Landlords letting residential property in England have specific alarm duties, and they are duties of provision and repair rather than of a particular technology. An alarm has to be provided on each storey of the premises used as living accommodation, a carbon monoxide alarm has to be provided in any room used as living accommodation containing a fixed combustion appliance other than a gas cooker, and both have to be repaired or replaced when a tenant reports them faulty.
Where the alarms go
One smoke alarm on each storey of living accommodation, which in a flat means at least one and in a house means one per floor. The practical siting is the circulation space, ceiling mounted, away from the kitchen and bathroom. Building guidance for new and materially altered dwellings goes further and asks for interlinked alarms, and interlinking is worth doing whether or not it is required, because it is what warns somebody asleep on another floor.
Carbon monoxide
A carbon monoxide alarm is required in any room used as living accommodation that contains a fixed combustion appliance, excluding gas cookers. That captures gas boilers in bathrooms and kitchens where those rooms are living accommodation, solid fuel appliances and gas fires. It is a separate device from a smoke alarm and it is sited according to the manufacturer's instructions rather than on the ceiling in the middle of the room.
The repair duty
The landlord must repair or replace an alarm that a tenant reports as faulty. That makes the tenant's report the trigger and the landlord's record of acting on it the evidence, which is why a simple reporting route and a log of what was done is worth setting up at the start of a tenancy rather than after a dispute.
At the start of a tenancy
The alarms must be checked to be in working order on the first day of the tenancy. Recording that check, with the date and the alarms tested, is cheap at the time and is the only evidence available later. Fitting alarms with sealed long life batteries removes the argument about who was supposed to replace a battery.
Smoke alarm types, and which room decides which
Four sensing types and one rule: the room chooses, not the price. An optical head is right for hallways, landings, living rooms and bedrooms, because it responds best to the smouldering fire that starts at night. A heat alarm is right for the kitchen, where a smoke sensor would be silenced within a month, and it triggers on rate of temperature rise rather than on smoke. A multi sensor combines optical smoke with heat and cross checks them, which cuts nuisance alarms in an open plan flat or a hallway next to a shower room. Carbon monoxide alarms are not fire alarms at all and belong in the room with a carbon fuelled appliance, sited as the manufacturer states. Ionisation heads have largely left the market. Whatever the mix, the units have to be interlinked to be worth much in a house with more than one floor, and interlinking is brand specific.
A smoke alarm with light, and who it is for
An alarm with a strobe or a beacon is for anybody who cannot rely on hearing the sounder: a deaf or hard of hearing occupant, somebody who removes hearing aids at night, a person in a noisy environment, or a room where hearing protection is worn. In a home the arrangement that actually wakes a sleeping person is not the strobe but a vibrating pad under the pillow, radio linked to the alarm, and the strobe covers waking hours. In a workplace, beacons are part of the alarm design rather than an accessory, and they are specified where the sounder alone cannot be relied on. Two practical notes: a strobe unit usually needs a mains supply or a linked base rather than a standalone battery alarm, and retrofitting a pad to an existing interlinked system normally needs a radio interface module, which is inexpensive and is the part a general electrician will not have with them.
Questions people ask about smoke alarm installation London
Does an HMO have different requirements?
HMOs carry additional duties under the management regulations and, where licensable, licence conditions that commonly specify a graded system rather than individual alarms.
Do alarms have to be mains powered?
The rented property duties are about provision and working order. Building regulations for new and materially altered dwellings ask for more, and sealed battery units satisfy the letting duties.
Who checks them during the tenancy?
The tenant tests them, and the landlord repairs or replaces on report. Setting the expectation in writing at the start avoids the common misunderstanding.
Is there such a thing as a smoke alarm certificate?
Not as a statutory document for a domestic installation, and there are two things that do exist and are worth having. Where alarms are installed as part of electrical work, the installer issues an electrical installation or minor works certificate covering that work. And in Scotland and Wales, where interlinked alarms are a legal standard for homes, a landlord's record of what is installed, where, and when it was tested is the evidence asked for. A letting agent asking for a smoke alarm certificate usually wants that record plus the electrical paperwork, so send both rather than looking for a form that does not exist.