Replacing fire escape

wessexw

Hello everyone

I'm flat hunting at the moment and have come across a nice one where the bedrooms are on a lower ground floor. There is a door leaving from the LGF to the outside and then a fire escape stairs leading up to the ground floor level, there is no other way up to the GF level from the outside other than these stairs.

The problem is that it's a straight stairs and it run diagonally directly across the main bedroom window thereby blocking out the light and giving a view of just a set of metal stairs from the bedroom. I was pondering on the option of replacing the stairs with a spiral fire escape stairs instead so it wouldn't be going across any windows anymore.

So firstly, would something like this require planning permission? It would be used solely by the one flat, there would be no reason for anybody else to use it. Then, how costly would it be to do something like this?

Thanks!

phill99

It may need planning permission, but more importantly it is highly likely that it will need building regulation approval as there are quite strict rules for width etc of external fire staircases.

A call to your local authority to clarify both of these points won't go amiss.

iamcornholio

The stairs will need to be proper fire-escape type (ie correct size/pitch etc) and its arguable that PP will not be required as it may be deemed maintenance, and a b/regs application not required as long as the stairs are proper fire escape ones. But technically both PP and b/regs would be needed

As this is a flat, then you would definately need the landlords permission to alter these

ormus

i doubt you would need PP. basically changing like for like.
fire regs and building regs must be applied though.
can be very strict re fire escapes.

wessexw

Thanks everyone, I was looking at the websites of some stairs providers and it seems to be clear enough about what type of stairs shuold be used for a fire escape. It's a share of freehold property so I know I'd need permission from the other freeholders.