Stairs staircase Balustrade, bannister, spindles legal building regulations rent property

[PongoBertie]

HI everyone. Our staircase had no balustrade leading down to a drop down into the hallway. My other half crafted one when we had kids to prevent falls. Now we want to rent the house and I said we should remove it because I doubt it's up to building standards. He thinks we should leave it. It has been fine for us and is very sturdy, if ugly. But I still think it should go and put the house back to how it was originally. What do you think?

 

[johnny2007]

Unfortunately you can't rent the house with that balauster or you'll be at risk of being sued if there's an accident.
The rule is that you must have a balauster if drops are over 600mm (for single family property).
Balauster must be 900mm high at least and a 100mm sphere must not pass through any gap.
So your one is almost good, apart from the gaps.
You could simply screw plywood to that existing frame and paint it white.
Or add a couple of horizontal (angled really) pieces of wood to close the gaps.
If you remove it, you will need to build another one which complies with the regulations.

 

[PongoBertie]

Thank you for your reply. So you think that this bannister could be salvaged with more horizontal (angled) slats that follow the full length of the stairs to close the gaps.
I was also worried that there is no big square post at the bottom of the stairs drilled into the floor.
Lastly are horizontal slats still OK rather than vertical spindles?