Troubling times for engineers stem from Coronavirus concerns

As an FIA member, you will be a professional company and therefore know when service and maintenance work should be performed over a set period of time to comply to fire safety regulations.

We have received multiple enquiries for advice based on clients not being permitting access on-site due to coronavirus safeguards. Our advice is to explain clearly to the client that this is their decision not to allow you to complete the scheduled work, and it is the role of the premise’s management (Responsible Person or Duty Holder dependant on location) to ensure they fulfil their fire safety obligations.

If access permission is still not granted, you should document timings and communication to use later as evidence (should it be needed) that you have acted responsibly for your clients.

As a note, if you are allowed access on-site, please follow the Governments appropriate coronavirus guidance to ensure you are not unnecessarily increasing risk to anyone in the premises or yourselves. This advice can be found here.

What can you do if you are being refused or are staying at home?

If you are finding that you or your engineers are unable to work and or you are self-isolating then get yourself booked on to the FIA's industry-leading training that will be able to be taken online as of Monday 23rd March.