Morning Everyone, I have been asked this question by a family member and seeing as my area of practice is in commercial H&S (as I’m sure most of us are) I was hoping that someone may have an answer or point me in the right direction of domestic.. My family member OWNS the upstairs of a maisonette property and the owner downstairs according to the deeds owns the communal porch (he also tells the upstairs occupier of this regularly). What, if any, laws apply to the communal areas that are specifically owned by someone who lives on the premises? For example, he installed a self closing spring on the communal door without checking, which is very stiff and makes it very hard for a female or young person to open it... he did not put a handle on the inside of the door. In the event of a fire upstairs, the occupiers would have to get out and struggle with the door without a handle and then pull the door IN towards them... I know this is slightly out of our area, but hope someone can shed some light on it! Thanks All,

As always - Thanks Ray - I'll look into that

The communal areas of the block of flats come under the RRFSO. But before you go down that road you need to know who is responsible for having the FRA carried out it could be down to each tenant to pay or however owns the lease on the property or maintains the property. Not clear how you open the door if there is no handle on the inside. they may well have fitted a self closer because they got sick and tired of your family member not closing the door behind them (that's how disputes start). the fact the door opens inwards would not be a major issue as you are not trying to evacuate large number of people by the sounds of it 4 at most. Phil

Then speak to the owner of the flat down stairs if they could fit a handle as they have trouble opening the door or to look at adjusting the spring adjustment on the self closer if possible I tried offering help but would appear this was not appreciated. Phil

Luke590, As a concerned family member, why don't you go and communicate the problem with the other occupier? Sounds to me like your family member doesn't get on too well with the other occupier, therefore, resolve this issue and you'll probably resolve the door issue. If you reach for the 'elf n safety' approach, are you not practicing what we ourselves complain about?! Please don't think I'm diluting the issue or your concern, merely choosing the more sensible (communicative) approach first. Hope it works out. Simon

Luke, The RR(FS)0 2005 does not apply to private domestic premises - regardless of whether or not they are HMO's. Art 6(1) (a) states that the order does not apply to (a) domestic premises, except to the extent mentioned in article 31(10); Art 2 states “domestic premises” means premises occupied as a private dwelling (including any garden, yard, garage, outhouse, or other appurtenance of such premises which is not used in common by the occupants of more than one such dwelling); Art 31 relates to prohibition orders. Therefore the RR(FS)O does not apply to the flats but does to the common non-domestic parts. Regards