There are quite a few new regulations coming into force on 1 October. One of them relates to smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.
These will provide that landlords must
- Install a smoke alarm on every floor of their property
- Fit a carbon monoxide detector in rooms containing a solid fuel appliance
- Check that all alarms are working at the start of every new tenancy (it will then be down to the tenants to test them during the tenancy)
The new regulations will be enforced by local authorities who have the power to levy a penalty charge of up to £5,000.
As an incentive to landlords, all Fire & Rescue Services have been provided with a supply of smoke and carbon monoxide alarms by the Government, to be distributed to landlords free of charge (as announced here in March).
So if you want one of these, you will need to contact your Local Fire & Rescue service to find out how you can claim one.
You may be able to find something on their website or on your local authority website. If not, ring them up and ask them about it.
NB Our Autumn 2015 Update Workshop will be looking at this along with all the other new legislation coming into force in October.
The legislation does only seem to require CO alarms for SOLID fuel, which is surprising to me as gas appliances are much more common and are not free of risks but at least at this point do not need alarms.
“(it will then be down to the tenants to test them during the tenancy)” is great to have in the new law. For once a law removes a problem from landlords.
I don’t think that the new regulations says anything about this, actually.
The risk of CO from a gas boiler that has had its safety check is a LOT lower then a SOLID fuel fire/boiler. Given that most social housing does not provide CO alarms, it would have been unreasonable to expect private landlords to do so.
Since most smoke alarms have an expiry date, who is responsible if the alarm is out of date? Tenant/landlord?
Surely if it is during the tenancy, it would be down to the Tenant to at least notify the Landlord or get a new one themselves.
If the tenant wants a chance at surviving if a fire struck then they should use their common sense and test the alarm, it’s not really rocket science….