Middlesbrough runs selective licensing in Newport and North Ormesby, split into three designated areas: Newport 1, Newport 2 and North Ormesby. Inside them almost every privately rented house needs a licence, not just shared houses. The licence runs for up to five years and costs £836 in Newport 2 and £820 in North Ormesby, plus a one off £20 fit and proper person check. The streets covered, the dates and the current fees are on Middlesbrough Council’s selective licensing page. The fees have been challenged in the courts by local landlords, so check the page for the current position. Larger shared houses of five or more tenants also need a mandatory HMO licence.
Selective licensing sets conditions, including a smoke alarm on every storey and a carbon monoxide alarm where there is a solid fuel appliance. Those conditions are a housing matter, and meeting them is not the same as holding a fire risk assessment, which is a separate legal duty.
Cleveland Fire Brigade is the enforcing authority
Cleveland Fire Brigade enforces fire safety law across Middlesbrough. They can inspect without notice, serve enforcement and prohibition notices, and prosecute. They will not write the assessment for you, but they will give advice. When they audit a property they want to see the written assessment and check its measures are in place.
The responsible person is whoever controls the premises, usually the landlord or agent for a let property.
Newport and North Ormesby terraces
The licensed streets are mostly dense Victorian terraces, two up two downs and larger houses split for sharers, in some of the most pressed neighbourhoods in the country. In houses like these the assessment usually turns on the fire separation between the rooms and floors, the escape past a single staircase, and older wiring and heating. A house let room by room is a very different job from a family let, and the smoke alarm the licence asks for is the start of the assessment, not the whole of it. Nearer the centre, around Teesside University, larger shared houses bring shared parts and their own escape questions.
If you rent from the council or a housing association, start with them, because they may already hold an assessment for the property.
The licence and the assessment are two separate duties
The selective licence comes from Middlesbrough Council. The fire risk assessment is a duty under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. The licence does not cover the assessment, and the fire duty applies whether or not the property sits inside a licensing area. If you let a property, run a business, or manage a building with shared parts, the written assessment has to be kept current.
What a Middlesbrough report should actually name
A report that could have been written for any town is not suitable and sufficient for a terraced house let room by room. It should say where the alarms sit on each storey, whether the staircase stays usable if a fire starts on the ground floor, and how the rooms are separated. For a larger shared house it should deal with the fire doors and the escape, not leave “common parts” as a heading with nothing under it.
Checking an assessor in Middlesbrough
There is no official register of fire risk assessors, in Middlesbrough or anywhere else, so the checking is down to whoever pays the invoice. Ask for qualifications, professional body membership, indemnity insurance and a sample report before you appoint. The full list of questions, and what a good answer sounds like, is on what a fire risk assessment costs.
What it costs in Middlesbrough
The building sets the price, not the postcode. A two up two down let in Gresham is a morning; a larger house split into several lettings with one staircase is not. Anything over 11 metres brings the fixed fire door checks with it. The national ranges, and what moves a quote inside them, are on what a fire risk assessment costs. Ask for a fixed price against a written description of the property rather than an hourly rate.
Newcastle is the other North East city on this site: fire risk assessments in Newcastle.
Selective licensing in Middlesbrough
My rental is an ordinary house, not an HMO. Do I need a licence?
Inside Newport and North Ormesby, yes. Selective licensing covers almost all privately rented houses there. Check the council page to confirm your street is in a designated area.
Does the licence replace the fire risk assessment?
No. Cleveland Fire Brigade will still expect the written assessment, and the smoke alarm conditions in the licence do not provide one.
My property is outside those areas. Am I clear?
You may not need a selective licence, but the fire risk assessment still applies to any let property, and a five person share still needs an HMO licence.
Getting a quote from an assessor covering Middlesbrough
Describe the premises and we will pass it to assessors covering Middlesbrough. Say whether it is a single house, a house split into lettings, or a five person HMO.
Not in Middlesbrough? See all the areas we cover.