If it’s a block of flats, you have your own front door kitchen one bedroom lounge, whatever to make it a one bedroom property. It’s a flat not an HMO.
As David 122 has said you are bound by the fire and your front door should be fire compliant, even if It’s leasehold you are still responsible for that front door and the majority of Old flats are non-compliant and need to have a fire compliant door. It’s going to set you back somewhere between £1400 and £1500. You have no choice it’s a legal requirement just like the other legal requirements on a landlord. If there’s a fire and something happens, you are personally liable, we’ve just had to do all our Flats.
Personally, I would want to see evidence they go off when they’re cooking and what the cooking looks like when it happens.
It could be the heat/smoke sensors are too sensitive or faulty. Which is unlikely, but let’s give them the benefit of the doubt.
If they refuse to cooperate, I am afraid considering what this could mean for you, I would suggest terminating the tenancy. As harsh as it may sound, it may be the only option if they are actively endangering other people’s lives and putting you at risk of legal action being taken against you.
If they are mid-tenancy without a break-clause, use the evidence that they have breached the agreement multiple times to terminate it for a breach of contract.
I’ve just been to a house to change carbon filters in the chimney hood.
The tenants told me, after the fact, that the extractor was not taking the smoke away and it was setting off the alarm.
The filter was really sticky and probably useless as I had not changed it since install several years ago !
The instructions say to change every 3-6 months.
Just an idea , do you need to change the chimney hood filter or extractor fan ? Are they working ?
Building regs mandate a kitchen extractor . I’ve just had to install them as my electrician didn’t put them in on the refurb !
Different types of cooking create different problems. Cooking that uses a lot of oil to fry can quickly block the chimney hood filters. I guess 95% of people in the UK never bother to change these filters, but if you have tenants who cook a lot of fried food (e.g. my wife is chinese and wok fries everything) then you need to change them often. Also, there can be blockages in the extractor mechanism so that the cooking fumes are not being taken away. I’d check the whole extraction mechanism first and make sure it is working, that is the root cause and the alarms are a symptom. If the extractor is working, the alarms won’t go off, so won’t need to be covered.
ask them to cook you a typical meal while you watch so that you can see the problem ‘live’ for yourself. If it sets off the alarm, then you know they’re genuine. If it doesn’t, then you know they’re not. If they refuse, give them notice. Simples.
