Residential definition

Approved document B, Fire Safety, Volume 2 – Buildings other than dwellinghouses, includes classifications of purpose groups for which buildings or compartments of a building are intended to be used.

It defines residential purpose groups as:

Residential (dwellings):

• Flat. A separate and self-contained premises constructed or adapted for use for residential purposes and forming part of a building from some other part of which it is divided horizontally. (includes live/work units, i.e. a flat intended to serve as a workplace for its occupants and for persons who do not live on the premises).
• Dwellinghouse which contains a habitable storey with a floor level which is more than 4.5m above ground level. This includes any surgeries, consulting rooms, offices or other accommodation, not exceeding 50m2 in total, forming part of a dwellinghouse and used by an occupant of the dwellinghouse in a professional or business capacity.
• Dwellinghouse which does not contain a habitable storey with a floor level which is more than 4.5m above ground level. This includes any surgeries, consulting rooms, offices or other accommodation, not exceeding 50m2 in total, forming part of a dwellinghouse and used by an occupant of the dwellinghouse in a professional or business capacity. It also Includes a detached garage not more than 40m2, a detached open carport of not more than 40m2, or a detached building which consists of a garage and open carport where neither the garage nor the open carport exceeds 40m2 in area.

Residential (Institutional): Hospital, home, school or other similar establishment used as living accommodation for, or for the treatment, care or maintenance of persons suffering from disabilities due to illness or old age or other physical or mental incapacity, or under the age of 5 years, or place of lawful detention, where such persons sleep on the premises.

(Other): Hotel, boarding house, residential college, hall of residence, hostel and any other residential purpose not described above.

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