With the arrival of the government’s Fire Reform White Paper unveiled in May this year, a number of reforms to fire safety are now set to become enforceable from January 2023 under the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022. Propeller Powered is empowering landlords of all sizes to take control with the rollout of its Prop-FS software solution and is currently onboarding a number of new customers following successful pilots.
Regulation 10 lies at the heart of tenant safety. Responsible persons for all multi-occupied residential buildings in England over 11m high will be required to undertake quarterly checks on all communal doors, as well as annual inspections on entrance doors for flats that lead onto communal areas like hallways.
Dave Carr, MD of Propeller Powered, welcomes the news and offers his advice as to how housing associations and property managers can prepare for the new requirements.
“With dozens of doors even in relatively small housing blocks, it can be a time-consuming task to go round and check each one annually, let alone quarterly. However, given the difference that it can make in a critical situation – literally between life and death – it’s essential that all responsible officers have the tools and resources to meet the basic requirements.
“Cloud-based technology, like Prop-FS developed by Propeller, is a fast and effective way to fully manage these checks and more, with a fully auditable trail. With a user-friendly mobile app, that feeds into an organisation’s central database in real time, the system is quick to get up and running.
“Landlords using Prop-FS are now able to conduct checks on fire doors up to six times faster than using their previous systems. We’ve completed successful pilots with customers ranging from housing associations with a few hundred properties to those with several thousand and they are all seeing significant benefits.
“What’s more, should the HSE choose to audit any of them with the new shorter notice period of just 48 hours, they can be confident in the knowledge that their Fire Door safety records are fully-auditable and up to date.”
Dave Carr, MD of Propeller Powered
Prop-FS also integrates with the wider Propeller dashboard for scheduling, so housing organisations and property managers can plan in advance for quarterly checks and annual inspections to be made at the appropriate time.
Each fire door is tagged as an individual asset using a unique QR code, meaning that inspectors can access its entire history with one quick scan from a mobile device. Working through a checklist of key points, any remedial actions required are instantly tagged which updates in real time with the organisation’s central dashboard and enters workflow as a future task.
The new Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 also stipulate that responsible persons must supply information to residents of multi-occupied residential business about the importance of fire doors to a building’s overall fire safety. Propeller takes it one step further by facilitating two-way communications. Using the same QR code technology, residents can advise their housing manager online about any issues requiring attention, tagged to each specific door with an exact location and timestamp.
Prop-FS can be implemented in as little as two weeks, so there is still time for social landlords to act now in order to ensure that they’re fully prepared for January 2023.
More information: https://propellerpowered.co.uk/fire-door-inspection-software/
