Fire safety in your home

Both landlords and residents are responsible for checking and improving fire safety in residential properties. 

You should always let your landlord know straight away if you have any concerns about fire safety.  

As a tenant, you must make sure that you don’t create a fire hazard in your home. For example, by storing flammable items on your balcony, or by blocking fire escape routes. Residents should make sure they and their visitors are aware of building fire safety measures, including the evacuation plan for your building. 

You should test the fire alarm in your home each month and replace the batteries if they do not work. You must tell your landlord straight away if you cannot change the batteries yourself.  

Residents should also avoid making changes that could block escape routes, such as removing doors that act as firebreaks. It is important to keep all escape paths unobstructed and ensure that keys to any necessary exit doors are easily accessible to all occupants.

If there are any concerns about safely exiting the property in an emergency or using fire safety equipment, residents should inform their landlord promptly.

Your landlord must: 

• provide smoke alarms on each floor of your home 
• check the alarms are working when your tenancy begins 
• repair or replace faulty smoke alarms 
• install a carbon monoxide alarm if there is a gas appliance in habitable rooms (bedrooms/living rooms) of the property, or solid fuel burner 
• make sure that front doors of flats and communal areas (like corridors and staircases) have self-closing fire doors installed 

Landlords and freehold owners of residential buildings have a legal duty to make sure that a fire risk assessment is carried out and remove any fire risks and hazards, or to reduce these as far as possible. 

Landlords should make sure that fire exits and escape routes in buildings are not blocked, and that everyone in the building knows the evacuation plan in case there is a fire. 

There are special fire safety obligations on landlords of specialised housing such as sheltered or supported housing or a property that needs a license from the council, such as a house of multiple occupation (HMO). 

Fire safety in rented homes - Shelter England

Landlords have a legal obligation to have the gas supply and gas appliances in their properties checked every year by a gas safety engineer, and to provide a gas safety certificate to their tenants at the start of the tenancy, and then within 28 days of every annual check. 

Landlords also have a legal duty to install carbon monoxide detectors in any rooms where a solid fuel can be burned (such as on a wood or coal burning stove). 

You should contact your landlord if you are worried about gas safety in your home.  

If your landlord does not do this, you can report it to the Health and Safety Executive. 

Gas safety - Tenants (hse.gov.uk)

If you think there is a gas leak in your property, you should contact the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999. 

Emergencies and safety advice | National Gas

Find out more from the NHS about signs of carbon monoxide poisoning. 

For information on gas safety, call the free Gas Safety Advice Line on 0800 300 363. 

Local authorities’ environmental health teams have powers to inspect council and housing association properties. 

You can ask an environmental health team to inspect your property if you are concerned there are fire risks.

They may assess: 

• ensure you have a safe means of escape (also known as 'protected means of escape'.)
• the position of cookers and heaters 
• the adequacy of space heating facilities, including any defects or disrepair 
• clothing drying facilities 
• sockets and other electrical installations 
• fire stops, internal doors, self-closers 
• disrepair causing a fire risk 
• fire safety equipment such as smoke / heat detectors, fire extinguishers, lightning protection systems; and other fire safety measures like means of escape. 

Local authorities have enforcement powers to ask the person responsible to address and remedy any hazards identified in an inspection. While EHOs can inspect properties owned by local housing authorities, they cannot take enforcement action. Where a a serious hazard is identified, local authorities can also carry out any required works themselves and charge the person responsible. 

You can also seek advice from your regional fire and rescue department (such as the London Fire Brigade). If you request it, they will come and inspect communal areas of residential blocks and inside your home. 

As fire safety authorities, they can enforce landlords’ legal fire safety obligations outside your home and in your building. 

Some fire safety authorities also make fire safety visits to evaluate the risk of fire inside your property and provide advice to address fire risks and hazards. You should contact your local fire safety authority directly for more information.  

The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) in England is part of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

BSR sets out rules to protect the design and construction of higher-risk buildings. They help give residents confidence in the safety and standards of their building.

The Housing Ombudsman and the Building Safety Regulator are working on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
To clearly outline how the two bodies work together and clarify the route to raise a complaint.

BSR may be able to assist you if you have concerns about a building safety risk in a high-rise building, or the performance of an accountable person or principal accountable person.

Contact BSR about a building safety risk in a high-rise building

If your concern relates to how your landlord has managed your wider complaint about fire safety, you can contact the Ombudsman.