Build-to-Rent Fire Alarm Systems

Simplified Compliance and Unmatched Safety

The Unique Fire Safety Challenges of Build-to-Rent Properties

The evolving regulatory landscape

Build-to-Rent (BTR) operators face an evolving challenge of regulatory compliance in their complex environment. With legislation including the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and the Building Safety Act 2022, compliance requires continuous monitoring, accurate documentation, and proactive risk management.

Balancing resident safety with operational efficiency

Whether they are monitoring purpose-built student accommodation, ensuring compliance across multiple social housing sites, or any number of other Build-to-Rent properties, BTR operators have ongoing pressures to ensure safety, whilst also maintaining operational efficiency across multi-site portfolios. This means that manual systems can become not fit for purpose as they often create blind spots, leading to delays, risk exposure, and frustrated residents.

build to rent properties

The pain of manual compliance and siloed data

For BTR operators, traditional spreadsheets and site-by-site reporting can be very long-winded and also create inconsistencies. Without centralised oversight, property managers struggle to consolidate fire safety records, making audits, inspections, and insurer demands unnecessarily time-consuming.

Our intelligent platform centralises every event, test, and device across your entire portfolio - giving BTR operators complete control and proof of compliance at a glance.

Fire safety monitoring standards

There are 2 specific monitoring standards that apply to commercial and build to rent properties specifically.

BS 5839-1: The non-domestic fire alarm standard

This code of practice covers the design, installation, commissioning and maintenance of fire detection and alarm systems in multi-occupant, and commercial buildings. It states that:

  • Fire signals must be successfully transmitted to an Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC) within 90 seconds.

  • Faults within fire safety systems must be identified and reported to a monitoring centre within 3 minutes.

  • Protocols must be in place to minimise and manage the number of false alarms within the system.

  • The responsible person must maintain a complete record of weekly test, fault, and maintenance events across a fire safety portfolio. Either digitally or on paper.

Drax Technology helps companies to exceed these standards by:

Providing real-time data: in the case of a fire event, our solution captures event data instantaneously, and provides a real-time detailed overview of the exact device that has been triggered. Information of a genuine fire, false alarm, or system fault are provided in real-time, which is well within the regulatory targets of 90 seconds, and 3 minutes.

Automating digital logbooks: There is no need to manually log information. Every alarm event, fire drill, fault alert, and maintenance action is recorded directly into a cloud-based digital audit trail that is secure, and readily available to regulators. This eliminates manual reporting and eliminates the possibility of human error.

Drastically reducing false alarms: Engineers are able to program smart verification rules and predictive maintenance that support a proactive approach to fire safety. Real-time monitoring allows for potential faults to be identified and remedied before a false alarm has the opportunity to trigger.

BS 8418 & Video Smoke Detection (VSD)

While BS 8418 is primarily a security standard, it still affects fire safety systems due to Visual Smoke Detection. It states that:

  • Systems must have 2 independent signal paths for transmitting live footage to a Remote Video Response Centre (RVRC) to ensure that line monitoring cannot be cut.

  • Image and data activations must transmit within 1 second of detection to allow live operators to verify a threat.

  • Backup power supplies for cameras and field detectors must maintain operations for a minimum of 4 hours, with device or power failures being reported to the monitoring station immediately.

Drax Technology provide solutions that meet these requirements by:

Automatically triggering local CCTV cameras: In the event of a fire, the solution can control local CCTV cameras to observe the exact location of the alarm for a live view of what is happening.

Providing immediate visual confirmation: Due to its integration with live video, the monitoring centre can confirm if an alarm event is due to a genuine fire or false alarm within seconds. There is no delay between an alarm activating and the live video being available.

Performing persistent asset health checks: Drax constantly pings and audits the connection status of connected panels, automatically flagging non-compliance issues via a centralised dashboard.

The Drax Technology Advantage: An Intelligent, Integrated Solution

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Why Traditional Fire Alarm Systems Fall Short for BTR

Reactive alert tools and a lack of real-time visibility

Conventional fire alarm systems trigger alerts, but often show barely any insight into the original cause of the issue. This means that facilities managers remain reactive and have to wait for an issue to occur, instead of preventing them.

Time-consuming manual inspections and reporting

With manual logbooks and fragmented reporting, compliance tasks become very time consuming for staff and in turn, leaves room for human error.

Inefficient maintenance and service requests

Routine maintenance often becomes reactive instead of proactive. Minor faults can become major issues, driving costs higher and damaging resident trust.

Drax Technology's solutions eliminates these limitations by providing real-time visibility across all fire and life safety systems from a single, intelligent platform. Instead of reacting to alarms, BTR operators gain 24/7 insight into the cause, location, and severity of incidents, enabling faster, more informed decision-making. Automated reporting and digital compliance records eliminate manual paperwork, reducing admin time and the risk of error.

Who We Work With

How Our System Works For Your BTR Portfolio

  • Deploying Our Technology

    Our solutions seamlessly integrate with all major fire alarm panel manufacturers, so you can have peace of mind with both new and legacy systems.

  • Asset Management

    Track and manage building assets digitally, ensuring compliance with servicing schedules and extending equipment life cycles.

  • Resolving Issues Proactively

    Faults are flagged in real time, allowing early intervention before they escalate into costly risks or safety breaches.

  • Remote Water Monitoring

    We provide intelligent water monitoring solutions that assists with the reduction of legionella risks, providing further assurance of health and safety compliance.

  • Discovering New Insights

    Full visibility across your portfolio highlights hidden risks and inefficiencies before they escalate into costly problems.

Our system is compatible with over 50 fire alarm manufacturers

Drax versus competitors

We believe that there are several reasons for picking our fire alarm monitoring systems over our competitors. We have listed them below.

A Partnership Built on Trust and Expertise
For over 25 years, Drax Technology have been market leaders in creating advanced fire alarm software and innovative compliance and safety management solutions for a multitude of industry sectors. Our technology gives facilities managers, landlords, and operators a complete overview of their critical alarms, fire safety systems, and audit trail, ensuring their portfolio is always fully compliant.

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Complete integration with all your facilities life safety systems

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