No handrail on stairs in rented house

cstreet

Moneymaker - then why are handrails installed anywhere if in your opinion no one needs one? Surely you must appreciate some people need additional support due to mobility issues.

SqueezyPig

I believe the landlord should install one. As it is, if you or your child have a fall which could have been prevented with a handrail (ie, you weren't carrying something in two hands as you went up the stairs) it seems likely he would be liable.

While there is no prescribed legal requirement for a handrail as such, he has a legal duty to your health and safety and a handrail is pretty well established to being necessary for safe stairs in a variety of contexts, it's not an unreasonable or unusual thing to request.

I'm a health and safety professional, but in the workplace rather than anything to do with property, obviously the requirements in rented property are very different to those in the workplace so my opinion can't be considered professional advice.

However, considering a handrail is a normal safety measure on stairs, you've explicitly requested one, you have a young child using the stairs and you are pregnant she would have very little defence were an accident to occur if she's forbidding you from installing one*. On that basis it's clearly in her best interests to install one in the first place and actually fulfil her legal duty to provide you with a home that is safe.

*This could be important, if she's saying 'you can put one up yourself, but I'm not going to' that's different to her saying 'I won't put one up and you better not either'.

Mojisola

cstreet wrote: »

Moneymaker - then why are handrails installed anywhere if in your opinion no one needs one? Surely you must appreciate some people need additional support due to mobility issues.

I certainly used the handrails when I was carrying an infant up and down stairs.

If you feel you need a rail, follow the advice in the posts above and get one installed.

Money_maker

I wasn't aware that you had mobility issues. If this is the case then you definitely need to push this with the landlord. I'm surprised you didn't mention your problems when you inspected the upstairs.

Miss_Samantha

If the child hurts himself in the stairs it will be the fault of his guardians, not the landlord.

Alice_Walker

cstreet wrote: »

Moneymaker - then why are handrails installed anywhere if in your opinion no one needs one? Surely you must appreciate some people need additional support due to mobility issues.

Do you have mobility issues or are you just pregnant?

Have you asked the LL if you can install one yourself and remove it when you leave? If you feel you or your child is at risk this seems the obvious solution, focus on your safety not arguing the point with the LL.

teddysmum

My children were, and toddler grandchildren are, encouraged to go downstairs on their bottoms, so there's no danger of toppling.

Cakeguts

When you looked at the upstairs part of this house before you rented it you must have noticed that there wasn't a hand rail on the stairs or did you think it didn't matter and that the landlord would install one? What else are you going to find about this house that you didn't notice when you viewed?

HiToAll

Is the OP in receipt of benefits, or working?

Out,_Vile_Jelly

SqueezyPig wrote: »

While there is no prescribed legal requirement for a handrail as such, he has a legal duty to your health and safety

There is a legal obligation to have gas boilers checked annually, but AFAIK that is the extent of a LL's connection to a tenant's "health and safety". Otherwise, where would it end?