Fire Safety Escalations

The fire door on Floor 2 has been jammed and mechanically defective since March 2025. Because it poses an immediate life safety risk if left closed (it jams and traps residents), it is routinely propped open. This completely breaks the fire compartmentation of the building.

Southern Housing is fully aware of the issue but has failed to act, leaving us with no choice but to prepare an escalation to the local Fire and Rescue Service.

Primary Evidence & Reports

All claims in our escalation are backed by the following physical evidence and official reports obtained from Southern Housing and our own on-site audits.

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Type 1 FRA (Full Report)

The complete Savills Fire Risk Assessment detailing the 'Moderate' risk score and specific defect IDs.

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FRA Resident Summary

The redacted summary provided to residents by Southern Housing.

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Fire Alarm Logbook Evidence

Photographic proof of the blank 2025/2026 physical maintenance logs.

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RiskHub Compliance Portal

QR code link to the official Savills compliance tracking portal.

The Savills Fire Risk Assessment (FRA)

We have obtained the Type 1 Fire Risk Assessment (FRA) conducted by Savills on June 14, 2025 (with a desktop review on December 17, 2025). The report exposes a severe disconnect between what Southern Housing claims, what we are billed for, and the physical reality of our building.

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Evacuation Strategy: Stay Put

The building relies on a "Stay Put" policy. This means in the event of a fire, residents are told to stay in their flats because the building is supposed to be sealed into fire-resistant compartments. Missing seals and propped-open doors make this policy lethal.

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Overall Risk Rating: Moderate (The Fake 'Pass')

Southern Housing uses this "Moderate" score as a functional "pass" to justify minimal intervention. However, an overall "pass" score is legally meaningless when critical life-safety defects (like missing smoke seals and flammable expanding foam) are actively ignored.

The Most Glaring Omission

The most damning part of the Savills FRA is not what it found, but what it failed to document.

The Floor 2 fire door has been mechanically defective and permanently propped open since March 2025. When the Savills assessor walked the building on June 14, 2025, they completely omitted this massive, obvious breach of fire compartmentation from their report. I know this because I spoke to the man who did the assessment.

Worse still, Southern Housing—who had already been notified of the broken door by residents—conducted a "desktop review" of this report on December 17, 2025, and signed off on it without correcting the record. They are relying on a materially flawed safety document to avoid making repairs.

Critical Documented Defects

The FRA explicitly identified the following failures. Despite billing us £73.08/year for "Fire system repairs," Southern Housing has ignored these findings:

Inappropriate Firestopping (Defect 1209772): Electrical cupboards and service risers have been fire-stopped with inappropriate expanding foam instead of certified fire-retardant materials. (Priority A - 6 months)
Missing Intumescent Strips (Defect 1628526): Lobby doors (by flat 2 and flats 3-4) are missing vital intumescent strips and smoke seals, rendering them useless at stopping smoke spread. (Priority C - 24 months)
Damaged Infrastructure (Defects 1628528 & 1628530): Damaged frames and literal holes in the walls by the lobby doors to flats 13-15. (Priority B - 18 months)
Perimeter Gaps: Excessive perimeter gaps (5-7mm) on the ground floor and flat 11-12 lobby doors, destroying the smoke seal capability.

The Maintenance Logbook

While Southern Housing assured Savills that systems are "tested and serviced in accordance with relevant guidance," the physical Fire Systems Ltd logbook on the ground floor tells a different story.

There are zero signatures or maintenance entries for the entirety of 2025 and 2026 to date. The last visible check was late 2023. We are paying £60.00/year for undocumented inspections.

Escalation Draft

Below is the draft of our formal report to the Fire Safety Inspecting Officer under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. It integrates the findings from the Savills FRA, the glaring omissions, and our physical audit to prove a pattern of statutory non-compliance.

Draft Status

This document is currently in DRAFT status. It is being prepared for dispatch by the Shadow Board if Southern Housing fails to provide a concrete repair timeline and refund for the undelivered services.

URGENT: Ongoing Fire Safety Breach at Odyssey House – Landlord Non-Compliance

From:[Resident Name / Shadow Board]

To:[Local Fire and Rescue Service Email]

Date:[DRAFT - Pending Dispatch]

To the Fire Safety Inspecting Officer, I am writing to formally report a persistent and severe breach of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 at Odyssey House (SW17 0GS). The responsible person, Southern Housing, is billing residents thousands of pounds annually for "Fire System Repairs" and "Servicing," yet physical evidence proves statutory maintenance is being wholly neglected. Specifically: 1. Compartmentation Failure (Stay Put Policy Compromised): The building operates a "Stay Put" evacuation strategy, which relies entirely on sealed fire compartments. However, the designated fire door on Floor 2 is mechanically defective, routinely propped open, and fails to close or seal. 2. Materially Flawed Risk Assessment: A Type 1 Fire Risk Assessment was conducted by Savills in June 2025. Astoundingly, the assessor completely failed to record the propped-open 2nd-floor fire door, despite Southern Housing being notified of this critical defect months prior. Southern Housing then signed off on a desktop review of this flawed report in December 2025. 3. Missing Intumescent Strips: Lobby doors lack vital intumescent strips and smoke seals, completely undermining their fire resistance. 4. Inappropriate Firestopping: Electrical cupboards and service risers have been fire-stopped using highly dangerous, inappropriate expanding foam instead of certified intumescent materials. 5. Empty Maintenance Records: The physical 'Fire Systems Ltd' maintenance logbook on-site contains zero signatures for 2025 or 2026, with the last visible check in late 2023. Southern Housing is fully aware of these defects. They were explicitly identified in their own FRA (Defect IDs: 1209772 and 1628526) or reported directly by residents. Despite granting the building a "Moderate" overall risk score—which the landlord treats as a functional "pass"—they have taken zero action to rectify these life-threatening defects over the last year. Furthermore, Southern Housing falsely informed the Savills assessor that access control systems were being maintained, despite the main security doors being broken and unpowered. I have attached a log of our correspondence, the Savills FRA excerpts, and photographic evidence of the logbook and doors' current state. We urgently request a fire safety inspection. Yours faithfully, [Resident Name / Shadow Board]