Fire Safety Compliant?

wary

Our son rents a ground floor flat which has no opening windows and just a front door – hence he is questioning whether it is fire safety compliant.  It was rented out by Dexters so I’d assume that they’d ensure it is compliant.  But please can someone advise for definite, and point me to a website where it explains the rules & regulations relating to this, which I could pass on to him?

Thanks 

Section62

wary said:

Our son rents a ground floor flat which has no opening windows and just a front door – hence he is questioning whether it is fire safety compliant.  It was rented out by Dexters so I’d assume that they’d ensure it is compliant.  But please can someone advise for definite, and point me to a website where it explains the rules & regulations relating to this, which I could pass on to him?

Thanks 

If this is in England then the principal document is Approved Document B (Requirement B1) of the building regulations

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fire-safety-approved-document-b

It isn't easy reading material though, and as situations vary so much, finding an accurate easy explainer of how the rules apply in his situation is likely to be tricky.

With flats generally the issue is with having an effective means of alerting people (an alarm) and protected routes for exiting the building to a safe place.  Ground floor flats are usually treated as houses, just to add to the confusion.

Typically you don't need opening windows as well as a door - in many situations evacuation via a window is not feasible anyway - so the focus is usually on whether the layout of the flat is suitable for evacuation by the front door only, and then whether the route from the flat front door to the outside meets all the requirements of the regulations.

If you need to be sure then your son is probably going to need to employ a fire safety expert to do an assessment.  This subject is pretty specialist and in a state of flux (post-Grenfell) - there's a good chance that simple online resources may be out of date.

Choirgrl

There's information about landlord fire safety responsibilities here: https://www.gov.uk/private-renting/your-landlords-safety-responsibilities
and a bit more detail here: https://www.nrla.org.uk/news/the-complete-fire-safety-guide-for-landlords

One door and no opening windows doesn’t sound like adequate escape routes to me.

wary

Thanks Section62.  

His flat is actually a house which has been divided into two, and he has the ground floor where the door opens out into the street.

elsien

How non-opening are they?
Not possible to open at all, or fitted with window restrictors? 

wary

elsien said:

How non-opening are they?
Not possible to open at all, or fitted with window restrictors? 

Not possible to open at all.  It's a former shop!

Section62

wary said:

Thanks Section62.  

His flat is actually a house which has been divided into two, and he has the ground floor where the door opens out into the street.

Does his door open directly to the street, or is there a corridor/lobby between?

wary

Section62 said:

wary said:

Thanks Section62.  

His flat is actually a house which has been divided into two, and he has the ground floor where the door opens out into the street.

Does his door open directly to the street, or is there a corridor/lobby between?

His front door takes him straight out into the open.  Also, there is no corridor on the inside either - the door opens straight into the lounge which is open plan.

Section62

wary said:

Section62 said:

wary said:

Thanks Section62.  

His flat is actually a house which has been divided into two, and he has the ground floor where the door opens out into the street.

Does his door open directly to the street, or is there a corridor/lobby between?

His front door takes him straight out into the open.  Also, there is no corridor on the inside either - the door opens straight into the lounge which is open plan.

And the lounge then leads into separate rooms which each have their own doorway, but no opening windows?

Are there any rooms which don't have a doorway to the lounge? I.e. you have to pass through another room to get to the lounge.

wary

Section62 said:

wary said:

Section62 said:

wary said:

Thanks Section62.  

His flat is actually a house which has been divided into two, and he has the ground floor where the door opens out into the street.

Does his door open directly to the street, or is there a corridor/lobby between?

His front door takes him straight out into the open.  Also, there is no corridor on the inside either - the door opens straight into the lounge which is open plan.

And the lounge then leads into separate rooms which each have their own doorway, but no opening windows?

Are there any rooms which don't have a doorway to the lounge? I.e. you have to pass through another room to get to the lounge.

Lounge & kitchen are combined / open plan.  There is a door to his bedroom, which has an ensuite bathroom.  That's it (it is only a small flat).  Only windows (non-opening) are at the front, and cover most of the front of the flat along with the door.  They're very large and would facilitate an easy escape route if broken.

user1977

Without going into detail about the regulations, it will largely depend on the size - if it's a small place then there's less risk of a fire developing in such a way as to prevent your exit.