Fire Door Inspections in Kent and Across the UK

Fire door inspections for your premises

Risk Safety Services Ltd provides fire door inspections for businesses, landlords and property managers across Kent and throughout the UK. Based in Dover, our team serves Folkestone, Canterbury and the surrounding towns.

We help you identify visible defects, understand what maintenance is needed and plan repairs. In blocks of flats, fire doors are commonly found in the following locations:

  • 1
    Flat entrance doors: help limit the spread of fire and smoke from flats to shared escape routes.
  • 2
    Stairway and lobby doors: help protect routes used for evacuation.
  • 3
    Corridor doors: help restrict fire and smoke movement between sections of a building.
  • 4
    Plant room, cupboard and riser doors: help prevent fire spreading from service and equipment areas where fire-resisting doors are required.
Fire Door Inspections
Fire Door Inspections

What our visual inspections cover

Before the visit, we agree which doors will be inspected and arrange access to the areas we need to check. Checks can include the door leaf and frame, hinges, closers, latches and other ironmongery, glazing, seals, visible damage and alterations. We measure accessible gaps and review any available information about the doors.

You receive a report setting out our findings and recommendations, helping you prioritise repairs and any further investigation. A visual inspection cannot verify concealed construction or certify fire resistance. If further evidence or investigation is needed, we explain the next steps.

We also provide fire risk assessments and fire safety consultancy. Tell us the location, approximate number of doors and type of premises when requesting a quote.

Understanding your fire door responsibilities

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (as amended) (‘the FSO’) requires that, in a block of flats, there are suitable fire precautions in place to make sure that the common parts are safe to use as a means of escape in the event of fire. The appropriate fire precautions are determined by carrying out a fire risk assessment.

As this is a legal requirement under Article 9 of the FSO, you should have already made sure that a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment has been carried out; if there is no fire risk assessment in place, you must arrange for this to be carried out as soon as is practicably possible.

Fire-resisting doors (fire doors) are one of the most important measures to safeguard the means of escape from fire. Your fire risk assessment should already have identified the doors in question and determined whether the doors are adequate to resist the spread of fire and smoke into, or within, the common parts. You should have already taken steps to maintain doors in good order, and where it has been found that the existing door is inadequate and needs to be replaced, this must be done by a competent person.

As with all fire safety measures, fire doors need to be kept in good working order and in good repair. Wear and tear, for example, can result in defects. The objective of regulation 10 is to ensure that such defects do not materially undermine the ability of the doors adequately to prevent fire and smoke spread, whether to the extent originally designed or as verified as adequate in the most recent fire risk assessment.

The Fire Safety Act 2021 clarified that flat entrance doors must be considered in the Fire Risk Assessment mandated by the Fire Safety Order. The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 require regular checks to ensure that self-closing devices are working and the fire doors including flat entrance doors are in efficient working order and in good repair. These checks are to ensure that the existing door standard is maintained.

During the fire risk assessment, the assessor may recommend improvements to be made to the door and it will be for the Responsible Persons to determine how these are implemented. If faults are found with the doors, then it may be necessary to undertake appropriate maintenance to ensure they remain fit for purpose or, where needed, to replace them. However, there is no requirement to replace a fire door simply because it does not meet the current standard under Building Regulations if the door remains in full working order from a fire safety point of view.

The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 were placed on the statute book on 18 May 2022, and came into force on 23 January 2023. The regulations implement the majority of those recommendations made to government in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 report which require a change in the law.
Responsible Persons, including both building owners (for example freeholders) and other persons having control of the premises (for example managing agents) were required to comply with the regulations from 23 January 2023. Any breach of the fire safety management regulations is a criminal offence if the breach places one or more relevant persons (for example residents, staff or visitors) at risk of death or serious injury in the event of fire.

This means that regulation 10 applies to all blocks of flats (or parts of such blocks) that incorporate common parts, regardless of whether the block is purpose-built or is a conversion; for the purpose of this legislation, flat entrance doors are included within the meaning of common parts.
Regulation 10 makes requirements in relation to two matters, namely:

  • information about flat entrance doors that the Responsible Person must give to all residents (whether tenants or leaseholders) – this requirement relates to all blocks of flats
  • routine checks of fire doors that the Responsible Person must ensure are carried out – these checks are only required in blocks of flats in which the top storey is more than 11m above ground level (typically, a building of more than four storeys)
The new regulations apply to multi-occupied residential buildings in England with storeys over 11 metres in height. The responsible persons are required to undertake quarterly checks of all fire doors in the common parts and annually check the flat entrance doors that lead onto the building’s common parts.
Responsible persons are required to undertake quarterly checks of all fire doors (including self-closing devices) in the common parts of the building. The purpose of these checks is to ensure that the fire doors are in good working order and can provide adequate protection in case of a fire.
The responsible persons are required to carry out an annual check of all flat entrance doors that lead onto the building’s common parts. This check will involve inspecting the self-closing devices and making sure they are functioning correctly. The responsible persons will need to gain access to each flat to carry out this check.

In case the responsible person is denied access to the flat, they must provide documentation of the efforts undertaken to carry out this requirement. This means that the responsible person will need to work with residents to agree on a date for the inspection. If the residents do not cooperate, the responsible person must provide evidence of the correspondence seeking permission to access the flat.

The responsible persons are also required to provide residents with information on the importance of fire doors to the building’s fire safety. This information should include the importance of keeping fire doors closed at all times, avoiding tampering with fire doors and self-closing devices, and reporting any faults or damage as soon as they occur. Residents should receive this information when they move in and once a year thereafter.
For residential buildings below 11 metres in height, the responsible persons still have a duty to put in place general fire precautions, including ensuring that all fire doors in the building are up to standard. The responsible persons are also required to provide residents with relevant information on fire doors.

Building owners and responsible persons need to ensure they are compliant with the new fire door regulations. The regulations aim to ensure that all fire doors in multi-occupied residential buildings are in good working order and can provide adequate protection in case of a fire. It is important that responsible persons carry out the required checks and provide residents with relevant information to help maintain the building’s fire safety.

To help you get up to date with the new legislation, understand how existing roles have changed and explore what the future looks like for building safety in England and Wales, we have put together a Building Safety Act Checklist

Request a fire door inspection quote. Call 01304 793058 or email info@risksafetyservices.co.uk. We cover Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Essex, Greater London and other UK locations by arrangement.

Memberships

CDM Consultancy
CDM Consultancy
NAFDI