Houses in Multiple Occupation fire safety guidance

This guide to fire safety does not set prescriptive or new standards; it contains general advice on how to ensure adequate fire safety.

Both the national fire safety guidance and this quick reference guide are only guidance, HMOs due to their very nature vary in size and layout with differing degrees of shared facilities and communal spaces. Requirements may vary from property to property dependent upon the risks presented. Further guidance should be sought on matters you are unsure about or if a property does not fit with the examples provided within these documents.

The design of any systems for fire safety measures should take into account a suitable fire safety risk assessment (see Appendix B).

Alternative fire safety measures may be carried out in order to achieve an equivalent level of fire safety having taken into account a suitable fire safety risk assessment (see Appendix A). Similarly the existing fire safety requirements in a property may not be the same as those recommended but as long as it can be demonstrated that they meet an equivalent standard of fire safety they are likely to be acceptable. If it is found that existing arrangements are not satisfactory then there may be other ways to comply with the requirements.

The examples provided relate to some of the most commonly encountered types of residential premises and suggests fire safety solutions, which if applied could achieve an acceptable standard of fire safety.

The examples provided assume a normal level of risk and that the occupiers are: able bodied, not from any particularly vulnerable group (e.g. impaired sight or hearing, elderly or frail or people with alcohol or drug dependency) and that there are no particular other high risk factors. Where this is not the case a higher and higher risk factors are present then higher levels of fire safety may be required.

Legislation may change over time and the advice given is based on the information available at the time this guidance was produced. It is not necessarily comprehensive and is subject to revision in the light of further information becoming available. This guidance is intended to illustrate good practice and is not intended to be seen as a definitive interpretation of, nor a substitute for the relevant law, that can only be done by the courts or tribunals. Independent legal advice should be sought where appropriate.