When you are a landlord of an HMO one of the major things that you have to contend with is fire safety for your tenants. Whether you are considering buying an HMO or converting an existing building into one, there are fire regulation to which it is essential that you adhere.
There are more things to consider than when you have a buy-to-let. The fire regulations are more detailed, and there is more to do to get a property up to standard. One of the reasons for this is that your tenants may not integrate with each other, and indeed, may not talk to each other, and may even dislike each other.
When you have a BTL, what you don’t usually have is a situation where doors are regularly locked. In an HMO the opposite is true. The front doors of each individual flat will usually be locked, and this is something to take into consideration when carrying out a fire risk assessment for flats. Locked flats can mean that people do not have a clear exit and may be unable to get out of the building quickly in an emergency.
Let a Professional Fire Risk Assessor Do It
The best thing that you can do when carrying out a fire risk assessment for flats is to let a professional fire risk assessor do it for you. Our team at UK-Fire Risk Assessments is highly skilled and trained and can carry out your fire risk assessment for you.
Many landlords are in business to earn money from their properties, and they are not necessarily skilled in fire risk assessment, which is quite understandable. By getting our advice, you are having a third party independent of yourself advise you what should be done in order to comply with the law and to ensure that your HMO is safe for your tenants.
One thing that our fire risk assessor will advise, if you don’t already have them, is thumb turn locks. When a fire breaks out, it is usually in an individual flat rather than the communal areas, and if a tenant is in a panic, which is quite understandable, he or she may not be able to locate the key quickly. Health and safety regulations state that you have to ensure that tenants have always got a clear escape route, and thumb turn locks are a major part of this.