Fire alarm servicing
BS 5839 recommends a competent-person service at least twice a year, with the responsible person also carrying out a weekly call point test. Servicing covers the panel, detectors, sounders, call points and the standby power supply, and each visit is certified so there is an unbroken record of the system's condition.
Emergency lighting testing
BS 5266 expects a short monthly function test of every luminaire and one full-duration test each year, normally three hours, to confirm the batteries genuinely last as long as the escape route needs them to. Failed fittings are identified individually rather than reported as a system-wide pass or fail.
Why it matters beyond compliance
Insurers and enforcing officers both ask the same question after an incident: can you show the system was maintained. A dated certificate and a completed logbook answer it. A system that works but has no record behind it does not.
- Blocks of flats with common-part detection and escape lighting
- Offices and retail units with addressable panels
- Industrial and warehouse premises
- Hospitality premises with public escape routes
