Fire Safety Takeover at a Newcastle Housing Complex

When the responsible person for a large residential building lives hundreds of miles from site, the standard of fire safety maintenance they receive becomes a question of trust. We were recently contacted by a landlord based in the south of England who owns a large housing complex here in the North East. For several years, the day-to-day fire safety maintenance had been left in the hands of another local contractor. That contractor has since been dismissed — they did not walk away from the job, they were removed from it once the true state of the building came to light. On paper, everything looked fine. On site, the picture was very different.

This article walks through what we found when we took over the contract, what we have put in place to bring the building back into compliance, and — most importantly — why choosing a fire and security maintenance partner you can genuinely rely on is one of the most important decisions a building owner ever makes.

The brief: full life-safety maintenance, weekly attendance

The client approached us to quote for a full life-safety maintenance package across the complex. The scope covered:

Annual fire alarm servicing to BS 5839-1:2025, including six-monthly inspection and test of the control panel, detectors, sounders and interfaces.

Annual emergency lighting servicing to BS 5266-1, including the full annual three-hour discharge test and certification.

Annual fire extinguisher servicing to BS 5306-3, covering every extinguisher on every floor with the correct service labels and pressure checks.

Weekly site attendance to carry out the statutory weekly fire alarm test from a rotating call point, log the result, and report any defects immediately.

Monthly emergency lighting flick tests on every fitting, with results recorded in the on-site log book.

For a remote landlord, that weekly attendance is a critical part of the package. It means there is always a qualified pair of eyes on the building, the alarm is being tested as the British Standard requires, and faults are caught early — not at the next annual service, twelve months down the line.

What we found on the first visit

Our engineers carried out a full familiarisation visit before the first weekly test. We expected to verify what was already in place. What we actually found was a building that had been quietly drifting out of compliance for years.

Emergency lighting failures

Several emergency luminaires across the common parts had failed completely. Others were holding charge for only a fraction of the required three hours. Under BS 5266-1, every emergency light must be capable of operating for the full duration the risk assessment requires — typically three hours in residential premises — so a fitting that drops out at thirty minutes is not just inconvenient, it is non-compliant and dangerous. We have raised a quote for the replacement fittings and the customer now has a clear, costed path back to compliance.

Forgotten AOV systems

The most concerning discovery was on the stair cores. The building is protected by automatic opening vent (AOV) smoke ventilation systems — the powered roof and window vents that clear smoke from a protected staircase if a fire breaks out, keeping the escape route usable and helping the fire service get in.

These AOVs had not been serviced in several years. No service stickers, no log entries, no record of testing. Worse, when our engineers tried to trace the system back to its control equipment, the panels could not be located on site. Without the control panel we cannot test the head-end, we cannot confirm the interface with the fire alarm, and we cannot prove that the vents will open on a real fire alarm activation in that zone.

We have written up our findings and provided the customer with a detailed scope of works covering:

Locating or replacing the AOV control equipment.

Bringing the system back into full working order and annual service to BS 7346-8 / BS 9991.

Interlinking the AOV control panel with the fire alarm system so that the correct vent automatically opens on activation of detectors in that specific stair zone — exactly as the original design intended.

A protected staircase without a working smoke vent is a protected staircase in name only. Getting these systems back online is now the top priority for the building.

Why this matters: the cost of the wrong maintenance contractor

What this site shows — and we see it more often than we would like — is that a maintenance contract is only ever as good as the people turning up. A signed contract, a folder of certificates and a friendly invoice every quarter is not the same thing as a compliant building.

Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, the responsible person for a building has a legal duty to ensure that fire safety systems are properly designed, installed and maintained. That duty does not transfer to the maintenance contractor. If the systems fail, it is the building owner who answers to the fire authority, the insurer and — in the worst case — the coroner.

For a landlord based hundreds of miles away, the only realistic way to discharge that duty is to appoint a contractor who:

Attends as contracted — every weekly visit, every monthly test, every annual service, on the date it is due.

Reports honestly — flagging defects, missing equipment and non-compliances in writing, not quietly skipping past them.

Holds the right competence — qualified engineers working to BS 5839-1, BS 5266-1, BS 5306-3 and BS 7346 / BS 9991 as the system demands.

Documents everything — site log books kept up to date, service certificates issued promptly, and a clear audit trail you can hand to your insurer or the fire authority on the day they ask for it.

Picks up the phone — a real person at the end of the line when an alarm activates at 2am, not a voicemail and a callback on Monday morning.

When any of those break down, the building drifts. Lights fail and stay failed. AOVs sit forgotten on a rooftop. Extinguishers go past their service date. None of it shows up on a clean-looking certificate — until an inspection, an incident or a sale forces a proper look.

How we work with remote landlords

For absentee owners, the value we add is not just the engineering work — it is the visibility. Every weekly attendance, weekly fire alarm test, monthly emergency lighting check and remedial action is recorded live in our digital fire logbook — so the responsible person can log in from anywhere in the country and see exactly what has been done, when, and by which engineer. Every defect we find is reported the same day with a photograph and a recommendation. Quotes for remedial work are itemised and sent through quickly so the client can make informed decisions without flying north to see the issue for themselves. When the next annual service comes round, the certificate genuinely reflects the state of the building, because the building has been looked after every week of the year that led up to it.

That is the difference a reliable maintenance partner makes. It is not glamorous work. It is calm, consistent, properly documented, and it keeps people safe.

Thinking of changing maintenance contractor?

If you own or manage a residential, commercial or mixed-use building in Newcastle, Gateshead, the wider North East or beyond — and you are not 100% confident that your current fire alarm, emergency lighting, extinguisher or AOV maintenance is being carried out properly — we are happy to carry out a no-obligation review of your existing contract and certificates.

We will tell you, plainly, what is being done well, what is missing, and what it would take to bring everything back to standard. No pressure, no scare tactics — just an honest opinion from engineers who do this every day.

Get in touch with the Lumacore team to arrange a fire safety maintenance review for your building.