A call has gone out to landlords to fit window restrictors across every floor of their rental properties.
The advice comes after recent statistics reveal that 13 children under the age of 11 have died from falls from windows between April 2019 and May 2025.
The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) identifies small children as the primary high-risk group for falls from windows.
But Phil Turtle, a director of Landlord Licensing & Defence, says: “Landlords also need to make properties safe for tenants and their visitors who may have had faculty-impairing alcohol and recreational or even prescription drugs that could cause them to fall against the window.”
While legal obligations mandate restrictors only on windows from the second floor upwards – unless the sill height is 800mm or less – Turtle stresses the importance of proactive measures.
He warns: “The severity of falls from windows is very height dependent – the same fall through a ground floor window would probably only lead to bruises; from a first-floor window, possibly broken bones and from higher windows, most likely life changing injuries or death.”
He continues: “We recommend changing the hinges on double glazing to the type with inbuilt restrictors.”
For traditional designs, he adds: “On opening sash windows, the hook and pin type available from outlets such as Screwfix and Toolstation to stop the accidental opening by children and impaired people whilst still allowing deliberate wide opening, for example, for summer ventilation.”
He insists additional protections are crucial for lower sills: “Windows where the sill is 800mm or less must also have either safety glass or safety bars to stop people falling when non-safety glass shatters when fallen against, often cutting blood vessels and tendons as well as allowing a fall out of the window.
“Although the 800mm sill is normally measured from the floor, where beds or furniture that people or kids might be on top of, the 800mm needs to be considered to be from the top of the bed/furniture.”
Turtle adds: “We also recommend restrictors on ground floor windows, not to avert falls, but for security, so that windows can be safely kept ajar for ventilation.”
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