Tony Carlyon: UK Compliance & Fire Safety

  Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms are one of the few landlord compliance jobs that sound simple and still catch people out, usually because the rules changed in 2022 and a lot of landlords are still working from the old version in their heads. Here is what the current regulations actually require, and where most portfolios fall short. What the regulations require Under the Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (England) Regulations 2015, as amended in October 2022, every rented property must have a working smoke alarm on each storey used as living accommodation. A carbon monoxide alarm is required in any room used as living accommodation that contains a fixed combustion appliance, such as a wood burner, gas fire, or boiler, not just solid fuel appliances as the original 2015 rules stated. Gas cookers are the one exception and do not trigger the requirement on their own. When alarms must be checked You must make sure smoke and carbon monoxide alarms are in working order on the first day ...

  Fire risk assessor pay varies more than most people expect, mostly because the job splits into two very different paths: employed and freelance. If you are weighing up whether it is worth training for, the honest answer depends on which path you are looking at and how much work you are prepared to put into building a client base. Employed salaries An in-house or consultancy fire risk assessor in the UK typically earns between £28,000 and £45,000 a year, depending on region, employer size, and how many assessments you can realistically get through in a week. London and the South East sit at the top of that range. A newly qualified assessor working for a larger consultancy usually starts nearer the bottom, and moves up as they build a track record of assessments that hold up under scrutiny. Freelance day rates Self-employed assessors charge per assessment or per day rather than a salary, and day rates commonly sit between £250 and £450, higher again for large or complex commercial ...

  Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the responsible person has to be able to show that fire precautions are actually being maintained, not just that they were once put in place. A fire safety log book is how you prove that. There is no set format in law, but if a fire officer asks for evidence and you cannot produce any, that gap gets treated the same as if the work was never done at all. What the log book actually needs to record A proper log book covers the fire risk assessment date and who carried it out, weekly fire alarm tests, monthly emergency lighting checks, extinguisher service and inspection dates , fire door checks, fire drill dates and what came out of them, staff fire safety training, and any faults found along with when and how they were fixed. Each entry should have a date and a name attached, not just a tick. An auditor or insurer looking through a log book with no names on it will usually assume the checks were not really carried out. Who shoul...

 Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the responsible person for a workplace has to make sure suitable fire-fighting equipment is provided, and that it works when it is needed. That does not mean piling extinguishers into whichever cupboard has room, the type, number and position all matter, and getting it wrong is one of the more common findings on a fire risk assessment. The main extinguisher types and what they are for Water extinguishers, red label, are for wood, paper and fabric fires, class A. They must never be used on electrical equipment or on burning fat or oil. CO2 extinguishers, black label, are the standard choice near computers, servers and electrical panels because they leave no residue and are safe on live equipment. Foam extinguishers, cream label, cover class A fires and are safer than water around some flammable liquids. Powder extinguishers, blue label, are multi-purpose but rarely recommended indoors any more because the powder cloud can obscur...

 A fire risk assessment for a small office is not a scaled down version of one for a warehouse or a building site, it just has fewer hazards to work through. Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the person responsible for the office, usually the employer or whoever controls the premises, has to carry out a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment, keep it up to date, and act on what it finds. For a small office that mostly means desks, computers, a kitchenette and maybe a server cupboard, so the assessment looks different to one for a factory floor, but the legal duty is exactly the same. What makes an office assessment different Offices tend to have a narrower range of fire hazards than industrial premises. You are mostly looking at electrical equipment (several extension leads daisy chained into one socket is still one of the most common findings), portable heaters, kitchen appliances, and stored paper or card. There is rarely anything flammable in bulk, no w...

 If you're a landlord asking whether you need a licence for your property, the honest answer is it depends on two separate systems that often get mixed up. HMO licensing and selective licensing are not the same thing, and mixing them up is one of the easiest ways to end up unlicensed and facing a fine you didn't see coming. HMO licensing: about the property itself Mandatory HMO licensing comes from Part 2 of the Housing Act 2004. Since October 2018 it applies across England to any house in multiple occupation with 5 or more people from 2 or more households sharing a kitchen, bathroom or toilet, regardless of how many storeys the building has. Before 2018 there was a 3 storey threshold, that's gone now, a 2 storey HMO with 5 unrelated sharers needs a licence just the same as a converted Victorian terrace with 3 floors. Licences are issued by the local council, usually last up to 5 years, and come with conditions attached: minimum room sizes, fire safety standards, refuse arr...

CDM 2015 applies to every construction project in the UK, not just the big notifiable ones, and it hands small contractors real legal duties whether they realise it or not. The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 set out who is responsible for managing health and safety risk at every stage of a build, from a single tradesperson doing a domestic extension to a full site team. If you're a small contractor and you've assumed CDM only applies to large sites with a principal contractor sign on the gate, that assumption is the most common and most costly mistake in the trade. Who counts as what under CDM 2015 The regulations define five duty holders: client, principal designer, principal contractor, designer and contractor. On a small job with only one contractor involved, that contractor takes on the contractor duties directly, which means planning, managing and monitoring the work under their control, and making sure workers are competent and adequately supervi...

A risk assessment and a health and safety policy are not the same document, and mixing them up is one of the most common gaps small businesses have when they get inspected. In short, a risk assessment identifies and controls the specific hazards in your workplace, while a health and safety policy sets out your overall approach, who is responsible for what, and how you manage health and safety across the whole business. You need both, they do different jobs, and one cannot substitute for the other. What a risk assessment actually does A risk assessment is a practical, task-by-task or area-by-area exercise. Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, every employer must assess the risks to employees and anyone else affected by their work, and put suitable controls in place. A risk assessment for a stockroom looks completely different to one for a hairdressing salon or a construction site, because it's built around the actual hazards present: trip hazards, c...

A compliant evacuation plan sets out exactly how everyone in a building gets out safely in an emergency, who is responsible for what, and how anyone who cannot get out unaided is accounted for. It is not a fire escape sign stuck on a wall or a template pulled off the internet with the address changed. Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the responsible person for any non-domestic premises has to have one in place as part of their fire risk assessment, and it needs to reflect the actual building, not a generic layout. What the plan actually needs to cover A proper evacuation plan is a working document, not a poster. It should set out: the escape routes for the building and how they're kept clear and identifiable where the assembly point is, and why it's a safe distance from the building who raises the alarm and how, including out of hours the role of fire marshals or wardens, and who covers when they're off site how the building gets checked to con...

Short answer: yes, in almost all cases. Before you can market a rental property to let it, you need a valid Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) in place, and it has to meet the minimum energy efficiency standard or you cannot lawfully let the property at all. Why it is a legal requirement, not just good practice Under the Energy Performance of Buildings (Certificates and Inspections) (England and Wales) Regulations 2012, an EPC must be commissioned before a property is marketed for let, and a valid one made available to prospective tenants free of charge. On top of that, the Energy Efficiency (Private Rented Property) (England and Wales) Regulations 2015, known as MEES, currently require most rented properties to have a minimum EPC rating of E. Letting a property below that rating without a valid exemption in place is a breach that can lead to a financial penalty from the local authority. What counts as a valid EPC An EPC is valid for 10 years from the date it is issued, so if ...

Short answer: a generic risk assessment and a RAMS document are not interchangeable, and site managers who accept a generic one from a contractor are storing up problems for themselves. A RAMS (Risk Assessment and Method Statement) sets out both the hazards on a specific job and the exact sequence of work used to control them. A generic risk assessment on its own only covers the first half, and most principal contractors will reject it outright. Why a generic risk assessment gets bounced Under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM 2015), contractors have a duty to plan, manage and monitor construction work so it is carried out without risk to health and safety, so far as is reasonably practicable. A risk assessment produced for one job and reused across several sites, with the site name simply swapped out, does not meet that duty. It has not considered the actual access, the actual plant on site that day, or the actual sequence of trades working around each...

Short answer: a health and safety policy is not just a formality, it is a legal document with three required parts, a statement of intent, an organisation section setting out who does what, and arrangements setting out how you actually manage risk day to day. Get any one of those three missing and the policy does not meet the legal standard, however professional it looks. Who actually needs one Under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, every employer has a general duty to look after the health, safety and welfare of employees. Section 2(3) of the Act specifically requires any employer with 5 or more employees to have a written health and safety policy. Below that number you still need to manage risk properly, you just are not legally required to write it down, though in practice most small businesses find having something written keeps them organised and gives them evidence of compliance if anything is ever questioned. Part one: the statement of intent This is the top l...

Short answer: fire doors are not optional extras. They are a specific legal fire safety measure, and both landlords and employers have clear duties to make sure the fire doors in their buildings are the right doors, fitted correctly, and kept in proper working order. Faulty fire doors are one of the most common failures found on fire risk assessments up and down the country. Where the legal duty comes from For workplaces and the common parts of blocks of flats and HMOs, the duty sits with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (the RRO), which requires the “responsible person” to keep fire doors in efficient working order and good repair as part of the wider fire safety measures for the building. Since the Grenfell Tower fire, the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 added specific, legally binding fire door duties for high rise residential buildings: in blocks over 11 metres, the responsible person must check flat entrance doors at least annually and communal fire doors ...