Fire Safety for Holiday Lets
Self catering holiday properties are now covered by the Fire Safety Order.
As a landlord of such properties, e.g. a holiday cottage, you are required to ensure your property meets fire safety legal requirements.
Fire safety law is in place to help to keep people safe, reduce the likelihood of fire and make sure people can escape safely in the event of a fire. As the owner of the property, taking necessary precautions to safeguard your guests should be a no brainer.
All businesses with premises (whatever the size) are required by law to have a written fire risk assessment and a record of the fire safety arrangements in place – check out the latest guidance for how this affects you.
If you rent out houses, cottages, chalets, flats, caravans, camping and glamping pods, bothies, lodges, shepherds huts, tents, tree houses, yurts or any other short term let property, then fire safety law applies to you.
So you must carry out a fire risk assessment and act on the results.
In the case of electrical equipment you now must ensure equipment is regularly serviced and periodic testing or inspections take place. You should always have done this, but now it is mandatory.
This isn’t just for the electrical appliances, but also includes the mains wiring, emergency lighting system, fire alarms etc.
You also need to keep a record of these inspections and maintenance; although keeping records is a recommendation rather than requirement, best practice would suggest you do this, and a test company should provide this as standard.
For more information see this handy guide on Fire Safety for small paying guest accommodation from Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue.
Our Holiday Lets PAT Testing Service
In almost every holiday let today we have kettles, fridges, Televisions, heaters, toasters and so on; some businesses also have tools, vacuum cleaners, and more high risk equipment.
Most appliances will operate on 230v but we can also do tests on 110v and 415v appliances, as well as fixed equipment, and have the capability to do your fixed wiring inspections (EICR) too.
As an experienced PAT testing company we can operate in all environments, so even if your business is not exclusively office we can still help you.
- Free and automatic remedial repairs
- Free replacement plugs & fuses
- Free cable management to ensure efficiency, safety and tidiness
- Minimal disruption guaranteed
Regular PAT testing can help you reduce insurance premiums, as it equates to a risk assessment of your electrical equipment, helping to determine the safety levels in your business, and the need for more or less frequent inspections.
Regular PAT tests are considered to be the most effective way to comply with your obligations for holiday let safety – failure to ensure electrical equipment is safe can be considered to be a failure to comply with the law.
Smoke Alarms
We can also help you with a quick test of your smoke alarms to make sure they are working, whilst we’re there.
Are you aware you should test your smoke alarms at least once a month as a minimum, but ideally weekly?
We can press the test button to make sure the alarm sounds, and vacuum/dust it to prevent false alarms, whilst we’re on site. If we come across any issues we’ll let you know. Further information on smoke alarms.