Posted By Jasonjg Ladies and gents I need some good advice here I have just been asked a few interesting but tricky questions by a friend who manages accommodation leases to vulnerable tenants. I will try to make this very brief 15 flats in a block of Sheltered accommodation possibly and Non-warded. Tenants are usually recovering (though could still be current i.e. lapse) drug or alcohol users who have been homeless. All tenants have social/outreach workers. His concern was with regards to emergency arrangements in case of fire in multi -occupancy buildings. He has a number of buildings with similar arrangements. He has fire alarms/detectors in every room and fire extinguishers in the hallways though no one has actually ever been trained to use them. The main alarm is tested on a weekly basis and at one of their sites they do in fact have a monthly drill test due to offices being located in same premises. This means tenants will leave the building for an evacuation drill. He wanted to know if he was justified in asking the other tenants to comply with more frequent fire evacuation drills i.e. monthly, however the tenants social workers have said that they do not have to do this as their flats are their own property under the lease arrangements and they are Non warded. He also wanted to know if he could ask tenants to refrain from leaving keys locked in doors, again fire evacuation reasons. I cannot figure that one out yet. I do not have exact information to which either supports or disputes his views. My first impression, which I shared with him, are as follows. This seem to be alittle excessive if you do in fact have current and full plans in place that are well documented and practiced i.e. a proper fire risk assessment and fire policy with all the trimmings. You can guess how silent things then become. (Possible earner for someone but I cannot take the time out of study to look into this so if your skilled give me a shout.) We then start a little banter about cost versus risk, are there wardens on sites permanently, if he has that much concern about the risk etc? Do they actually care for these people like patients etc or are they just landlords? I then put to him the situation of hospitals and elderly homes but remind him that staff are always constant in these situations. At the same time, I remember the something with youth hostels and local authority homeless hostels do infact do what he suggests and conduct frequent drills. Lots of cans of worms opened. But at the end of the day, this is all going nowhere without facts and I know my place, and have asked him to get back to me whilst I get a more experienced point of view. So I ask you for your help? Can a landlord ask tenants to evacuate for a fire drill on a monthly frequency if he thought the risk of fire was higher in this type of occupancy? I also think not if it is a non wardened site. I personally suspect a slight mismanagement by the very fact that 15 Vulnerable tenants unsupervised and all living together could very well be asking for trouble should the worse ever happen. Could this be foreseeable and if so, just what would be the best action to take?