What level of automatic coverage should an HMO have?

Deciding the actual coverage that you are required to provide is the key to getting competitive pricing from fire alarm companies.

For the landlord, the various types of system seem complicated and the advice that you are given can sometimes be quite confusing, and conflicting.

Having recently had quite a few enquiries, WFP have been putting together a list of common questions, together with our answers and explanations, and hopefully these will help when deciding which way to go.

Questions

1. What level of coverage should an HMO have?

As I am sure that you’ve heard before, that depends on what the requirements of the local authority are.

You are often asked to meet the requirements of BS5839 Part 6, however this is only part of the answer. For us to provide a solution we require a little more information such as; Areas of coverage, Sound levels, which grade coverage and so on.  We have tried to answer some of these questions below and will be adding more information in the coming few months.

2. What are the areas that you are looking to cover?

Such as ‘Common areas’ or ‘entire building’ and will you have to link to the shop unit below or offices next door?

3. What level and grade of coverage are you looking to achieve?

For us this is the key information, as this actually tells us the nature of the amount of automatic detection that you need in an area and how you want this to operate.

To elaborate, the LEVEL of coverage refers to the following types

LD1, LD2 & LD3

The L is LIFE, the D is DOMESTIC and the NUMBER refers to the areas of the building that you are trying to cover, ie

1 - All areas over 1M squared

2 - All escape routes and areas which could affect the escape routes, as well as a defined area of risk such as a boiler room

3 - All escape routes and areas which could affect the escape routes

The GRADE of coverage refers to the technology type of the automatic detection device; ie

Grade A is an industry standard alarm system compliant with BS5839 part 1 (As opposed to part 6 noted above) with a 72 hour standby battery supply

The GRADES go from A-F and from our point of view are irrelevant after A, as the remainder consist of variations of domestic smoke detectors which range from battery powered only, to mains and battery powered and linked together.  Suffice to say that if it is not Grade A then the fire detection system will not meet the requirements of BS5839 Part 1 2002 +A2, which, in our experience, is the only one that matters in 99% of HMOs that require fire alarms.

4. How noisy should it be?

The standards require that the sound levels are 60-65dB (decibels) in all areas and 75dB when measured at the bedhead.

Basically this boils down to a requirement for a sounder in almost every area of the building. And it does rely on being based on a background level of not more than 55dB.

Other Questions

If you have any questions with regard to HMOs please ask and we will be happy to help you, either on the blog or over the phone in the office on 0845 481 0307.  As we recieve more questions we will add to this post to make it a more useful resource

Standards

BS5839 Part 1 2002 +Amendment 2 is available from the BSI

BS5839 Part 6 is also available from the BSI

Tags: Advice and tips for HMO's Houses in Multiple Occupation