Fire precautions — legal controls in houses in multiple occupation: Safe havens… or… any port in a storm?

Abstract

This article is concerned with developments in the law relating to means of escape from fire and associated fire precautions in houses in multiple occupation. Because of the large number of multi-occupied dwellings, and the danger in fire safety terms posed by a considerable proportion of them, the concern which the subject engenders is both continuing and high profile. The legal developments in issue take the shape of recent decisions, suggestions for law reform and provisions in the Housing Bill, 1995–96. Through them is reflected the intricacy and deficiency of the current law, the delicacy of the task of balancing fire safety with other equally pressing considerations, and the difficulty of ensuring that the measure of regulation is proportionate to the degree of risk. In the context of the quest for progress, the cases, the ideas for reform and the relevant provisions in the Bill, are considered in turn.