Scotland - Home Of The Unworkable Law

sheramber

Ours are interlinked and chirp when the battery is low.

They do a good job of telling us when the grilled bacon is ready!

gld73

I can't see how they're going to enforce it - it's an expensive thing to comply with. I rent out a studio flat in Scotland and the requirements already apply to private rental properties ... it cost me almost £1000 to comply with the electrical and smoke/heat detection requirements just for a studio flat, when the person I bought it off had been living there quite happily for years without all that work (he had smoke detectors, but they weren't hardwired interlinked ones, and no had no heat detector).

Maybe it'll be something that will be incorporated into the legal checks when selling a house (like renting it), so that eventually, over decades, all properties will have to comply....?

AdrianC

gld73 wrote: »

I can't see how they're going to enforce it - it's an expensive thing to comply with.

Not if they don't NEED to be interlinked, just "should".

Tenner for a pair of smoke detectors. Another tenner will get you a couple of rechargeable batteries plus charger. Job jobbed.

It's a trivially cheap law to comply with, basic common sense apart. The only way people can realistically object is if they're looking for things to take offence at.

System

If you speak to your local fire and rescue service, lots of them will do a free home inspection and give you alarms if required, so very, very easy to comply with!

iammumtoone

I think enforcing it will be a problem.

For example say I visited a home of someone who didn't have any alarms so decided to report them? What then? I don't know what its like in Scotland but in England the police don't have the resources to do anything about 'minor' crimes anymore so not sure what resource they will have available to combat this.

I do think its a good thing and hope it comes into force here as it will encourage more people to get alarms which can only be a good thing.

Slinky

sheramber wrote: »

Ours are interlinked and chirp when the battery is low.

Which is invariably at 11pm on a Sunday night when the shops are shut and you have no spare battery and no means of turning the mains connected (which still need a battery) off and it's chirping outside your bedroom door.........


I know this from bitter experience.

agrinnall

Slinky wrote: »

Which is invariably at 11pm on a Sunday night when the shops are shut and you have no spare battery and no means of turning the mains connected (which still need a battery) off and it's chirping outside your bedroom door.........


I know this from bitter experience.

How difficult would it have been to have a bit of foresight and keep a spare battery in the house?

Silvertabby

Which is invariably at 11pm on a Sunday night when the shops are shut and you have no spare battery and no means of turning the mains connected (which still need a battery) off and it's chirping outside your bedroom door.........


I know this from bitter experience.
Originally posted by Slinky

agrinnall wrote: »

How difficult would it have been to have a bit of foresight and keep a spare battery in the house?

That's why we check ours every month and keep spare batteries on hand.

We also have a fire blanket and a fire extinguisher on the utility room wall.

Perhaps it's our Armed Forces background.... but some visitors have raised their eyebrows at what they apparently see as 'overkill'.

glasgowdan

Are they going to enforce a law that says all ladders owned by homes must pass safety standards too? And fine anyone who uses a shonky one?

The issue people will have with this is that it belongs in a nanny state. Whether or not it's the best/safest thing to do, it's not for a government to tell people what to have in their own homes.

pinklady21

Shonky.
I love that word! My grandma used to use it all the time, thank you for reminding me of it. Must find lots of ways to use it today!

Agree with you about Nanny State though - and intrigued as to how such a law (regardless of whether it is a good idea or not) can possibly be enforced, retrospectively, in every home in the country.