Website design By BotEap.comGood leasing agents are always working with landlords to promote safety.

Website design By BotEap.comThis includes everything from security certification to risk assessment surveys.

Website design By BotEap.comA UK risk assessment addresses the 29 points of the Home Health and Safety Rating System, HHSRS. This includes security, as well as any means of escape, that is, if a security lock could inadvertently prevent the emergency exit. This is a very limited issue that this article addresses and, in particular, the legal implications of not communicating this to homeowners in connection with an emergency escape from a “Multiple Occupancy House.” Other related aspects will be addressed in later articles.

Website design By BotEap.com1. Leasing agents must ensure that landlords provide a safe exit from each rental property in the event of an emergency.

Website design By BotEap.com2. The subsequent emergency is too late to address these issues.

Website design By BotEap.com3. Any door, from the bedroom to the property’s main exit door (s), must be designed so that keys are not required to escape. Imagine one’s keys in a pocket or purse, but they cannot be found under a bed or chair in a smoky room where alarms go off, housemates yell for help, and emergency vehicle sirens. they sound outside. At that time, tenants must quickly escape without the need to find a room exit key!

Website design By BotEap.com4. Bedroom door locks are not required, but when installed and keys are provided, the inside of bedroom doors should have a rotary lock. That said, it is a selling point to have locks on the bedrooms that provide additional security and privacy to the tenants.

Website design By BotEap.com5. Thumb turns on the inside of main entry doors are essential to allow for keyless exit.

Website design By BotEap.com6. However, the easy thumb exit can also result in easy access for thieves. Thumbs, while enhancing safety, can compromise safety, therefore any risk must be balanced or overcome. Check the insurance implications.

Website design By BotEap.com7. A mailbox hood can be fitted to deter thieves from using hanger-like devices to open door locks from outside a property, without keys.

Website design By BotEap.com8. All of these issues are addressed in the property risk assessment provided by a competent person.

Website design By BotEap.com9. A competent person can be the landlord, if he adequately knows the criteria for a safe house; alternatively, the landlord can appoint and pay an independent advisor for around £ 200.

Website design By BotEap.com10. Many agents will organize this on behalf of the owner with no markup for their participation, just like any other security measure. Agents may be willing to sacrifice profits to ensure owner compliance, because it is so important. The implications of failing are unthinkable: death of a tenant, deprivation of liberty of landlord and loss of reputation of an agent.

Website design By BotEap.com11. Occasionally, there may be more than one lock on a main entry door, with a second 5-lever mortise lock requiring a key to enter and exit. Such a key should not be provided to tenants or merchants, who could use it and inadvertently catch a keyless tenant who is therefore unable to escape an emergency. If the use of the additional lock is mandatory, a rotary lock should be installed, avoiding the need for keys. The complexities of such exceptions only serve to highlight that such hazards are best avoided by always placing thumb twist locks on all those doors.

Website design By BotEap.com12. Where a patio door is an essential means of escape, it should be fitted with a rotary lock. In some cases, one bolt will suffice. A bolt on the inside face will allow keyless egress. However, if tenants are likely to use the patio door on the way to a back access shortcut, for example to shops, then they will not be able to re-enter through the patio door if, for example, a coworker floor screws them. This may not be a security issue per se, however it may be a security issue as there is a high probability that tenants will leave this patio door permanently open during the day if they cannot lock it from the outside . This would create a security risk when no one is home. This is why a risk assessment is so important. Only if you think laterally will these risks become apparent. That is why an independent professional advisor is the owner’s best protection against any allegation of negligence or lack of foresight. Few of us have foresight until after an incident when we suddenly ooze with subjective hindsight as to any objective forecast.

Website design By BotEap.com13. If you are not a “competent person”, are you willing to train an independent risk assessor?

Website design By BotEap.com14. This is a complex subject and one about which, in the writer’s experience, most owners and agents seem to be misinformed.

Website design By BotEap.com15. The importance of this issue cannot be emphasized enough so that all parties have no doubts about their respective responsibilities: the agent must inform the landlord and, in turn, the landlord must comply. If an agent does not fulfill his duty to communicate the need for specific security, even when the owner client is unwilling to comply, paradoxically, the owner client will be the first in line to sue the agent alleging negligence.

Website design By BotEap.com16. A property risk assessment covers all aspects of security. There are many risks, but only one property risk assessment. There are many certificates required as part of the same single property risk assessment.

Website design By BotEap.com17. Conducting this property risk assessment is cost effective as it can obviate the need for a separate fire safety risk assessment as fire safety is included in the overall property risk assessment. Confused? Keep reading.

Website design By BotEap.com18. A fire certificate is an additional requirement and is carried out by a qualified electrician to test the electrical system on the property and minimize the risk of fire from electrical defects, but this is not a fire risk assessment, nor is it! a property risk assessment! The property risk assessor does not perform the fire certificate, but will require viewing to recognize that it exists before including details of this in the survey as part of the property risk assessment.

Website design By BotEap.com19. Additionally, a Portable Appliance Test PAT is required to test appliances plugged into outlets that are not actually part of the property. Vacuums and washers are not part of a property, but represent typical high-risk appliances due to bending or stretching of cables and damage to insulation.

Website design By BotEap.com20. Any general property risk assessment will never be complete without all relevant certifications demonstrating the security of the property. The law makes it a crime not to provide a gas safety certificate on a rented property.

Website design By BotEap.com21. The law also makes it a crime to market a property before obtaining a valid EPC.

Website design By BotEap.com22. The law does not make it a crime not to provide most security certificates … until after: a security incident, allegation or challenge. At that point, it can become a crime to have failed to meet the need to ensure that a home is safe. Failure is the point where most issues arise, for example after a fire.

Website design By BotEap.com23. In the absence of certification, the home may simply appear safe. Landlords go to jail for retrospective failure to provide safe housing, for example: Section 11 of the Housing Act of 1985; Multiple Occupancy Housing Management Regulations 2006 (England); The Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 1994.

Website design By BotEap.com24. The infraction does not have to be simply the absence of certification, no, it is more important the absence of evidence that shows that the house was safe before any incident, inspection, etc. The problem for homeowners is that they cannot predict when an incident might occur, only that, statistically, sooner or later, it probably will. At that time, no owner regrets or counts the cost of compliance. They simply sigh in relief to learn that they did everything that could reasonably be expected under all circumstances – Your Honor.

Website design By BotEap.com25. All real estate investors take calculated and acceptable risks. However, any owner who successfully rents a property would not knowingly put everything in jeopardy, including the lives of his tenants, let alone his own livelihood, if he knew that the price might one day be the downfall.

Website design By BotEap.com26. It is the job of leasing agents to be unpopular, to tell landlords what they initially do not want to hear, who, hearing and finally realizing the implications of default, cannot finally wait to protect themselves against now apparent risks.