Landlords in the UK have a legal requirement to ensure that their property is safe for the occupants. In practice this means following a number of regulations set by the local authorities HHSRS (Housing health and safety rating system).
Most of these include a regulation on maximum window opening height to prevent people accidentally falling out of them, either purely by accident, or when in a “confused mental state” (this is mainly elderly people with dementia or something similar, and drunks).
All the doors have to be fire certified as well, and if the fire starts in the room with the escape window, then it’s not going to be blocking the front and back doors for a while.
Usually pretty skeptical about complaints of “Nanny states” but the British government explicitly saying they don’t trust their citizens to not fall out of open windows is pretty bleak
This is only in the UK, yeah? I was surprised the first time I went to continental Europe that high-floor hotel windows would open entirely, with no screen. In the US, hotels do have windows that only open so far. Not the case with residential, though.
Can someone help me understand why you can’t open your windows all the way in Britain?
oi mate you got a loicense for that open window
Landlords in the UK have a legal requirement to ensure that their property is safe for the occupants. In practice this means following a number of regulations set by the local authorities HHSRS (Housing health and safety rating system).
Most of these include a regulation on maximum window opening height to prevent people accidentally falling out of them, either purely by accident, or when in a “confused mental state” (this is mainly elderly people with dementia or something similar, and drunks).
They don’t use window screens over there?
I don’t think so. Never seen one at least.
What if its a fire and you need to climb out?
There has to be at least one window with an openable area of 45x45cm for egress in case of fire or similar emergency iirc
Fire starts in the room with the only window that opens all the way…. Guess I’ll die!
All the doors have to be fire certified as well, and if the fire starts in the room with the escape window, then it’s not going to be blocking the front and back doors for a while.
Usually pretty skeptical about complaints of “Nanny states” but the British government explicitly saying they don’t trust their citizens to not fall out of open windows is pretty bleak
Yeah, it’s not great.
Holy shit.
This is only in the UK, yeah? I was surprised the first time I went to continental Europe that high-floor hotel windows would open entirely, with no screen. In the US, hotels do have windows that only open so far. Not the case with residential, though.
He’s in a hotel. Hotels lock their windows like this for security reasons mostly.