HMO fire risk assessment.

A house in multiple occupation is occupied by more than one household, so the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applies to it and the responsible person, usually the landlord or managing agent, must carry out and record a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment. In a shared house that covers the whole property, not just a hallway. The Housing Act 2004 runs alongside it: the council’s HMO licence conditions, the HMO Management Regulations and the housing health and safety rating system all turn on the same fire precautions.

The national benchmark for existing HMOs is the LACORS guide Housing Fire Safety, which local housing authorities use when setting licence conditions and deciding enforcement. It sets out what a shared house or bedsit HMO of a given size should have in terms of detection, escape route protection and fire doors. Departing from it is possible where the risk assessment justifies it, but the departure and the reason have to be recorded.

In Greater Manchester, a mandatory licence is needed where five or more people from two or more households share facilities, and several boroughs run additional or selective licensing that brings smaller HMOs into scope. Licence conditions can be stricter than the national benchmark, including on the alarm grade and the electrical inspection interval. We confirm the conditions for your borough and your property, rather than assuming from the postcode.

• The escape route: whether the hall, stairs and landings form a protected route, what the walls and ceilings around them are made of, and how far anyone has to travel to reach the front door.
• Doors onto the escape route: bedroom, kitchen and living room doors: whether they are fire doors, whether they self-close, and the condition of the frame, strips and seals where the storey count calls for them.
• Fire detection and alarm: the grade and category of the system against the LACORS benchmark for the size and type of HMO, the location of every detector, and the test and service record.
• Emergency lighting: whether the escape route needs it, and the condition and test record of what is fitted.
• Kitchens: the heat alarm, the cooker, the fire blanket, and any cooking facilities in bedrooms, which change the detection category.
• Cellars, lofts and conversions: rooms created in loft or basement spaces, which are often left with no detection and no proper escape, and the fire separation of any cellar.
• Electrical and gas: the EICR, the gas safety record, portable appliances, and the location of the consumer unit in relation to the escape route.
• Management: the tenant fire information, the test log, the fire door and escape route checks, and whether any of it is written down.

We go into every room. The most common HMO findings we raise are a converted loft or cellar bedroom with no detection, a mix of alarm makes that do not interlink properly, and fire doors with the closers removed by tenants. All three are what a licensing inspection will pick up too.

LACORS sets the expected standard by the type of HMO and the number of storeys. The figures below are the normal-risk starting points. Higher risk, such as cooking in bedrooms or vulnerable occupants, pushes the standard up, and your licence conditions can too.

LACORS predates the current edition of BS 5839-6, so its Grade D reads as Grade D1 today: mains alarms with a tamper-proof standby supply. Where the HMO has separate lettings sharing common parts, the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 also require the landlord to give occupants fire safety instructions and information on fire doors, and to re-issue them at least every twelve months.

You receive a written assessment of the whole property with the significant findings, a risk rating and a prioritised action plan. Each action cites the benchmark it comes from, names the location and the defect, and describes the finished outcome, so your licensing officer can see the reasoning and any contractor can price the work.

Where your council’s licence conditions ask for more than LACORS, the report says so and treats the condition as the standard. Where we assess that a benchmark can be relaxed for your property, the departure and the reason are recorded, because an unrecorded departure is the thing an inspector will challenge.

Where the action plan calls for alarm, emergency lighting or electrical works, we can quote for them and carry them out on your approval, so one firm takes the property from assessment to licence-ready. The assessment fee is fixed and the actions are written so that any competent contractor can do the work.

HMOs are the core of our work. We are qualified electricians and registered fire risk assessors, we install and certify the Grade D1 and Grade A systems the benchmarks call for, and we know what each Greater Manchester borough’s licensing team expects to see.

• NFRAR: National Fire Risk Assessors Register.
• IFSM: Associate member of the Institute of Fire Safety Managers.
• Qualified electricians in-house: for the alarm, lighting and electrical works that follow.
• Fixed fee: the assessment costs the same however many findings there are, and you are free to use any contractor.