Stair handrails (nothing exciting sorry)

[whitepixmas]

Hi, We've just rented a house which has no handrail on the very steep stairs. This will be difficult for my son especially, as he is disabled and only just learning to walk up and down stairs on his own. I'm sure I remember hearing something about handrails being a legal requirement on stairs for safety. Is this true or am I completely mad?! I would like to be able to insist that the landlord installs a handrail but I wanted to be sure of my facts first as he is very picky and has left us a long list of 'don'ts', the main ones being to not fix anything to the walls or cupboards (not even child locks).

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wig will no doubt have much more info for you later but just briefly, as far as I can remember (we are in the planning process of purchasing a new staircase as ours is too steep), stairs have to have a handrail. I think the building reg says 'stairs should have a handrail on at least one side if they are less than one metre wide' and if they are wider than that, they should have one on both sides. It's document K of the building reg I think. There are more stringent requirements with respect to disabled access etc.

You local council should have the building regulations to hand and they can be very helpful in this sort of case.

That's just my personal know-how from our experience with our stairs so some of it may be out of date and I'm sure wig will know all the latest stuff!

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Thank you so much! That is exactly what I needed to know. I didn't want to be demanding without knowing I was in the right but the landlord can't really argue with that can he?

Sorry, forgot to say thanks to Foxinsox too.

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