Emergency lighting is one of the most common grey areas we get asked about. Some HMOs clearly need it, some clearly don’t, and a lot sit in between. Here’s how the decision actually gets made.
What emergency lighting is for
If the mains fails during a fire (which it often does), tenants need enough light to find their way out. Emergency escape lighting is battery-backed lighting that comes on automatically when the power goes, covering the escape route: staircases, corridors, changes of direction and the final exit. The relevant standard is BS 5266.
When an HMO usually needs it
There’s no blanket rule that says “every HMO must have emergency lighting”. It comes down to the fire risk assessment and your council’s licensing standards. As a practical guide:
- Larger HMOs, typically three or more storeys, generally need emergency lighting on the escape route.
- Complex or windowless escape routes need it regardless of size. If a staircase or corridor has no borrowed light (light reaching it from street lamps or windows), tenants would be in total darkness in a power cut.
- Bedsit-style properties and converted buildings usually need it, reflecting the higher risk.
When it may not be needed
A smaller two-storey shared house with a straightforward escape route and decent borrowed light from windows or street lighting may not need installed emergency lighting at all. Your risk assessment should say so explicitly, which gives you something to point to if a licensing officer asks.
That phrase borrowed light does a lot of work here: if you can safely walk the escape route at night with the lights off, the case for installed emergency lighting weakens. If you can’t, it strengthens. It’s genuinely worth doing that walk yourself.
The bit landlords miss: testing
Where emergency lighting is fitted, it has to work, and you have to be able to prove it works:
- Monthly: a short function test. Simulate a mains failure, confirm every fitting illuminates, record the result.
- Annually: a full-duration test, usually three hours, confirming the batteries last as long as they claim.
An untested installation is treated much like a missing one at inspection. If keeping the monthly rhythm going is the problem, that’s exactly what our scheduled testing visits are for: we test, we log it, and the property’s logbook stays inspection-ready without you thinking about it.
What to do if you’re not sure
Don’t guess in either direction. Installing emergency lighting you don’t need wastes money; skipping it where it’s required is a licensing failure and a genuine safety gap. A fire risk assessment settles the question for your specific property, and if lighting is needed we can quote for the installation and the ongoing testing in one go.
Request a free quote and we’ll give you a straight answer for your property. We cover Hounslow, Feltham, Isleworth, Brentford, Chiswick and the wider West London area.