Top tips to protect your rental house from fire

With Winter well and truly upon us, the heaters have come out. Not surprisingly most residential house fires occur during winter. Kitchen fires make up about a quarter of all house fires – they commonly start from unattended cooking and can quickly spread. As a landlord there are steps you can take to improve the safety of your tenants and home against fire:

• Consider removing curtains from kitchen windows as these provide an excellent fuel source for fire.
• Recommend tenants use camping type gas cookers outside only. When used indoors, these are both a fire hazard and health risk.
• Test smoke alarms at each property inspection. If tenants are removing the batteries considering replacing with a newer model that has a 10 year sealed battery and hush button.
• To reduce the risk of electrical fires, check power points for overloading. Where necessary consider installing additional power points. Faulty power boards are a common cause of fire.
• If your house has downlights installed prior to 2012, check that the ceiling insulation has the correct spacing around the lights to prevent overheating and fire.
• Consider installing safe and efficient heating sources. Tenants may even be happy to pay more rent in exchange for installing a heat pump.
• Clean chimney flues annually and make sure heat pumps are serviced and cleaned regularly to prevent fires and ensure heating sources are operating efficiently.