Further clarification on smoke and carbon monoxide alarms

Following on from our recent article there has now been a further update concerning alarms in properties.  This has been necessary as, unfortunately, this whole thing has been dealt with pretty badly so clarification was needed.

Basically the Landlord will have an obligation to fit an alarm on each storey of a rental property and a carbon monoxide alarm in any room which contains a solid fuel appliance. However, there has been no definition of what constitutes an alarm in terms of minimum requirements under British Standards so it seems any old thing will do.

Where a local authority believes a Landlord is not compliant then it is obliged to serve a remedial notice on him within 21 days.  The Landlord then has 28 days to make representation to the Local Authority as well as remedy the situation. If the Local Authority believes that the Landlord has not remedied the situation then they are obliged to do so within 28 days.  Perversely the Local Authority has no power to recover the costs of this work

If this regulation changes again we will of course let you know.