"Lobster" wrote
| Is this 'means of escape' rule the same for a property which is
| rented? Or are the rules more strenous then?

If you are renting a property to more than 2 unrelated people it is defined
as a House in Multiple Occupation and an HMO licence is required from the
local council. As part of the application procedure, your application will
be reviewed by the local fire brigade and you will be required to bring
means of escape up to a satisfactory standard as a condition of being
granted the licence. Current building regulations would not necessarily be a
satisfactory standard, as the benchmark standards for HMOs (or the version
adopted by your local council) may have a higher standard, to reflect the
higher risk of fire in an HMO.

If the house is a straightforward 3/4 bedroom 2 storey the requirements are
unlikely to be onerous. If the house is a 'double-upper' on the 5th and 6th
floors of a tenement, they may be.

That's my understanding of how the regs are applied in Edinburgh, which
publishes better information than most on its website.

Owain