Property managers
A stairwell is the only way out. It is also where the bikes are kept.
In an apartment building, fire safety plays out in the common parts — and along the often blurred line between what falls to the managing agent and what falls to the occupant. Here is where that line runs.
Your obligations
What actually applies to you
The only escape route doubles as a storage room
Bikes, prams, bulky items awaiting collection: the stairwell is the single way out of the whole building, and the very place people store things for want of room elsewhere. It has to stay clear. A written reminder to the co-owners costs nothing and beats a finding in the report.
A wedged fire door protects nothing
The fire doors on landings and to technical rooms — meters, refuse, boiler room — only do their job closed. A doormat, a wedge, a door closer disconnected because it slammed: each time, the compartmentation meant to keep smoke out of the stairwell is gone. It is the most common finding in apartment buildings.
A smoke alarm is required in every dwelling
All three Regions require them in dwellings, private units included. Fitting one inside an occupant’s flat is not the managing agent’s job — it is the unit owner’s — but the agent is the one asked about it after a fire. Setting out in writing what is private and what is common avoids that discussion at the worst possible moment.
Everything goes through the general meeting, so through a readable quotation
Safety works are not decided in passing: they are voted on. A dated quotation, broken down line by line, separating what the rules require from what is comfort, gets voted in a single meeting. An all-in figure gets deferred by a year — and often by a second.
On inspection day
What gets looked at first
In an apartment building the visit is done on foot, from the entrance hall to the top landing. Everything that matters is visible on the way up.
- Landing and plant-room doors: self-closing, neither wedged nor blocked
- The stairwell: clear of bikes, prams and bulky items
- Emergency lighting, tested up to the top landing — not only at ground level
- Dry risers in high-rise buildings: reachable inlet and inspection up to date
- Refuse and meter rooms: fire door, nothing stacked against it
- The register: maintenance records, inspection reports, findings followed up
A survey of the common parts
We walk it from the entrance hall to the top landing and hand you a written report, priced line by line — the one that can go straight to the general meeting.
Frequently asked questions
The answers people ask us for in meetings.
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