This article no longer applies as these regulations have been published and brought into force in England. Please see this article for full details of the final regs.
The Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (England) Regulations 2015 contain the draft proposals which will require landlords to install and check smoke and CO alarms.
The proposals apply to England only and will commence from 1 October 2015.
Installation of alarms
- a smoke alarm is equipped on each storey of the premises on which there is a room used wholly or partly as living accommodation and
- a carbon monoxide alarm is equipped in any room of the premises which is used wholly or partly as living accommodation and contains a solid fuel burning combustion appliance
When determining a storey or room, a bathroom or lavatory is to be treated as a room used as living accommodation. As a result, a half landing containing a bathroom or toilet alone would be counted as a storey and require a smoke alarm.
The duty appears (in current draft form) to apply to all tenancies (existing and new) from 1 October 2015.
The duty will apply to all types of tenancy or licemce with a very limited number of exemptions. One exemption is where there are lodgers in a landlords own home.
Checking alarms
checks are made by or on behalf of the landlord to ensure that each prescribed alarm is in proper working order on the day the tenancy begins if it is a new tenancy.
We have no objection to requiring a check before a new tenant moves in but this seems a little extreme that the check must be done “on the day the tenancy begins”.
Student agents would have a great deal of trouble with this because they could easily have in excess of 200 students moving in on exactly the same day. Or, how is the 80 year old landlord with one property going to achieve this? Take a ladder with them “on the start day of the tenancy”?
For example we personally have many flats that we rent and it is not fair to ask us to check “on the day” because we already have a routine of regular checking all our smoke alarms and it’s not just a simple “press of a button” when you have proper mains fitted smoke alarms. Why do I need to do yet another check when it was done only a week earlier whilst the property was empty during viewings for example? In any event, the smoke alarms will be regularly checked throughout the tenancy anyway.
The next problem is what does “proper working order” mean? We can assure you on a CO alarm, pressing the button in no way whatsoever checks whether the device is working. It simply checks the sounder is working and nothing more. I for one will not be carrying around poisonous carbon monoxide to carry out a check on the alarm so I would like to know how to do checks. I have emailed the charity CO Awareness the question of how to test a CO alarm and have been met with silence despite them being very keen and active to get an alarm fitted!
Further, will the pressing of the button be sufficient in respect of smoke alarms? We test all our alarms with very special smoke spray and then time how long it takes to react. That is how to properly test a smoke alarm. What I don’t know though is whether pressing the test button on a battery type smoke alarm is equally sufficient.
It is submitted the checks should be clarified in the regulations. If the test button being pressed is sufficient then they should say so. If the test button alone is not sufficient, the regs should stipulate with more precision what would be acceptable in respect of “proper working order”. It should also stipulate a more reasonable date for checks such as if it was checked within six or three months of a new tenancy, further checks wouldn’t need doing again.
To simplify, there could even be a distinction between a “mains powered” alarm (that may have battery backup) and a smoke alarm which has a “replaceable battery” (many smoke alarms are on a 10 year battery which can’t be replaced and are simply disposed of – hence the suggested term “replaceable”). An insistence to check the “replaceable battery” is in working order before a new tenancy to ensure any previous tenant hasn’t removed the battery would be sensible. However, the same regime for a mains powered or long life battery shouldn’t be necessary in our view as long as there is some testing routine in place or the alarm was checked recently.
Checking that it works on the day the tenancy begins only applies to a ‘new tenancy’ which means if it was granted on or after 1 October 2015. This requirement to check does not apply to a renewal where the landlord, tenant and premises are the same as previously let, nor does it apply if the tenancy becomes statutory periodic.
I raised the subject of gas testing CO alarms with Leigh Greenham from CoGDEM and this was his response…
There are no laws or regulations that cover the gas testing of domestic CO alarms. In the guidance standard EN 50292, users are advised to follow the instructions of the alarm’s manufacturer, and usually this means a regular push of the test button. This actually does more than just test the ‘siren or circuitry’, if the alarm is fully compliant to the alarm performance standard EN 50291, the unit will automatically test its own sensor for short-circuit or open-circuit conditions, this is a requirement of the standard that is often ignored by those companies who want to sell more cans of gas. Pressing the test button and getting a positive result therefore tests the siren, the LEDs, the battery, the sensor, the circuitry and the software.
If for example a Gas Safe Engineer is conducting an annual Landlord’s Gas Safety Check and wants to use a CO gas-testing can to test the CO alarm that is fine, as he will be a trained and competent individual. We are less confident about the thought of untrained individuals using cans of CO.
do they have to be linked together?
These are only draft proposals at the moment so best to wait until they are fully published. However, the draft doesn’t mention about connecting them.
Sensor inclusive testing of CO alarms can be easily, quickly and cheaply carried out by an engineer or competent DIY’er with a Detectagas kit.
Detectagas is non flammable, non hazardous and ozone friendly. There are no hard warning labels required on the can.
We first patented this product in 2004 and have won more industry awards than any other product in the gas detection sector.
The so called “test button” DOES NOT test the detectors ability to sense gas. This is confirmed in the manuals of the better CO alarms on the market. See the You Tube demo on Detectagas for absolute confirmation.
The CO alarm manufacturers and their trade association CoGDEM have tried to bury this issue for 15 years but have continued to sell alarms in volume since the British Standard was published in 1996 despite being aware that the life expectancy of the sensor is unpredictable due to airborne pollutants such as cooking fumes and cigarette smoke and despite many reports from the USA and UK finding CO alarm reliability lacking with around 45% found to be no longer sensing gas in tests including the HSE. Indeed, in one report it was found that 16% were not working out of the box.
For a more up to date picture search “Hackney Homes-Journal of Public Health and Environment 2013” which removes the previously used “Ah, that was then this is now” argument whenever an adverse report on CO alarms has been published in the past.
Over 25 million CO alarms have been sold in the UK since 1996; we suspect that over 50% are no longer sensing gas. The independent reports back this up.
A ten year warrantee on a life saving product which costs a few pounds to make in China when there a many adverse reports on reliability and massive product recalls is ridiculous.
In the USA the Fire Department Standard (NFPA720) requires that all domestic CO alarms are tested on installation and at least annually with a known source of calibrated test gas.
What has the UK industry done about the 500,000 alarms sold in 1996 ? That’s 19 years ago with increasing sales ever since. Where are those alarms now ? Do they seriously believe that they are still sensing gas ? If the battery is changed and the circuit is good they will still indicate that they are in good order. How long will it be until someone dies with a faulty alarm in place ? It has already happened in the US and there have been near misses in the UK.
This is why we have been campaigning with the Government to effect change. It has taken us years, the truth is finally out but the alarm manufacturers trade association still bang the old drum to do their primary duty of protecting the commercial interests of their members.
CO Awareness and other charities are fully aware of the situation and used to endorse the sensor inclusive testing of CO alarms. Interesting that they are now silent on this but keen to promote CO alarm sales…
Not clever when peoples lives are at stake.
We are now working with BSI to develop a British Standard (PAS) for the sensor inclusive testing of domestic CO alarms. It will take some time but in the meantime the Energy Act 2015 is clear.
A landlord must have a WORKING carbon monoxide alarm. The only way to ensure that it’s fully working is with a sensor inclusive test.
That’s why I invented Detectagas in the first place having been involved in the first British Standard in 1995/6.
The onus is now on the landlords not the CO alarm manufactures or those with a vested interest.
John Stones
Managing Director
Gas Safe Europe Ltd
As at 9 September 2015, the draft regulations as described in this article have been thrown out by the House of Lords. See this article for details.
Watch this space for updates as we get them.