fire escapes in a rental property?

schwam66

Hi there am currently renovating a property to rent out and was curious if it was mandatory to rent the property that each bedroom has a fire escape? we are putting new windows in so thought i would ask cuz if its a must we would obviously need to do it...at the moment we are planning to have just one fire escape...the house is a 3 bed....

thanks in advance for any help/guidance.

Slithery

Will you be letting the property out to a single tenant or to multiple tenants as an HMO?

GDB2222

What do you mean by fire escape? A window through which somebody can be rescued? Or what?

booksurr

it would be a real cheapskate who did not install windows which were capable of being opened wide enough to allow someone to escape from their bedroom

that said in respect of a 3 bed rental property as others said above it depends if this will or will not be an HMO
- if it is then it further depends on whether your council has imposed additional/selective licensing and therefore it is a requirement to meet whatever regs they define in respect of fire safety
- if it is not, then there is no legal requirement to do so as clearly it is not anew build property (if it were then building regulations certainly require it) but would you do that to your own child's bedroom in your own house? Thought not !

surprised you even ask the question, as a LL by all means spend wisely but there are some things which transcend cost saving - people's safety is one in my book

G_M

As others have said, it all depends if you will be letting it as an HMO (much stricter rules) or not.

Google "HMO xyz council" to see your local councils rules.

schwam66

Thank you for your replies, it's a 3 bed semi would be just a family not HMO, there would be a decent size window on the stairs someone could get out and we are planning a fire escape in the back bedroom to get out onto a flat roof, I would think this would be enough I was more curious if there was one needed in EACH bedroom? As someone mentioned not being a cheap skate or anything just not going to put one in each room if its fine in only one.

teneighty

Generally replacement windows need to comply with Building Regulations so either a Building Regulations Application is needed or the windows installed by a "Competent Person" such as a FENSA registered installer.


One requirement is for egress windows for escape in the event of fire, to all dwellings, not just HMO's. Generally openings should be no smaller than original and ideally be of a minimum dimension to allow a person to climb out. It gets quite technical so I will not bother to reproduce all the details but you can look it up at your leisure.

G_M

There are no special requirements for rented (non HMO) properties. Just standard building regs (use a FENSA installer who can self-certify).

PasturesNew

In a real/proper fire situation, it's unlikely that anybody in the bedrooms would be able to/wish to go onto the landing at all. They'd be in their bedroom and looking to escape through the window in that room.

Get the fire brigade round to advise. They'd rather come out now and advise, than during/after a fire saying "shouldn't have done it like that".