Reports of dangerous housing increase

Slökkvilið höfuðborgarsvæðisins (the Capital Area Fire and Rescue Service) has recently introduced new procedures concerning dangerous residential properties. It was granted access to a residential property for the first time under a court ruling in spring 2025. There are now clearer powers to inspect residential properties if there are reasonable grounds to suspect that people's safety is not being ensured. The fire service has had the power to inspect fire safety in commercial properties without a court ruling. Before the latest ruling, however, the fire service had little ability to respond to reports concerning residential properties. Inspections mainly concern rental properties, explains Birgir Finnsson, fire chief in the capital area. We are not going into residential properties where you live with your family and looking at how you live at home, but when you start renting to people, you start taking responsibility for others, you start earning an income, then under all laws and regulations you are required to ensure that fire safety is in order for those you rent to. Reports about properties where fire safety is inadequate have increased recently. Birgir says there were between 25 and 30 reports last year, but there have already been as many this year. Birgir says the fire on Bræðraborgarstígur in 2020, in which three people died, is among the events that have led to a change in attitudes. The property was registered as residential accommodation, but fire safety was in disarray. Before the change in the law, the fire service had little ability to respond to reports about it. The fire service has the power, among other things, to demand that improvements be made to a property if it is authorised for residential use. It can also prohibit the use of part of a building and order people to stop living there. Birgir says the most serious cases are when spaces not intended for residential use are converted into living quarters. He gives the example of a storage corridor in an apartment building. This is a narrow corridor, these are thin doors, there is simply no fire protection between the storage units, and then [suddenly] someone is living in a storage unit. The windows are often small, perhaps just a narrow strip of window, and may not even open. It is, of course, simply unacceptable for people to live in those conditions.
2026-07-13 06:23:35