Living in my parent's house - been asked to pay a lot of money to have interlinked alarm with strangers

[andrews]

Hey all, 

 

I spent c.9h trying to understand the regulations and their nuance and now kindly putting myself into your expert hands for clarity. 

I live in a flat within a converted building. There are 4 more flats in the house. 3 of which are rented out by their landlords. My flat belongs to my mom and dad, to whom I pay no rent. 

My parents own a share of the freehold and until 2020 they would rent the flat out as well, after 2020 I moved in.

Now my flat shares a corridor to the exit door with two other flats.  The landlord of one of this flat has brought in some people that claimed we are not compliant with fire regulations and we need to install smoke detectors in the communal corridor, emergency lights and one smoke detector in each flat interlinked between all the flats. 

While I am happy to contribute to the communal space as part of the freehold agreement, it seems absurd that we need interlinked detectors amongst complete strangers. 

Is this the case or are the contractor try to charge us more than needed? MY 

 

Furthermore, do I need to make sure my entry door is a fire door?

 

Would any of this be different if I were the owner occupier rather than my dad owning it (appreciate I am not formally a tenant as I am not paying rent but I suppose I would still count as a tenant?)

Thank you 

 

Andrew

 

[AnthonyB]

As a conversion from a house they are likely correct - see my detailed answer in this thread: