Fire Safety Law - 

 If you own,manage or operate a business you will need to comply with fire safety law

New buildings

Architects, when drawing up plans for new building or extensions to existing buildings, must take account of the use the building is being put and the relevant fire protection measures. This involves complying with current building regulation, particularly Part B of those regulations, which deal with fire safety.

Ensuring you remain compliant with the law. 

Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005

The Order applies to virtually all buildings, places and structures other than private dwellings (see dwellings) and it is your responsibility to ensure your premises or place of work is safe from the effects of fire. 

Types of premises include:- shops, offices, factories, warehouses, hotels, hostels, guesthouses, care homes, nursing homes, schools, universities, village halls, night clubs, theatres, cinemas, concert halls, pubs, restaurants, churches, marquees, open air events, fairgrounds, sport stadia, museums, hospital, healthcare premises, surgeries, airports, railway stations, bus stations, horse stables.

The emphasis for compliance is, just like Health and Safety, risk assessment. Enforcement of the Order lies with the local fire and rescue service (the enforcing authority) that have the responsibility to ensure your fire risk assessment and the actions taken to act upon the findings of that assessment. In the event they deem your actions unsuitable or insufficient they have a range of options from prosecution or issuing an enforcement through to an improvement plan. 

Compliance

It therefore makes sense to get it right. It pays to ensure that any fire safety advice is compliant with the risk and that the recommended remedial advice is both correct and cost effective.  

By employing a competent person from JTP Associates you can eradicate the pitfalls and ensure full compliance.  Our risk assessors are fully conversant with the legal requirements and the additional guidance that will not always be readily available to you.    

Dwellings

Whilst single dwellings are exempt from the Order, any common areas of flats and houses of multiple occupancy (HIMOs) are not. Landlords have a duty to undertake a fire risk assessment in the same way as employers. Also in this type of premises there is a responsibility for the safety of each tenant under the Housing Act 2004.

News Item

Prosecutions.

Two property management companies and their directors have been fined £32,400 for managing an unlicensed house of multiple occupancy (HMO) in north London which posed a fire risk to tenants. The prosecution, mounted by Camden Council, related to a three storey townhouse in Swiss Cottages that had no fire detection or alarm system,and no fire doors. BP Associates Limited and Blix Limited were each fined £13,800, and their director was fined £4,800. There were eight fire related offences and three other management offences, including a failure to licence the property.

Solitaire Property Management Limited has been fined a total of £1,500 and ordered to pay costs of £2,000 after pleading guilty to two fire safety offences.

Information source -    

Fire Protection Association

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