Fire safety in HMO’s
Fire Safety within the home is an extremely important issue, especially in mixed use premises and where unrelated occupiers who live independently from one another, share common areas of the same building. Landlords of HMOs must ensure that there is adequate fire safety in these types of accommodation.
Sandwell Council use the Homestamp guide which has especially been produced to help Landlords with fire safety with their properties.
Guidance has also been introduced by LACROS offering advice for residential building to ensure they are safe from fire.
Many properties have identical layouts and construction and can be treated similarly for fire precautions and means of escape in the absence of complicating factors, which are also outlined in the Homestamp Guidance.
We should strongly recommend that existing landlords or prospective landlords, who are unsure whether they have sufficient fire safety, should contact us for advice and guidance.
For further information about HMO Licensing, contact the HMO Licensing Team: landlord_licensing@sandwell.gov.uk