I'm working with a friend up grading a flat for multi occupancy use. Seemingly the hall cupboard has to be locked and the key removed from the site so that it cannot be confused for the exit door if there is a fire. However the CU is in this cupboard - now it could be argued that it is a good thing that the student occupants do not access to the CU but it does raise an interesting problem if a fuse blows.
Anyone got any experience of this ?
Cheers Rob
Did they say that the key has to be off site?
Can't it be kept in a kitchen cupboard?
tim
On Tue, 14 Aug 2007 23:41:56 +0100, "tim....." mused:
I think the location of the key is a moot point as I'm fairly certain you can't hide a tenants consumer unit in a communal closet.
I think perhaps you are misunderstanding.
This is (I assume) a normal house being rented out to a group of sharers with one CU, covering the whole house, in a cupboard.
It is only the imposition of the HMO rules that puts the CU in a locked cupboard. (I have no idea if this is a normal HMO rule or not)
tim
On Wed, 15 Aug 2007 10:01:13 +0100, "tim....." mused:
Possibly. I read HMO as seperately self contained flats but that's probably just because that's what I'm installing a fire alarm in atm so it's in the front of of my mind.
I don't think the key has to be removed from site and the door locked, if you stand in the hall there's surely more than 2 doors (the exit and the cupboard). Do all these have to be permenantly locked and the keys kept off site? I think a rule may have been misinterpretated somewhere.
Sorry guys - got the 'Off Site' bit wrong, though I'm sure my mate told me that last night! He's now saying that it's up to the 'senior' tenant to keep it locked.
However there's another catch - this cupboard contain the CH boiler and the Corgi guy has insisted that ventilation holes are drilled in one panel on the access door. However the HMO people require that all the panelled doors have anti-tumescent panels attached to increase their fire tolerance time. Bit of a conflict there !
Rob
Replace cupboard lock with "digital" push button lock.
Geo
It's intumescent (anti-tumescent is something else entirely, usually caused by only finding out too late that she wasn't baby-proof). You can get intumescent collars for soil pipes so it shouldn't be too difficult to find an intumescent barrier for some vent holes.
However are these holes required for combustion ventilation of the boiler? If the boiler is open flued I would recommend its immediate replacement on safety grounds.
Owain
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