen the place and I'm not doing your FRA. If you are saying is it possible, then yes, there is no reason why not. The existing layout and provisions for fire detection & warning, lighting, escape, etc will impact how much extra work is required - if the existing premises already had a high level of provision beyond the statutory minimum for the type you may find that you may not have as much physical additions as you might expect and that procedural and management matters are the main areas of concern.

There are no dispensations, fire won't behave differently just because of the virus. Your Fire Risk Assessment will determine the needs based on the relevant factors.

Yes, Article 17 of the Fire Safety Order requires a suitable system of maintenance. Suitable is as a default the benchmarks in the DCLG Guides and British Standards. A fire risk assessment would determine if a different service regime is possible - this isn't beyond possibility but must demonstrate why it still provides adequacy. All duty holders have been advised to review their FRA as a result of the current climate and this will determine where service intervals can be relaxed....and where they may need increasing!

Not explicitly - the legal requirement is to ensure the system is subject to a suitable system of maintenance and are maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair. However in deciding what is suitable reference would be made to both the Government's official fire risk assessment guides and the relevant British Standards, both of which require weekly testing. It is possible to have alternative regimes but the onus is on you to show why they would still be as suitable as the default of weekly tests.

You can price up the materials on Safelincs website: https://www.safelincs.co.uk/radio-interlinked-smoke-alarms/ , it's then labour for fixing on top. With Grade D wireless kit each detector still needs a local mains supply (often the lighting circuit) , just no cable to link them all. If you want 99% wirefree then you need a Grade C system like Illumino Ignis's Premsafe or one of the many commercial standard Grade A systems out there (Hyfire, EDA, EMS, etc)

That's bizarre, never seen or heard of that before. Shouldn't make any difference.

The minimum service visits is 2 per year - on visits the minimum testing requirement is at least one call point or detector per zone or loop. However in a 12 month period all call points and detectors should have been tested at least once. For convenience sites on 2 visits a year each one tests 50% of devices and on 4 visits each one tests 25% but there is no requirement to do it this way - in theory on a 4 zone conventional system with 10 devices per zone and two service visits a year you could test 4 (1 per zone) on one visit and the other 36 on the second visit. . .

Check envirograf's website. They have lots of paint, varnish & Paper products (with test data) to upgrade historical doors and can advise on a door by door basis as to the viability of upgrading

It's not that clear cut - the default system of maintenance is weekly testing plus 6 monthly servicing set by the benchmark. If you don't test at all that's a clear breach of Article 17 and an easy prosecution. If you do it but not weekly the onus is on the Responsible Person to prove it still meets the functional requirements of Article 17. Sainsbury's did this by analysing inspection, test and servicing information for every single store of every size over a year or two (not a little undertaking!). They were able to prove statistically that the vast majority of faults in systems were uncovered on the daily recorded visual inspection by the manager or as part of the more detailed checks & tests during the 6 monthly service and very few of the faults only came to light during the weekly test. This information was accepted by their Primary Authority (UK wide organisations can, for a fee, select a single fire service as their gatekeeper for enforcement and advice to ensure consistency of enforcement across their properties) The onus is on the Responsible Person to prove they can do something other than the benchmark and this requires their competent person to be on board - unless they put the case forward and it stands up then they would be expected to comply with the benchmark and would get enforced against if they do otherwise. It's quite possible to put cases to vary from the standards together, I've done it several times, just has to be done properly.

HSE have more detail than the DCLG Guides on certain fire safety aspects in motor repair: https://www.hse.gov.uk/mvr/topics/fire.htm

However if there is only one escape route in the common area of flats you don't need signage (as per the government guidance for flats (https://www.local.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/fire-safety-purpose-built-04b.pdf) "The normal access and egress routes within a block of flats do not usually require fire exit signs to assist residents and visitors to make their way out of the building in the event of fire. Flats with a single staircase, regardless of the number of floors, would, for example, not usually require any fire exit signage. In other blocks, fire exit signage may be required in circumstances where there are: • alternative exit routes • secondary exits by way of an external stair • across a flat roof • where there is any potential for confusion"

Based on your measurements and assuming an occupancy of under 60 then the one door is acceptable.

Current standards only require the front door to be self closing, it should also be to FD30s specification (a fire doorset of 30 minutes fire resistance and having intumescent seals and cold smoke brushes). Internal doors (except the bathroom) are usually FD20 doors (20 minutes fire resistance, often achieved using an FD30 door without seals)

If it is suitably fire separated from the flats then it can be looked at in isolation and wouldn't need any fire alarm or detection being a single room as the occupiers would easily detect a fire themselves and verbally raise the alarm. If it isn't then a fire alarm system covering both the shop & residential areas may be required. Both the common areas of the flats and the commercial unit are subject to the Fire Safety Order and require a Fire Risk Assessment. Also it sounds the house conversion to flats could fall under section 257 of the Housing Act 2004 if: 1. the conversion did not comply with the relevant Building Regulations in force at that time and still does not comply; and 2. less than two-thirds of the flats are owner-occupied. Depending on location it may also require licencing as a s257 HMO if your council operates an 'additional licensing' scheme.

Technically yes, the Building Regs just say garage, not garage with car/petrol/etc. If you don't have one no one is going to inspect you and do anything but expect it to be picked up if you sell the house or if you do other building works where LABC are involved.

It's a legal requirement in Article 17, there needs to be a suitable system of maintenance, not just that the precautions are in working order. You will get enforcement action if you fail to do it and you will get convicted if there are prosecutions for non compliance. What is more flexible is the 'suitable system'. By default it's the British Standards (as that's what enforcers and magistrates will use for reference) but it's true there is wiggle room - e.g. Sainsbury only test fire alarms monthly rather than weekly (still daily for visual checks and 6 monthly for servicing). However they had to go to a lot of effort & some expense to put a case together that was acceptable to their enforcement Primary Authority.