Fire alarm testing and servicing: what the law requires

The legal duty

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applies in both England and Wales. It requires the Responsible Person, usually the employer, owner, landlord or managing agent, to make sure that fire safety equipment, including fire detection and warning systems, is subject to a suitable system of maintenance and kept in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair.

The Order does not say "test weekly" or "service every six months". Instead, it expects you to follow recognised good practice, and for fire alarms that means the British Standards. If something goes wrong, an enforcing officer will usually judge your maintenance against those standards, so in practice they set the benchmark.

Your fire risk assessment should confirm what type of system you have, what it is designed to protect and how it is to be tested and maintained.

BS 5839-1: non-domestic premises

BS 5839-1 is the code of practice for fire detection and alarm systems in non-domestic buildings such as offices, shops, schools, care homes and the common parts of many residential blocks. It sets out two layers of routine attention: user checks carried out by you or your staff, and periodic servicing by a competent person.

The weekly user test

Once a week, someone on site operates a manual call point to check that the panel receives the signal and the sounders or other alarm devices operate. The recommended approach is to use a different call point each week in rotation, so every call point is tested over time, and to test at roughly the same time each week so occupants recognise it as a test rather than a real alarm.

Before testing, let any alarm receiving centre know if the system is monitored, and tell staff and occupants. Afterwards, reset the panel, check that it has returned to normal and note the test in the logbook, including which call point was used.

Periodic servicing

BS 5839-1 recommends that the system is inspected and serviced by a competent person at intervals not exceeding six months. A service typically covers the control panel, the power supplies and standby batteries, a sample or all of the detectors and call points, sounders and visual alarms, and any interfaces such as door hold-open devices or links to ventilation and lifts. Over a year, every device should be tested. The servicing organisation should record what it did in the logbook and give you a certificate or report.

The logbook

BS 5839-1 expects a logbook to be kept on site. It is simple but important: it should record every weekly test, every service visit, every fault and how it was put right, every period the system was disabled, and every false alarm with its cause. It should also name the person responsible for the system.

A well kept logbook is often the first thing an enforcing officer or insurer asks for. It shows you are meeting your duty, and it helps your service engineer spot patterns such as a detector that keeps causing false alarms.

False alarms

False alarms disrupt occupants, erode trust in the system and, in a building such as a care home or a school, can cause real harm if people start to ignore the sound. They also take fire and rescue service crews away from real emergencies.

Common causes include cooking fumes or steam reaching an unsuitable detector, dust from building work, aerosol sprays, poor maintenance and accidental operation of call points. BS 5839-1 treats false alarm management as part of the system's upkeep. Record every false alarm and its cause, and ask your service engineer to investigate any repeated source. Solutions might be as simple as relocating a detector, changing a detector type or fitting protective covers to call points.

Many fire and rescue services have changed how they respond to automatic fire alarm signals from some non-domestic premises, particularly during the day. Check your local service's policy and make sure your fire procedures reflect it.

Who can service a fire alarm system?

BS 5839-1 requires servicing by a competent person: someone with the specialist knowledge, training and experience to test and maintain the system properly. Weekly user tests can be done by a trained member of your own staff.

One way to show that your service provider is competent is to choose a company that holds third-party certification. BAFE's SP203-1 scheme for fire detection and alarm systems is one example. Certification is not a legal requirement, but it gives you independent evidence of competence, which is useful given the Responsible Person's duty to appoint competent people.

At Vocus Fire Safety, we can provide alarm servicing as part of one contract with your fire risk assessment, and the results sit in the Vocus Fire Safety Portal alongside it.

Homes and HMOs: BS 5839-6

BS 5839-6 covers fire detection and alarm systems in domestic premises, including houses, flats and HMOs. It uses Grades to describe the type of system (for example, mains-powered alarms with a battery back-up, or a system with a separate control panel) and Categories to describe the level of cover, such as escape routes only or escape routes plus rooms where fires are likely to start.

In HMOs and shared houses, councils use the LACORS "Housing – Fire Safety" guide, together with BS 5839-6, to decide what grade and category of system a property needs. Larger HMOs may have a panel-based system that needs regular testing and periodic servicing in much the same way as a commercial system. Simpler interlinked alarm systems should be tested regularly by pressing the test button, and BS 5839-6 gives recommendations on how often.

Rented homes: England and Wales differ

Private and social landlords of individual homes have specific alarm duties that sit alongside the standards. This is one area where the two nations take noticeably different approaches.

In both nations, the common parts of HMOs and blocks of flats are also covered by the Fire Safety Order, so any communal alarm system must be tested and serviced in line with BS 5839-1 or BS 5839-6 as appropriate.