Fire alarms must be hard wired?

[MakGras]

Which alarms did you have in place?

Eg make, model.

I had fire angels battery powered alarms which I threw away cos they don't work anymore. The electrician is not happy and got in touch with surveyor and am awaiting answer. Electrician has installed hundreds of Aico EI650/EI603 RF wireless interlinked alarms and wants to do the same in my house. According to the regulations Grade F1(below) they are compliant.

 

[Julie.]

I had fire angels battery powered alarms which I threw away cos they don't work anymore. The electrician is not happy and got in touch with surveyor and am awaiting answer. Electrician has installed hundreds of Aico EI650/EI603 RF wireless interlinked alarms and wants to do the same in my house. According to the regulations Grade F1(below) they are compliant.

I don't know if you are being deliberately obtuse, but we do know the regulations, I asked what make and model, most older models used replaceable batteries, which are no longer permitted.

In Scotland, upon new or re-work in a property LD2 type alarms should be installed, it is even included in your extract.

Battery supplied ones are permitted only where they are acceptable to the council.

In the absence of re-work life-long battery versions are acceptable under the minimum standards as found in my link above.

 

[brianmoooore]

I see this is a retrospective application. Has there been any friction between you and building control? I know from experience that the inspectors can be bloody minded if provoked, and insist on things they'd normally let slide.
I was on a barn conversion a few years ago, where relations between building control and the owner had totally broken down (example: To a young looking inspector when he arrived on site. "Hello, sonny, holidays are over. Shouldn't you be back in school?)
Caused all sort of problems with the build, such as insisting that a badly leaning stone wall was retained as it is, instead of knocking down and rebuilding, which any sane person would have done.
Was also the only time that my "grandfather rights" to sign of EICs weren't accepted, and had to use 3rd party sign off.

 

[MakGras]

I don't know if you are being deliberately obtuse, but we do know the regulations, I asked what make and model, most older models used replaceable batteries, which are no longer permitted.

In Scotland, upon new or re-work in a property LD2 type alarms should be installed, it is even included in your extract.

Battery supplied ones are permitted only where they are acceptable to the council.

In the absence of re-work life-long battery versions are acceptable under the minimum standards as found in my link above.

@Julie take it easy, I am not doing anything deliberately to upset you or anyone, and I do not know if you know the regulations or not. Fire angel alarms had replaceable batteries and I do not know the exact model and I know they are not permitted. The work to the kitchen was done 7 years ago and the only "rework" is the surveyor wants cooker hood extraction to outside air which means putting pvc ducting. There is a windows and a door leading to the back garden from the kitchen. and that is another dilema, cos I though circulating extractor fans are allowed because there was already one before.

 

[MakGras]

I see this is a retrospective application. Has there been any friction between you and building control? I know from experience that the inspectors can be bloody minded if provoked, and insist on things they'd normally let slide.
I was on a barn conversion a few years ago, where relations between building control and the owner had totally broken down (example: To a young looking inspector when he arrived on site. "Hello, sonny, holidays are over. Shouldn't you be back in school?)
Caused all sort of problems with the build, such as insisting that a badly leaning stone wall was retained as it is, instead of knocking down and rebuilding, which any sane person would have done.
Was also the only time that my "grandfather rights" to sign of EICs weren't accepted, and had to use 3rd party sign off.

I only had few phone calls with the surveyor then a brief video inspection. I don't know about friction but from the get go I feel there is some kind of bias from him. Surveryors should follow the guidelines and should treat everyone the same regardless. But that would be fairy tale world.

 

[Julie.]

I only had few phone calls with the surveyor then a brief video inspection. I don't know about friction but from the get go I feel there is some kind of bias from him. Surveryors should follow the guidelines and should treat everyone the same regardless. But that would be fairy tale world.

To be fair, from personal experience, being English you (and I) will find quite a lot of anti-English sentiment from a number of Scottish people, unfortunate as I have good Scottish friends who aren't in any way like that and find it just as off-putting as we will.

There will also be the fact that as retrospective, there is an implied belief that the lack of compliance at the time the work was done, was most likely to be because it was cheap/below-standard/non-compliant etc, basically there must be a reason that the original work tried to avoid inspection/review.

 

[Deleted account]

Local councils must adhere to the regulations,

however they also have the right to exceed the regulations If they feel the current regulations don’t go far enough.

my parents live in Newcastle, I live in Devon. we both let properties.

The Newcastle council ask more from landlords then they do from me down in Devon. They wanted all landlords with multiple properties to register with council and adhere to certain standards. There is a charge for this. A few hundred quid every few years I think.

I do not have to register with local authority at all. I have same number of properties.

that’s just the way it is .

I believe Newcastle have got it right Even though I’m saving money by not having to be registered down here on sunny Devon.