Fire door duties in HMOs and shared housing

A house in multiple occupation packs more people, more cooking and more bedrooms into a building than it was often originally designed for, and usually puts those bedrooms off a shared staircase that is the only way out. That concentration of risk is exactly why fire doors count for so much in HMOs, and why the duties around them deserve attention.

This article sets out who is responsible for fire doors in an HMO, the rules that bear on them, and how to stay on the right side of compliance.

Who is responsible

In an HMO, fire safety duties fall in two overlapping places. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 places the main duty on the responsible person for the common parts, which in an HMO is usually the landlord or the managing agent. Separately, the management regulations that apply to HMOs require the manager to maintain fire safety measures in good order, including fire doors.

For licensable HMOs, the local authority licence will often carry specific fire safety conditions on top of that. So an HMO landlord is typically working to the Fire Safety Order, the HMO management duties, and any licence conditions at the same time.

What is expected of the doors

Guidance for HMOs, including the long-standing LACORS fire safety guidance widely used by landlords and local authorities, commonly expects fire-resisting doors, often FD30, to rooms that open onto the escape route, such as bedrooms and kitchens, with self-closing devices where appropriate. The exact requirement depends on the building, its layout and its fire risk assessment, and on what the local authority specifies, so the fire risk assessment and any licence conditions are the place to confirm what applies to a particular HMO.

The principle is consistent with fire doors anywhere: the door, its seals, its closer and its hardware have to work together as an assembly, and have to be kept in good repair. What changes in an HMO is the intensity of use and the vulnerability of the layout, which makes regular checking more important, not less.

The practical pressures

HMOs throw up particular challenges. Tenants change frequently, doors take heavy use, and self-closing devices are a common casualty: residents find them inconvenient and disable or prop them. Kitchens, a frequent ignition point, are exactly where a working fire door is needed most. Keeping doors checked, and keeping residents informed about why the doors must close, is a continuous job rather than a one-off.

There is also a documentation challenge. A landlord with a portfolio of HMOs needs to show, for each property, that fire doors are present where required, are maintained, and have been checked. When a local authority or fire and rescue authority asks, the answer needs to be ready.

Evidencing it

Whatever the specific requirements for a given HMO, the discipline is the same as for any building: a current record per door, showing what it is, that it has been checked, what was found, and that defects were dealt with. For a landlord juggling several HMOs and the occasional licence renewal or inspection, that record is what turns a stressful request for evidence into a quick answer.

How DoorTRACE helps

DoorTRACE keeps a live record of every fire door across a portfolio of properties, scheduled to its check frequency, with defects tracked to completion and a full history behind each door. For HMO landlords and managing agents that means evidence is a few clicks away rather than a scramble. See the HMOs and student housing sector page, the page for HMO landlords, or get in touch.