New fire legislation could mean lots of holiday lets coming onto market from October

[Washbasketcase]

New post-Grenfell legislation for holiday lets is coming in October. The legislation is just that written fire risk assessments are mandatory. However, these must reflect the latest Home Office guidance linked to below.

Most of the conditions in the guidance (mains-wired interlinked smoke alarms, thumbturn locks on exits etc) are straightforward, if not expensive, to satisfy. However, every door that opens on to a fire escape route (i.e. the landing and hallway/stairwell) must now be at least a 'nominal' fire door (44mm thick solid wood door) or a proper certified fire door - so no Victorian panel doors, egg-box doors, glazed doors etc. Additionally, if the property is two stories and classified as 'open-plan' (i.e. there is no downstairs door protecting the stairwell/route to the exit from smoke) this is considered a 'complex' layout that the guidance does not apply to; the Home Office are currently drafting more guidance on the additional mitigations that are needed to make such properties safe enough to holiday let - this is anticipated to be via sprinklers/misters. By the way, holiday let fire regulations are more stringent that that for tenanted properties/your own home, because the guests are in an unfamiliar place, in a property they probably

This is going to be HUGE for the holiday let industry, not least because heritage listed properties with original doors or open plan layouts are unlikely be able to get the listed building consent needed to do the upgrades. Other holiday let owners may decide the cost of replacing all doors (or upgrading existing doors with special fireproof panels etc) and installing sprinkler systems is too expensive/onerous.

So just flagging this in case (a) any holiday let owners on Mumsnet are not yet aware (the publicity has been woeful - partly because the agencies/airbnb are lobbying like mad to to water down the legislation, so haven't been telling owners the details for guidance) and (b) to let those who are thinking of buying/renting a property know that there may be an influx of ex-holiday rentals coming on to the market towards the end of the year.

This is the new guidance, published earlier this year:

Making your small paying guest accommodation safe from fire - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

This is an additional paper, written by PASC, regarding how to apply the new guidance to holiday lets, and the challenges for listed/open-plan properties:

Fire paper 2 Additional Notes to the Home Guide to making your small paying guest accommodation safe from fire - links (pascuk.co.uk)

(Sorry - lost some words above when I posted - holiday let rules are more stringent as guests are in property they probably have only just arrived at, and do not know the layout)

Well, like the residential sector, people in the holiday let business will either comply with the regs, or they won't.

Less rentals doesn't equate to cheaper houses. I guess the tourist market will collapse, if people can't stay in an area, they're less likely to visit there in the first place. So all tourist businesses will be affected. I guess people will just find it easier and cheaper to go abroad. Why pay 2-3k a week for a cottage in Bude, when you can go all inclusive to Lanzagrotty for £800 a week?

Thank you @Washbasketcase, I wasn't aware of this and need to have a hard think about what to do after October with the house I rent.

For anyone out there with a heritage home they're renting out this guidance from Historic England looks to be quite helpful on making the difficult decisions about replacing doors. Also lots of practical tips on assessing fire risk. https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/fire-resistance-historic-timber-panel-doors/ife-sig-guide-fire-resistance-historic-timber-panel-doors/

Thanks @gizmo for the link, I'll take a look at that. PASC are also planning to have some webinars about how to upgrade substandard doors so keep an eye on their website.

I've already asked my agent to block out dates from next January (fortunately no bookings beyond Christmas) while I see how the next couple of months pan out - I have a Grade 2 listed property (200-year-old plank doors.....) and the stairs open directly into the sitting room (so classified as 'open-plan'.....). I already have the hard-wired linked smoke alarms and thumbturn exits, but I'm going to struggle with the fire doors and whatever the open-plan mitigations are. If I can't comply, then I will switch the property to an AST.

NB. At the latest PASC webinar, the Home Office man said that the remedial work doesn't all have to be done by the October deadline - that is the deadline for having done the risk assessment, identified the deficiencies and put the plan of works in place (e.g. try to obtain listed building consent....!) to rectify them.

It's already often cheaper to go abroad and with pretty much guaranteed nice weather it's a sensible choice.
I feel the need to defend Lanzarote, though. It is beautiful, most definitely not grotty!

This might not be relevant to you @Washbasketcase but a mate of mine started a business to deal with exactly the issue you describe https://plumis.co.uk/. I have no idea how much it costs to put in one of these automist fire suppression systems (or how much damage they might do in a listed building!) but it might be worth investigating.

Thank you @gizmo . I found an approximate cost: ££2780 + VAT. And good to see they have case studies in listed properties, so that suggests it should be feasible. But to be honest, at that cost and level of faff (listed building consent etc) I think we would switch to AST. Which is perhaps the government's intention!

Absolutely agree with musicalold. Lanzarote is very beautiful.

The guidance seems sensible.

Pleased with the new legislative requirements.

Good if you're running a business comply with sensible safety regulations or stop doing it. Not difficult.

I wonder if insurance for listed properties might go up - I would imagine if sprinklers or misters go off there will be a lot of v expensive repair.

I have no skin in this game and don't really care how it pans out.
But it feels like a case of burning down the house to get rid of the wasps nest in the loft.
Having to treat a 2 bed fisherman's cottage the same as a tower block of flats is absurd.

I used to have a holiday let (one of ten in a listed row), and it probably would not be financially feasible to make Rhodes changes if I still did. Tiny two bed cottages overlooking the sea - three stories (bedrooms stacked) built mid 1800s.
And I know a few people who run holiday lets. I assume the agencies will tell them of the new regulations but as many in the area are of similar type (though maybe not listed) I can see this having a dramatic effect. The area relies heavily on tourist money and while there is a severe shortage of long term rental stock too (as I believe most might do that rather than sell) the economic repercussions will affect so many businesses when they are still trying to recoup losses from the pandemic.
Of course safety comes first, but it will be interesting to see how this all works in practise.

Rhodes? Those!

Fire Safety absolutely must come first, and if my dear beamy old cottage can't be made safe for people to holiday in, then it's right that it should be put to another use. I don't want to put anyone holidaying at risk!

It's the law doing a belated catch up.
No one expected AirBnB to be such a success. It was lettiing a room in your own home initially.

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Talk about using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut.

Do you have any idea when the additional guidance will be available for ‘complex’ open plan properties?