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NATIONAL GUIDANCE covering fire safety in rented property has been amended, relaxing some of its original recommendations for smoke alarms and fire doors.
The guidelines from Local Authority Coordinators of Regulatory Services (LACORS) were first issued last year, in partnership with the Chief Fire Officers’ Association and the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health. Aimed at improving fire safety in communal areas of residential buildings, it offers advice to landlords and fire safety enforcement officers in housing and fire authorities in England.
However, the guidance has now been updated, with the following among the changes made:
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relaxation over the need to install a full LD3 mains-powered interlinked smoke alarm system in single-family rented houses with no known high-risk fire hazards that already have operational battery smoke detectors covering escape routes. Neither is it necessary to have smoke detectors in bedrooms
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high-specification fire doors are no longer recommended for most small lower-risk shared houses occupied by students and young professionals. Instead, the guidance says traditional ‘close-fitting’ internal doors will give adequate protection to hold back a fire and enable occupants to escape
The above revisions were proposed by the Residential Landlords Association (RLA), which comments: ‘Mains-linked automatic fire detection systems still remain the ideal solution where no detection alarm exists or when landlords plan major renovation or improvement works’.
Housing – Fire Safety: Guidance on fire safety provisions for certain types of housing is available from: www.lacors.gov.uk/
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