20 March 2015, The Government launched a £3million fund on 19 March 2015 which means thousands more tenants living in private rented homes will have working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms distributed through England’s 46 fire and rescue authorities, news which has been welcomed by Christopher Way, head of lettings at Carter Jonas’ Oxford office.

The funding will benefit private rented houses across the country, providing around 445,000 smoke and 40,000 carbon monoxide alarms which will be available for free from local fire and rescue authorities to private sector landlords whose properties currently do not have fitted alarms.

Christopher Way, head of lettings at Carter Jonas’ Oxford office said:  “This is very welcome news.  All our properties on our books are required to have fitted and working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms as standard because it goes without saying that landlords have a duty of care to their tenants.

“There is new legislation which is expected to come into force in October which will mean that anyone renting out their home will need to ensure there is a smoke alarm on every floor of the home at the start of the tenancy.  It’s great that the Government is enforcing this, and we as agents and property managers need to continue to work to ensure that our landlords are adhering to this rule to ensure tenant safety.  However, under the new rules, whilst landlords will be “under a duty to install and initially test alarms, it remains the tenant’s responsibility to test them regularly.”  The Government is running a Fire Kills campaign, encouraging people to test their smoke alarms when they change their clocks to British Summer Time which is a super initiative to continue to help protect public safety.”