mr

[Guest steven]

Hi, during a electrical inspection of a stand alone flat part of a converted former pub, open plan kitchen/ dining/ lounge(main room) with bedroom and bathrooms off the main room. Heat alarm in main room, but realized no smoke  alarms are present at all, the entry door opens into the main room  area so cant put a smoke in there as it will false activate from the kitchen. Daft question time as you are legally required to put a smoke alarm in a rented property how would i get this to comply? put a smoke in each bedroom, or does the heat alarm count as a smoke alarm(i think not) thanks for the advise

 

[Tom Sutton]

The fire alarm in the flat should be a domestic fire alarm BS 5839 part 8 confined to the flat the only, person that will be disturbed will be the flat owner. The rest of the premises would have a BS 5839 part 1 which may have a heat detector in the flat to warn the building that there is a fire in the flat especially when the flat is empty. Without a survey I cannot give you the full details and I do not do surveys. Advice is still the same ?.

[AnthonyB]

It's not compliant with current legislation - there MUST be a smoke alarm in the hall & landings (or equivalent for open plan) of a rental premises. An optical detector is less sensitive to cooking than the ionisation ones and it should be spaced as far away from the kitchen bit as possible whilst still meeting spacing requirements.

Hundreds of new build open plan flats manage to do this every year so it's not a problem.