A private members bill requiring landlords to ensure that properties they rent out have a working smoke alarm is to have its second reading in the House of Commons later this month.

The Fire Safety (Protection of Tenants) Bill has been introduced by Liberal Democrat MP for Torbay, Adrian Sanders. The bill seeks to require all private and public sector landlords to ensure there is a working, mains wired smoke alarm at the start of a new tenancy. After that point, it would become the responsibility of the tenant to keep it maintained.

The move follows the deaths in October 2009 of two children in a fire in a rented house in Torquay which did not have any smoke alarms.

Mr Sanders’s Westminster office told Info4fire that while the government is unlikely to support the bill in its current form, CLG officials will be meeting the MP next week to discuss the possibility of adopting the principles of the bill in some other way. One barrier to the bill becoming law is the requirement for any additional regulation on businesses to be offset by the dropping of another regulation of equivalent cost. There are also questions relating to the definition of rented accommodation and enforcement.

Writing on his website, Mr Sanders said:

“It is very often the most vulnerable in society who live in homes that do not have working smoke alarms and the figures show that this costs dozens of lives a year and causes hundreds, if not thousands, of injuries.

“There is a small minority of private landlords, many of them absentee landlords, who do not sufficiently look after their tenants but more worryingly it is social providers who have the most to do on this issue. Social homes often contain some of the most vulnerable tenants who are more at risk from fire and often less able to take responsibility for their own protection.”

According to Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service, six times more people nationally are killed by fire in their home than by the effects of gas, carbon monoxide and electricity combined. Yet landlords are not required to provide smoke alarms in all cases by law, but are required to provide a safe gas and electrical supply. Their chief fire officer, Lee Howell, has thrown his weight behind the bill and has written to every chief fire officer seeking their support.

"It has been proved time and time again that working smoke alarms can save lives," said Mr Howell. "It makes such a difference - in some cases a life and death difference. It's important to remember that the service wants all homes to fit alarms - not just properties rented by social housing providers.

“We would urge members of the public to contact their MP and ask them to support the bill later this month to make people’s homes safer in the future and potentially prevent a repeat of the tragic fire in Torquay.”

While residential landlords have legal fire safety obligations under the Housing Act 2004 and under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, there is no specific legal requirement at present for all landlords to fit smoke alarms in rented properties.