Greetings hivemind,
I work in a small commercial building where the front door is locked after 5.30pm every day. This means the only way out if I stay back is via the back door. I guestimate that the floor area of the building is about 1200 square metres, i.e. 600 ground floor and the same upstairs, and there are five businesses in the building. When the front door is locked the only way out from the ground floor is to go up the main stairs, thru the building, and out the fire steps at the back, via a locked courtyard. It’s easy enough to get out the courtyard gate, but I’m not sure it’d pass muster for easy egress for a commercial building. Further, there’s no lighting, emergency or otherwise.
This is particularly annoying if you’ve parked out the front and have to walk right around the block (via a lane with no other humans in it), which I reckon many would argue presents its own safety risks. It’s also really annoying trying to get my bike out the building down the twisting fire stairs.
What I’m wondering is this: how would one go about finding out whether or not it’s legal to lock the front door when people might still reasonably be expected to be working? A quick web search didn’t yield anything helpful, and I’m hoping someone might be able to point me in the right direction. My desired outcome would be to have the door fixed so it doesn’t have to be chained shut overnight.
(I should add that I’ve talked to our landlord and others, all useless.)
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