On Wed, 29 Aug 2007 19:03:58 GMT, a particular chimpanzee, "The Medway
Handyman" randomly hit the keyboard
and produced:

Doing some work for a guy who is abroad & has let his house. I have a list
of exactly what he wants done and one item is 'fit smoke alarm'.

The tenant says it must be a mains smoke alarm to comply with 'the
regulations'. Is this right? If so it's going to come to a lot more than
installing a battery model.

Anyone know? Is it building regs or something else?

Building Regulations only cover "building work", which includes the
erection or extension of a building, the material change of use of a
building or part of a building, or the material alteration of a
building or part of a building, or of a controlled service or fitting.

Material alteration only includes work which would, at any stage,
result in a building not complying with a Relevant Requirement where
previously it did, or making it worse in terms of complying with a
Relevant Requirement than it did previously.

The Relevant Requirements in this case are structure and fire safety.

This is why the installation of any _additional_ detection is not
Building Work and therefore does not need to comply with the
applicable guidance, but replacing or altering any existing detection
would be.
--
Hugo Nebula
"If no-one on the internet wants a piece of this,
just how far from the pack have you strayed?"