As a landlord you have a legal responsibility to ensure a functioning smoke alarm is installed on each storey of your property and a carbon monoxide detector in any room containing a solid fuel burning appliance. Additionally, you must test the alarms at the start of every new tenancy.
A fine of up to £5000 can be imposed for failure to comply with these regulations.
You can read more about The Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (England) Regulations 2015 on the UK government’s website.
Types of alarm:
The regulations do not require you to install a specific type of alarm: they can be battery powered or hard-wired. However, we would strongly advise landlords to consider hard-wired alarms as these provide maximum protection for your property and tenant.
Hardwired smoke alarms provide added peace of mind as weak or expired batteries may prevent the alarm from sounding, meaning the difference between life and death or catastrophic damage to your property. Hardwired smoke alarms can also be interconnected with other alarms in the house/building, so when one is activated all the others will sound too. This can prevent the fire from spreading from one area of the house without you realising.
Worried about power outages? Hardwired alarms have battery backups for continuous operation.
Source: Home Office Fire Statistics
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Want to book Smoke Alarm Installation or enquire about our Landlord services? Call us on 01684 607030 or drop us a message.