What Is The Fire Door Legislation 2023?

When Grenfell Tower went up in flames in June 2017, leading to the loss of over 70 lives, it led to a lot of soul-searching, particularly with regard to how we could improve fire safety in our residential tower blocks in the UK.

Following the disaster, a public inquiry was established to investigate how the fire started, how it got so out of control, why people became trapped on the upper floors, and what needed to change to prevent anything like it from ever happening again.

As a result, among the many recommendations and changes in building and fire safety regulations, specific new legislation was introduced in January 2023 in the form of the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022. These included particular requirements that applied to fire doors in multi-occupied residential buildings.

This article will examine this new legislation and provide an overview of the changes so that owners and managers of such buildings can be sure they are fully compliant with the new laws.

Regular checks of fire doors in residential buildings over 11 metres high

One of the key new requirements of responsible persons in residential buildings over 11 metres high is for them to make regular checks on all fire doors in the building. This will mean:

• Quarterly (i.e. at least every three months) checks on all fire doors in the common parts of the building. This includes doors within corridors and doors leading to stairs, lobbies, plant rooms, service cupboards and risers.
• Annual checks of all the entrance doors to flats that lead onto common parts. These are more detailed checks and include checking the condition of the self-closing device, frame, hinges, glazing, intumescent strips and more. 

The government’s guidance to these new regulations gives more complete information on the checks that need to be made, but emphasises that these checks should be relatively simple and not need the services of a specialist. They should be visual checks only that are intended to establish that the fire doors in question are in good working order and can provide adequate protection in the event of a fire.

Provide information on fire doors to tenants

The new regulations also require the responsible person in residential buildings over 11 metres high to provide all residents with essential information on the importance of fire doors. This should include instructions that:

• Fire doors should be kept shut when not in use
• Self-closing devices should not be tampered with
• Residents should immediately notify the responsible person if they become aware of any damage to or faults with any fire doors

Multi-occupied residential buildings less than 11 metres high

The new legislation makes fewer demands on responsible persons in residential buildings less than 11 metres in height, but they are still required to provide information to tenants and residents as detailed above. There are no regular checks of fire doors required, but responsible persons still need to ensure that all fire doors are maintained to an acceptable standard.

If you want to know more about your duties as a responsible person in a multi-occupied residential building or any other commercial premises, talk to the local experts at Scutum London. We can help you with everything from fire risk assessments, fire alarms and fire extinguishers to supplying, installing and maintaining top-quality fire doors and a great deal more.

Get in touch now to arrange a free site visit and cost-effective quotation or just to find out more about our full range of fire safety products and services.