Why a written checklist matters before licence renewal or an FRA
A fire risk assessment and an HMO licence inspection cover overlapping ground but aren't the same thing, and both tend to catch the same category of problem: fire safety items that were correctly installed at some point in the property's history but have degraded, been disconnected, or were never quite finished to the standard the property now needs. Self-closers loosen with use. Redecoration covers intumescent seals with paint. Tenants wedge doors open because a heavy, slow-closing door is inconvenient day to day. None of these are dramatic failures on their own, but an assessor or licensing officer checking a property room by room will find several of them on almost any HMO that hasn't had a proper fire safety check in the last year or two.
Walking through a property against a written checklist before an inspection, rather than relying on a general impression that things look fine, is what catches these accumulated small defects while they're still cheap and quick to fix. A loose self-closer or a painted-over seal is a five-minute job to flag and a modest cost to put right. The same defect discovered at a formal inspection can hold up a licence renewal, generate a follow-up visit, and in a worst case put an existing licence at risk while it's corrected.
Fire doors: what to check
Walk every bedroom, kitchen and communal door opening onto the escape route and check four things on each: does the door close fully onto the latch without needing a shove, are the gaps around the frame roughly even and not obviously wide enough to see daylight through, is there a continuous, unpainted intumescent strip and cold smoke seal around the door edge, and is there a visible certification label or plug on the top edge of the door. Also check that self-closers haven't been disconnected, and that no door is routinely propped open with a wedge, a fire extinguisher or a folded rug, which we see on almost every HMO survey we do.
If any door fails one of these checks, it doesn't automatically mean full replacement is needed. A door with a sound leaf but a failed seal or a disconnected closer is usually a repair, cheaper and less disruptive than a new doorset. A door with no certification evidence at all, or one that's clearly been re-hung, planed down or fitted with a domestic closer, is more likely to need full replacement. Our HMO fire door requirements guide goes through gap tolerances, FD30 versus FD60 and typical cost bands in more detail.
Smoke, heat and CO alarms: what to check
Test every alarm using its test button, and separately confirm the interlink function by testing one alarm and checking that every other alarm in the property sounds, not just the unit tested. Battery-only alarms that aren't interlinked are a common finding in HMOs that were fitted out some years ago and haven't been upgraded since, and most London boroughs expect a mains-powered, interlinked Grade D1 system as a specific licence condition rather than accepting standalone battery units. Check that kitchens have heat alarms rather than smoke alarms, since a smoke alarm in a kitchen is prone to nuisance triggering and often ends up disconnected by tenants, leaving that area with no working detection at all.
Confirm a carbon monoxide alarm is present in every room with a fixed combustion appliance, a gas boiler, gas fire or wood-burning stove, including boiler cupboards that are easy to overlook if the check focuses only on bedrooms. Note the age of the system if it's more than around ten years old, sensor covers that look yellowed or dusty, or units that fail a straightforward test-button check, are a sign the whole system may be due for replacement rather than a spot repair. Our interlinked smoke alarm regulations guide covers Grade D1 requirements, sensor types and CO alarm placement in more detail.
Emergency lighting: what to check
Where a property has an internal staircase or corridor without useful daylight, check whether emergency lighting is fitted at all, and if it is, when it was last function tested and discharge tested. A monthly functional test confirms each fitting switches on when the mains supply is interrupted; an annual discharge test confirms the battery actually holds its rated duration, generally three hours, rather than switching on briefly and then failing. If neither test has a recorded date, treat the system as unverified rather than assuming it's working correctly just because it looks intact.
If the property has no emergency lighting at all and relies on an internal stair or a corridor with no natural light, this is worth raising directly with whoever carries out the fire risk assessment, since whether it's required depends on the specific escape route rather than a fixed rule. Our HMO emergency lighting requirements guide sets out when it's needed and what adequate coverage looks like under BS 5266.
Compartmentation and fire-stopping: what to check
Check loft hatches, riser cupboards and any visible ceiling or floor void for gaps around pipework, cabling or waste stacks passing through, since an unsealed penetration through a compartment line lets fire and smoke travel between floors far faster than the fire strategy assumes. This is especially relevant where a property has had a loft conversion, a rewire or a replumb at some point, since it's common for the tradesperson doing that work to open up a ceiling or floor void and not properly reinstate the fire-stopping afterward.
Riser or service cupboards should have their own door, ideally fire-rated and self-closing, and shouldn't be missing, damaged or routinely propped open, since they're effectively a route straight through the compartment line if left exposed. Lath-and-plaster ceilings, common in Victorian upper floors, don't provide meaningful fire resistance on their own and are worth flagging for assessment if they haven't been overboarded with fire-rated plasterboard at any point.
Escape routes and general fire safety housekeeping
Walk the full escape route from every bedroom to the final exit and check it's clear: no bikes, bins, storage boxes or furniture blocking a hallway, landing or stairwell, and no clutter against a fire door that would stop it opening fully. This sounds obvious but is one of the most consistently flagged items at HMO inspections, since communal areas in shared houses tend to accumulate storage over time without anyone individually responsible for keeping them clear.
Confirm final exit doors open easily from the inside without a key, that any window intended as a secondary means of escape actually opens fully rather than being painted or nailed shut, and that any fire safety signage, fire action notices, fire extinguisher locations where fitted, is present and legible rather than faded or obscured. None of these items usually need building work to fix, but they're exactly the kind of finding that undermines confidence in the rest of a property's fire safety even where the doors, alarms and lighting are all genuinely compliant.
Using this checklist before a licence renewal or FRA inspection
Ahead of an HMO licence renewal
Walk the checklist a few weeks before renewal is due, giving enough time to price and complete any remedial work before the inspection itself, rather than discovering a defect on the day an officer visits. Keep a simple written or photographic record of what was checked and when, since this is useful evidence of ongoing management even beyond what's strictly required for the licence application itself.
Ahead of a fire risk assessment
A fire risk assessor will check the same broad areas, doors, alarms, lighting, compartmentation and escape routes, in more technical depth than this checklist covers, and will also assess the overall fire strategy for the specific building rather than just individual items. Walking the checklist beforehand won't replace the assessment, but it means fewer surprises in the action plan the assessor produces, and any items already identified and fixed won't appear on it at all.
Where Lian Construction fits in
We carry out the building works this checklist points toward: fitting and repairing certified fire doors, installing interlinked smoke, heat and carbon monoxide alarms, fitting and certificating emergency lighting, and fire-stopping service penetrations and reinstating compartment lines. Where a landlord already has a fire risk assessment or an HMO licensing checklist, we price and deliver the action list it sets out as one coordinated programme, photographed and documented for the fire safety file.
What we don't do is carry out the fire risk assessment itself, act as a certifying body, provide legal advice, or decide the outcome of an HMO licence application. Those are the responsibility of a qualified fire risk assessor and the relevant local authority. Our role starts once the requirement has been identified: turning an action plan or a licensing checklist into completed, documented works. Our fire safety compliance London, HMO compliance London, fire doors London and smoke alarms and emergency lighting teams between them cover everything on this checklist.
Getting started on a fire safety programme
If walking this checklist has flagged more than a couple of items, it's usually worth arranging a proper survey rather than trying to price each defect individually, since fire doors, alarms, lighting and fire-stopping are often more efficiently programmed as one visit than as separate call-outs over several months. For more detail on any single area, our HMO fire door requirements, interlinked smoke alarm regulations, HMO emergency lighting requirements and HMO licence requirements guides each go into the specific rules, common failures and cost bands behind the items on this checklist.