Appeals
We can of course appeal against all the notices for any reason within the notice. This could be on the grounds we feel they are being onerous or it may be that we feel they have not given us sufficient time to sort it out. The appeal must be made to the local magistrates’ court within 21 days of receiving the notice. Appealing against an Alterations and Enforcement Notice will cause the Notice to be suspended until heard in court. In the case of the Prohibition Notice it will continue to stand until withdrawn, disposed of or modified by the magistrates.

In our experience it is well worth appealing against Notices issued by the Fire Authority because we unfortunately find many Fire Authorities have either issued Notices incorrectly, unreasonably or with unrealistic deadlines. We have appealed or threatened to appeal against countless Notices for clients across England and on every occasion the Fire Authority has backed down before we got to court.

Please don’t think we make a hobby of appealing as we will only advise you to do this where we firmly believe we are right and they are wrong. The secret is timing; should you ever be unfortunate enough to receive a Notice do not sit on it, contact us immediately so we can act within the prescribed timescales.

Cited, Statutory Instrument 2005 No. 1541 the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
¹ Part 2, Paragraph 13, section 1
² Part 3, Paragraph 31, section 1

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