Good rental agents are always working with landlords to promote safety.

This includes everything from security certification to risk assessment surveys.

A risk assessment in the UK addresses all 29 points of the HHSRS Housing Health and Safety Rating System. This includes security as well as any means of escape, ie if any security locks could inadvertently prevent the emergency exit. It is this very limited aspect that this article addresses and, in particular, the legal implications of not communicating this to homeowners in relation to escaping a “Multiple Occupancy” emergency. Other related aspects will be addressed in later articles.

1. Rental agents must ensure that landlords provide a safe exit from each rental property in the event of an emergency.

2. After the emergency it is too late to address these issues.

3. Any door, from the bedroom to the exit door(s) of the main property, must be designed so that no keys are required to escape. Imagine one’s keys in a pocket or purse, but they can’t be found under a bed or chair in a smoky room with alarms going off, housemates screaming for help, and emergency vehicle sirens they sound outside. At that time, tenants need to quickly escape without needing to find a room exit key!

4. Bedroom door locks are not required, but when installed and keys are provided, the inside face of bedroom doors must have a deadbolt lock installed. That said, it is a selling point to have locks on bedrooms that provide additional security and privacy for tenants.

5. Thumb turns on the inside face of main entrance doors are essential to allow keyless exit.

6. However, the easy thumb twist exit can also result in easy access for thieves. Thumbs, while enhancing security, can compromise security, therefore any risks must be balanced or overcome. Check the insurance implications.

7. A mailbox cover can be installed to deter thieves from using coat-hanger-like devices to pick door locks from the outside of a property, without keys.

8. All of these matters are addressed in the property risk assessment provided by a competent person.

9. A competent person may be the landlord, if he/she adequately knows the criteria for a safe house; Alternatively, the landlord can supplement and pay an independent valuer for around £200.

10. Many agents will arrange this on behalf of the owner at no markup for their involvement, just like any other security measures. Agents may be willing to sacrifice profits to ensure landlord compliance, because it is so important. The implications of failing are unthinkable: the death of a tenant, the imprisonment of the landlord and the loss of the reputation of an agent.

11. Occasionally there may be more than one lock on a main entrance door, with a second 5-lever mortise lock that requires a key to enter and exit. Such a key must not be provided to tenants or merchants who could use it and inadvertently ensnare a keyless tenant who is therefore unable to escape in an emergency. If the use of the additional lock is mandatory, a thumb twist lock must be installed, avoiding the need for keys. The complexities of such exceptions only serve to highlight that it is best to avoid such risks by always installing deadbolt locks on all such doors.

12. Where a patio door is an essential means of escape, it should be equipped with a manual twist lock. In some cases, one bolt will suffice. A bolt on the inside face will allow keyless exit. However, if tenants are likely to use the patio door on the way to a rear access shortcut, say to the shops, then they will not be able to re-enter the patio door if, for example, a housemate closes with latch. This may not be a security issue per se however it may be a security issue as there is a very good chance that tenants will leave this patio door permanently open during the day if they are unable to close it from the outside . This would create a security risk when no one is home. This is why a risk assessment is so important. Only by thinking laterally will such risks become apparent. This is why an independent professional advisor is the landlord’s best protection against any accusation of negligence or lack of foresight. Few of us have foresight until after an incident, when we are suddenly brimming with subjective hindsight as to any objective foresight.

13. If you are not a “competent person”, are you willing to instruct an independent risk assessor?

14. This is a complex topic and about which, in the writer’s experience, most owners and agents seem to be uninformed.

15. The importance of this topic cannot be stressed enough so that all parties are left in no doubt as to their respective responsibilities: the agent must inform the landlord, and in turn, the landlord must comply. If an agent fails in their duty to communicate the specific security need, even when the owner client is unwilling to comply, paradoxically, the owner client will be first in line to sue the agent alleging negligence.

16. A property risk assessment covers all aspects of security. There are many risks, but only a risk assessment of the property. Many certificates are required as part of the same risk assessment of a single property.

17. Carrying out this property risk assessment is cost effective as it may obviate the need for a separate fire safety risk assessment as fire safety is included in the overall property risk assessment . Confused? keep reading

18. A fire certificate is an additional requirement and is carried out by a qualified electrician to test the electricity in the property in order to minimize the risk of fire from electrical defects, but this is not a fire risk assessment, nor is it! it’s a property risk assessment! The property risk assessor does not carry out the fire certificate, but will require seeing it to acknowledge that it exists before including details of this in the survey as part of the property risk assessment.

19. In addition, a portable appliance test PAT is required to test appliances plugged into outlets that are not actually part of the property. Vacuum cleaners and washing machines are not part of a property, but they do represent typical high-risk appliances due to bending or stretching of cords and damage to insulation.

20. Any general property risk assessment will never be complete without all relevant certifications demonstrating the safety of the property. The law makes it a criminal offense to fail to provide a gas safety certificate in a rental property.

21. The law also makes it an offense to market a property before obtaining a valid EPC.

22. The law does not make it a criminal offense to fail to provide most security certificates…until after: a security incident, allegation, or challenge. At that point it can become a criminal offense to have failed to ensure that a home is safe. Failure is the point where most problems first arise, for example after a fire.

23. In the absence of certification, the house may simply appear safe. Landlords go to jail for retroactive failure to provide safe housing under, for example: Housing Law of 1985, article 11; Multiple Occupancy Housing Management (England) Regulations 2006; The Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 1994.

24. The crime does not have to be simply the absence of certification, no, it is more important the absence of evidence that shows that the house was safe before any incident, inspection, etc. The problem for owners is that they cannot predict when an incident might occur, only that, statistically, sooner or later it probably will. At that time, no landlord regrets or calculates the cost of compliance. They just sigh with relief knowing that they did everything that could reasonably be expected under all the circumstances: Your Honor.

25. All real estate investors take calculated and acceptable risks. However, any landlord who successfully rents out a property would not knowingly endanger everything, including the lives of his tenants, let alone his own livelihood, if he knew the price could one day be ruinous.

26. The real estate agent’s job is to be unpopular, to tell homeowners what they initially don’t want to hear, who, hearing and eventually realizing the implications of the breach, ultimately can’t wait to protect themselves against the now apparent risks.