Antill & Co. Chartered Surveyors carried out a RICS Home Survey Level 2 Plus (RICS HomeBuyer Report) on behalf of a client purchasing a four bedroom 1980s detached house located in Hayling Island, Hampshire, PO11.
The survey highlighted a number of defects, one of which was the lack of means of escape in the event of a fire from two of the first-floor bedrooms.
The windows to the bedrooms do not meet with Building Regulations under Fire Safety. Building Regulations specify minimum standards for design, construction and alteration to ensure the safety and health for people.
Under the regulations the maximum distance between the floor and the window opening used as a means of escape is 1.1 metres. The window must have an unobstructed clear openable area that is at least 0.33㎡ and have clear dimensions of no less than 450mm high and 450mm wide.
In this case the distance/height between the bedroom floor and the window opening exceeds 1.1 meter and is therefore too high to enable a person to use the window effectively to escape in the event of a fire (see photo). Additionally, the windows do not have a sufficient openable area.
The regulations deem that a person will be unable to successfully use the window to escape in the event of a fire. The alternative, and the natural preference of most people, is using a ground level outside exit door, via the landing, staircase and entrance hall.
To comply with fire safety regulations, this route must be a fire protected corridor, incorporating 20-minute fire resistant doors and appropriate hinges. The solution at this property in Hayling Island was to replace the doors with 20-minute resistant fire doors and the appropriate hinges, thus creating a protected corridor to provide a safe exit out of the property in the advent of a fire.
Apart from alerting the purchaser to this significant safety issue, there is the cost of purchasing new doors. In this case there were seven doors at an estimated cost of £300 per door, including hinges and fitting, equating to £2,100 in total.
The RICS Home Survey Level 2 Plus highlighted £2,100 of remedial costs on this issue alone that our client would have otherwise been unaware of prior to purchase. This valuable insight provided our client with the opportunity to revise the purchase price of the property prior to exchange of contracts and avoided the discovery of costly issues after moving in. Forewarned is certainly forearmed.