We are in the process of getting quotes etc for a fire alarm for the communal area for our block of flats (NB not an HMO, these flats are individual units, with a communal stairway). Anyone have any idea what the legalities of this are (fire officer / surveyor?)- I understand that the communal areas come under the regs which cover work places and as such need smoke/heat detectors, sighnage and emergency lighting.
Am I corret?
What about individual flats? It seems our freeholder has is going with a quote which implies that we will also have to have something installed in individual flats? Is this correct? (I dont think it is - obviously doesn't come under communal areas, but are there any regs I have missed?) - whilst I am very pro fire safety - smoke alarms, planned escape route etc (been caught in a fire myself when I was younger and it was blinkin' scary - never ever again) I have a number of issues with their plans (we are supposed to hand over keys to our flats so the workmen can get in (supervised by the freeholders dodgy site manager who I wouldn't trust with my gran let alone the contents of my flat), they wont be making good any damage to paint work - that is down to us), so want to arm myself (and my fellow lesees from other flats) with as much ammo as we can get before we tell them what they propose is unacceptable in its present form (and hence the reason why we are going to excercise our right to manage and get more say in the running of the site).
