Question

[Mushy]

Anyone understand this question that was asked on another website


" I need to know whether our company needs Fire-risk assessment if we do not own or rent on the name of a company any premises or industrial units? I work from home as we do not have office.
As our director owns few companies, the situations is: one company rents containers for storage, but the other company also uses them.
Now one of the companies would like to enter the TRA and we've been asked to submit written Fire Risk Assessment. Isn't it the owners duty to get it? Because we are only tenants (if we consider one of the companies) and the other company which needs to enter TRA isn't actually a tenant.
I hope you understood what I tried to explain."

What's a TRA?

[kurnal]

The question is are they an employer. And if so how many people do they employ.

From the language and grammar of the posting it reads as it is yet another  business run by someone from Eastern Europe or Asia who is trying to get round what they see as our excessively onerous fire safety legislation. Happy to set up a business in the UK but doesnt like the rules.

Having long tedious phone calls from a rug wholesaler in London at the moment  who is trying to persuade me to sell him a "fire certificate" on the cheap without having a look at his premises. Heads getting sore from banging against the wall.

Pass the melamine I'm thirsty.

[Chris Houston]

Kurnal,

As I think has been demonstrated on this forum many times, the many of the local population think our laws are excessively onerous, notably B&B owners!

[Mar62]

Having long tedious phone calls from a rug wholesaler in London at the moment  who is trying to persuade me to sell him a "fire certificate" on the cheap without having a look at his premises. Heads getting sore from banging against the wall.

Kurnal, I had the same a while ago from a very large private boarding school, we explained about a risk assessment etc etc and tried to help them but never heard from them again!

[kurnal]

Chris personally I think theres a difference with the B&B people- most of them are letting out a couple of rooms in their private homes and are not running as a business as such- indeed very very few are employers. As such I think they can be forgiven for not being aware of H&S legislation and the responsibilities of an employer as they have always fallen outside the umbrella of HASAW until the RRO came in. Prior to that the standards were enforced by the very specific trading standards and housing legislation.
On the other hand I believe that  anyone who runs a business and employs people should stick to the rules, aim for compliance and cost their services accordingly. This will lead to an effective business plan, high standards of safety and good products and services. If we are all trying to undercut each other all the time this eventually leads to reckless disregard of safety standards and product safety and society suffers as a result.

I recently criticised the design of a fire resisting door sold as FD30. I asked the supplier if I could have a copy of the test certificate. He gave me a photocopy of a door of a totally different spec stolen from another firm. When I suggested he have his doors tested his response was "Fire tests? Are you mad? Do you know how much this would cost?"

[Chris Houston]

Was it a British company?

[kurnal]

Yes. My client would not let me shop them and would not make a complaint to trading standards. So I did have a quiet word in the right ear instead. Dont know if its come to anything because no formal complaint was made. Funny thing was they were not even particularly cheap.  So someones making extra profit on a substandard product thats not fit for purpose. Undermining all legitimate businesses in the same field. And though thats an extreme and true case it aint uncommon.