HMO Fire Safety: What a Sheffield Landlord’s £32,000 Penalty Means for Owners.

HMO fire safety

A Sheffield landlord has been handed a suspended prison sentence and a £32,000 financial penalty after a fire exposed serious safety failings in his HMO flats. South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue has now warned that it will take enforcement action against any landlord who breaks fire safety law.

Shakeel Shah, 67, owned the building at 145 to 153 Spital Hill in Burngreave. The first floor flats had already been deemed unfit for sleeping in because of inadequate fire detection and escape routes. Yet when fire broke out on 15 December 2024, firefighters found at least eight tenants inside (The Star).

At Sheffield Crown Court, Shah received 12 months in prison suspended for 18 months, a £10,000 fine, £20,000 in costs and a £2,000 victim surcharge. The fire service’s business fire safety manager, Amy Jenkinson, said the case shows how important it is for landlords and responsible persons to understand their legal duties, including carrying out suitable fire risk assessments and maintaining adequate fire precautions.

What went wrong at Spital Hill

Almost every basic layer of fire protection was missing. The court heard about the following failings (The Star, 22 September 2026):

• No fire risk assessment had ever been carried out on the building before the fire.
• No compartmentation between the flats and the business unit below, so the fire burned straight through to the commercial premises.
• A blocked escape route: the fire exit led to an unlit courtyard full of rubbish with a padlocked gate.
• No fire alarm and no emergency lighting.
• No fire doors and no fire safety equipment.
• A prohibition notice ignored: two people were allowed to sleep in the flats for several days after a closure order was served.

Shah had been a landlord since 1995. The ground floor housed restaurants that had seen two previous fires. The fire safety measures required were eventually completed by June 2025, but only after enforcement by the council and the fire service. For HMO owners, the lesson is clear: compliance is far cheaper than prosecution, and it saves lives.

HMO fire safety law in England.

HMO fire safety is not covered by a single law. Several pieces of legislation overlap, and an owner or manager must meet all of them. Broadly, a property is an HMO when it is let to three or more people forming two or more households who share a kitchen, bathroom or toilet.

Your fire risk assessment, together with any HMO licence conditions set by your council, decides exactly which fire precautions your property needs. Councils also assess fire as a hazard under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System, so always check your local requirements.

1. Fire risk assessments

A written fire risk assessment is a legal requirement for every HMO, licensed or not. Under Article 9 of the Fire Safety Order, the responsible person (usually the landlord, owner or managing agent) must ensure a suitable and sufficient assessment of the common parts is carried out and kept up to date.

Since 1 October 2023, section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022 has required every responsible person to record the assessment in full, record their fire safety arrangements, and record who carried out the assessment. Residents must also be given clear information about the risks identified and the measures in place.

What HMO owners should do:

• Appoint a competent assessor, ideally one working to PAS 79-2:2020, the standard for housing.
• Review the assessment regularly. Annual review is widely treated as best practice, and it should be reviewed straight away after any change to layout, use or occupancy.
• Act on every finding, with dates and responsibilities, and keep evidence that actions are complete.

Remember that holding an assessment is not the same as being compliant. The Spital Hill case shows what happens when no assessment exists at all, but an assessment that sits in a drawer with its actions ignored offers little more protection, legally or physically.

A thorough assessment also reviews your fire alarms, emergency lighting and firefighting equipment, and sets out exactly what your property needs.

Keep a fire safety logbook on site recording alarm tests, emergency lighting checks, fire door inspections, equipment servicing and repairs. If the council or fire service inspects, this is your evidence.

2. Fire doors

Fire doors hold back fire and smoke long enough for residents to escape, and they only work if they are correctly specified, installed and maintained. The Fire Safety Order requires escape routes to be protected so they can be used safely, and Article 17 requires all fire safety measures, including fire doors, to be kept in efficient working order and good repair (Home Office guidance). Your fire risk assessment and licence conditions set the standard; in most HMOs this means 30-minute fire-resisting doors with smoke seals on rooms opening onto the escape route.

A compliant fire door should have:

• A certified door leaf and frame installed as a matched set.
• Intumescent strips and cold smoke seals in good condition.
• A positive self-closing device that shuts the door fully into its frame.
• Fire-rated hinges, with consistent gaps around the door (typically no more than 3mm).
• No damage, holes, unapproved alterations or wedges holding it open.

Common faults councils find include doors without closers, intumescent strips fitted without smoke seals, non-rated hinges and excessive gaps.

Under the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, responsible persons for buildings with two or more sets of domestic premises and shared escape routes must tell residents to keep fire doors shut, not to tamper with self-closers, and to report faults immediately. Where the building is over 11 metres high, communal fire doors must be checked at least every three months and flat entrance doors at least every 12 months (legislation.gov.uk). Regular checks are good practice in every HMO, and a written log provides evidence that the management regulations are being met.

A professional fire door survey checks every door against these points, records each defect, and tells you whether a door can be repaired or needs replacing with a certified fire doorset.

3. Passive fire protection and compartmentation

Passive fire protection is the built-in fabric of a building that holds back fire and smoke: fire-resisting walls, floors and ceilings, fire stopping around service penetrations, and fire doors. It protects escape routes and stops fire spreading between rooms, flats and any commercial premises. The Fire Safety Order requires escape routes to be protected so they can be used safely, and Article 17 requires that protection to be maintained (Home Office guidance).

Regulation 4 of the HMO Management Regulations requires the manager to keep every means of escape from fire free from obstruction and in good order and repair (legislation.gov.uk). Where an HMO has five or more occupiers, notices showing the location of escape routes must also be clearly displayed.

• Compartmentation: walls, floors and ceilings between rooms, flats and commercial units must resist fire for the period your fire risk assessment requires.
• Fire stopping: gaps where cables, pipes and ducts pass through walls and floors must be sealed with tested, approved products. Unsealed holes are one of the most common defects found in HMOs.
• Protected escape routes: hallways and stairs should be enclosed by fire-resisting construction and fire doors so residents can reach a final exit safely.
• Clear exits: final exit doors must open easily from the inside without a key, and routes must be kept free of bikes, bins and stored items.
• After any works: new cabling, plumbing or conversion work can breach compartmentation, so check and re-seal once the work is finished.

Spital Hill’s missing compartmentation allowed the fire to burn through to the business below, which is exactly what these measures are designed to prevent.

The cost of getting it wrong

Fire safety failings in an HMO can be punished by both the council and the fire service. For HMO housing offences committed on or after 1 May 2026, including breaches of the management regulations, councils can issue civil penalties of up to £40,000, up from £30,000

Fire Safety Order offences are prosecuted by the fire service and can lead to an unlimited fine and up to two years in prison. Fire services can also serve enforcement and prohibition notices that close a building overnight. On top of that comes the risk of invalidated insurance, banning orders, and the damage to reputation that follows a court case reported in the local press.

How Legionella & Fire Safe Services can help

The Spital Hill case was entirely preventable. At Legionella & Fire Safe Services, we help HMO owners, landlords and managing agents meet their legal duties and keep residents safe, with fire risk assessments, fire door inspections, fire door supply and installation, and passive fire protection.

Whether you need a first assessment, a review of an existing one, or support working through its actions, our team can help you move from paperwork to genuine compliance.

Protecting People and Property. Contact us today to book your HMO fire risk assessment.

This article reflects the law in England as of October 2026 and is for general information only. HMO requirements vary by council, so always check your local licence conditions.