The UK's fire door regulations are a story of reactive responses to major fire disasters, with each tragedy prompting new legislation. From the Great Fire of London to Grenfell Tower, each incident has shaped fire safety laws, standards, and inspection practices.
Fire doors play a crucial role in fire safety. Today, fire door audits and inspections are essential to building safety compliance, ensuring that passive fire protection measures are regularly checked, maintained and are in good working order by ‘Responsible Persons’.
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Who is the Responsible Person for fire safety?
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (FSO) introduced the concept of a Responsible Person, which came into force on 1 October 2006.
The order enforces responsible individuals or organisations in control of a residential building to demonstrate that they have effectively carried out their fire safety duties, usually:
- The freeholder, landlord, or managing agent if they oversee fire safety measures.
- A resident management company if they manage the building’s common areas.
If multiple parties share responsibility, they must work together to ensure compliance with fire safety laws. This includes conducting risk assessments, maintaining fire doors, and ensuring residents are informed about fire safety procedures.
Before the FSO, fire safety enforcement was more fragmented, with responsibilities spread across different regulations and authorities. The introduction of the Responsible Person was a significant shift, making fire safety a proactive duty of a building owner or manager rather than relying solely on fire authorities for enforcement.
Fire door inspection regulations over time
Ensuring fire doors are properly inspected, maintained and are in good working order is a crucial part of fire safety compliance in the UK. Several key regulations outline the legal responsibilities of asset owners, landlords, and RPs, ensuring that fire doors function correctly in the event of a fire.
These regulations have evolved over time, incorporating lessons from past fire incidents and strengthening accountability measures to improve building safety.
Several key regulations currently govern fire door inspections and compliance in the UK:
Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
As mentioned earlier, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 places the responsibility for fire safety on Responsible Persons (RPs), which include building owners, landlords, and facility managers. It mandates fire risk assessments and requires proper maintenance of all fire safety features, including fire doors.
Fire Safety Act 2021
Following the Grenfell Tower tragedy, the Fire Safety Act 2021 clarified that external walls and individual flat entrance doors in multi-occupied buildings fall under fire safety regulations. It reinforced the duty of Responsible Persons to ensure fire doors function correctly.
Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 — Regulation 10
Regulation 10 specifically addresses fire door inspections in multi-occupied residential buildings over 11m in height. It mandates:
- Quarterly communal fire door checks.
- Annual inspections of flat entrance doors.
- Maintaining records of inspections and remedial actions.
Building Safety Act (BSA) 2022
The Building Safety Act 2022 introduced stricter compliance measures for high-risk residential buildings (HRRBs), requiring digital records of fire safety features, including fire doors. This aligns with the recommendations from the Hackitt Review, which criticised paper-based documentation for being outdated and unreliable and put an emphasis on digital record-keeping for managing safety in buildings.
What is a fire door audit?
A fire door audit is a structured inspection process that assesses the functionality, integrity and overall compliance of fire doors within a building. These audits are essential to ensuring that fire doors can effectively contain fire and smoke, protecting occupants and facilitating safe evacuation in an emergency.
Fire door audits typically include:
- Installation: Verifying that fire doors are properly sealed, equipped with self-closing mechanisms, and documented within a building's fire safety records to maintain compliance and facilitate ongoing inspections.
- Detailed Inspection and Maintenance: Using a checklist aligned with BS 9999 and other standards.
- Reporting and Documentation: Logging findings, highlighting defects, and recommending remedial action.
- Remediation and Follow-Up: Coordinating repairs and scheduling re-inspections.
- Fire door information: Inform residents to keep fire doors shut, avoid tampering with self-closing devices, and report damage to the Responsible Person.
How often do fire doors need to be checked?
Fire door audits are now a key part of building safety, making sure fire protection measures are regularly checked. As noted above, back in 2005, the Fire Safety Order put responsibility on a designated person to oversee fire safety, including fire door inspections.
But after the Grenfell Tower fire, it became clear that responsibility alone wasn’t enough — there needed to be more regular oversight. This led to the Fire Safety Act 2021 and new regulations in 2022, which now require routine fire door checks in multi-occupied residential buildings to ensure ongoing compliance and safety.
Regulation 10 of the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 sets out specific requirements for fire door inspections in residential buildings over 11 metres in height and the frequency depends on the type of door use.
Communal fire doors, such as those in stairways, lobbies, corridors, plant rooms, service cupboards, and risers, for example, will experience more wear and tear than individual flat entrance doors, making them more susceptible to damage.
This is why Regulation 10 mandates quarterly checks for communal fire doors and annual inspections for flat entrance doors to ensure they function correctly and maintain fire safety standards:
Quarterly Inspections: All fire doors in communal areas of high-rise residential buildings (over 11m in height) must be checked every three months.
Annual Inspections: Fire doors leading into individual residential units (flat entrance doors) must be checked at least once a year.
Ongoing Maintenance Checks: Responsible persons should ensure that all fire doors are checked regularly and that any issues are rectified promptly.
These inspections must be documented, and any necessary remedial actions should be carried out as soon as possible to stay compliant and reduce fire risks.
Failure to conduct regular inspections can result in regulatory penalties, increased fire risk, and potential legal liability.
Fire door inspection checklist
Conducting a fire door inspection requires a thorough assessment of several key components to ensure compliance and safety. Each inspection should follow a structured process to identify and address potential fire door failures before they pose a serious risk. The checklist below outlines the critical areas that must be examined during a fire door audit.
Door Structure and integrity
Fire doors must remain intact and free from damage to function effectively in the event of a fire. Inspectors should check for visible damage such as cracks, warping, or other structural compromises that may weaken the door's fire resistance. The door's core material should be intact, with no unapproved modifications that could impact its performance.
Frame and seals
The door frame should be secure and correctly fitted, ensuring there are no gaps exceeding 4mm between the door and the frame. Intumescent strips, which expand in response to fire, along with smoke seals must be installed properly and free from damage to prevent smoke and fire from spreading.
Hinges and closures
Fire doors rely on high-quality hinges and closing mechanisms to perform effectively. Each fire door must have securely fitted hinges that show no signs of wear or damage. The self-closing device must be tested to confirm that the door closes fully and latches securely without sticking or excessive resistance.
Certification and signage
Every fire door should be clearly marked with certification labels to verify compliance with fire safety standards. This includes checking for fire-resistance ratings and manufacturer information. Additionally, fire doors should have the appropriate signage indicating that they must remain closed at all times unless fitted with an automatic closing system. Inspection records should also be up-to-date and securely stored to provide an audit trail of compliance.
By following this comprehensive inspection checklist, asset owners and responsible persons can ensure that their fire doors remain in optimal condition, reducing risks and maintaining regulatory compliance.
Challenges of paper-based or unstructured fire door inspections
Fire door inspections are a critical component of fire safety compliance, ensuring that buildings meet regulatory requirements and protect occupants in the event of a fire. However, many asset owners and Responsible Persons still rely on traditional paper-based, unstructured methods or ineffective apps to record inspections. While these methods have been widely used in the past, they present significant challenges, including compromised fire safety, administrative inefficiencies — especially given the frequency of required checks — and increased safety and legal risks.
Risk of incomplete or inaccurate records
Handwritten notes can be difficult to read, misinterpreted, or even damaged or lost, leading to gaps in essential fire safety documentation. Without a defined checklist, different inspectors may apply varied criteria, resulting in inconsistencies in fire door assessments. Tracking overdue inspections can also become challenging, increasing the risk of safety and compliance failures.
Compliance challenges and legal risks
The Fire Safety Act (2021) mandates that landlords and responsible persons provide verifiable evidence of fire door compliance. Paper-based logs, which can be misplaced or damaged, pose a significant risk in proving due diligence. Incomplete or missing records can lead to legal liability, regulatory fines, and enforcement actions. More importantly, they put residents at risk if fire doors aren't properly inspected and maintained.
Delayed issue resolution and increased costs
Storing and retrieving paper records slows down the process of identifying fire door failures and making informed decisions about necessary corrections. Without digital records with real-time tracking, unresolved non-compliance issues can persist for months, leading to heightened fire safety risks and increased maintenance costs. Manual record-keeping delays responses to critical fire door issues, potentially endangering occupants and increasing costs over time.
Increased administrative burden
Manual fire door record-keeping demands significant time and effort from fire safety officers and building managers, taking them away from other essential tasks. For large property portfolios, tracking thousands of fire doors manually becomes impractical, leading to inefficiencies, missed inspections, and difficulty in scaling compliance efforts.
A digital-first approach to fire door audits
Asset owners are under immense pressure due to the constant cycle of fire door checks — just as they complete one round, the next begins. Relying on paper-based inspections only adds to the burden, creating inefficiencies, compliance gaps, and unnecessary risk.
A digital-first approach streamlines the process, ensuring every check is structured, traceable, and seamlessly integrated into broader fire safety management. This not only makes audits more manageable but also enables faster remediation, clearer tracking, and stronger compliance with UK fire safety laws, helping asset owners stay ahead of their ever-growing responsibilities.
Next steps
To ensure compliance and maintain fire safety standards, asset owners should take the following actions:
Implement Digital Fire Door Audits: Transitioning to a digital fire door audit solution, such as Zutec’s Fire Door Audits solution, ensures a structured, real-time approach to compliance. With proven templates, forms and checklists to guide users through the process, alongside automated tracking and reminders, asset owners can adhere to Regulation 10 without the risk of missing critical inspections. Regular checks will help detect issues early and prevent safety risks.
Conduct Inspections on Mobile Apps like Zutec Field: Using a mobile-first approach simplifies fire door inspections by allowing teams to capture data, upload photographic evidence for clear indisputable records, and complete standardised checklists directly from the field. Zutec Field ensures that inspections are logged instantly, reducing paperwork and the time it takes to complete checks, while eliminating administrative delays.
Leverage QR Code Scanning for Instant Data Access: Zutec’s QR code-enabled fire door tracking allows inspectors and maintenance teams to scan a fire door’s QR code and instantly retrieve its full inspection history, compliance status, and maintenance records. This feature enhances traceability and streamlines compliance management across large property portfolios.
Centralise Compliance Records in the Cloud: Storing fire door audit records in a secure, cloud-based platform eliminates the risk of misplaced documentation and ensures regulatory bodies have instant access to compliance evidence when required. Moving away from paper-based inspections to digital platforms streamlines compliance tracking, improves accuracy, and ensures that records are easily accessible when needed.
Enhance Audit Accuracy with Standardised Digital Forms and Templates: Digital solutions like Zutec provide checklist-based inspections, process templates, photographic evidence, and digital signatures — ensuring accuracy, consistency, and accountability in every audit. Zutec’s templates and checklists guide users through easy-to-use dropdown menus, where they can complete pre-defined forms in a few clicks, significantly simplifying inspection data input and saving time.
Use Data-Driven Insights for Proactive Safety Management: Zutec’s analytics dashboard offers a real-time overview of fire door compliance across multiple properties, allowing asset owners to identify recurring issues, streamline maintenance, and demonstrate due diligence to regulators. Asset owners should integrate fire door audits into their wider fire risk assessment framework, ensuring that inspection records are consistently updated and aligned with overall safety requirements.
Take a proactive approach to asset tracking: Zutec’s asset register centralises fire door inventories and assessments, making it easy to track inspections, identify risks, and manage repairs to ensure occupant safety. Without an accurate register, assessing asset status, depreciation, and compliance with the Building Safety Act becomes challenging. Standardising asset registers provides early visibility into future safety and maintenance needs, ensuring long-term regulatory compliance and streamlined management.
Final thoughts
By embracing a digital-first approach with Zutec’s Fire Door Audit solution, asset owners can stay ahead of regulations, protect lives, and safeguard their property investments.
Adopting a digital solution for fire door audits allows asset owners to seamlessly integrate fire door compliance into the Golden Thread of Building Safety Information. Under the Building Safety Act (BSA) 2022, they must maintain structured, accurate, and easily accessible fire safety data throughout a building’s lifecycle. Zutec’s fire door audit solution ensures all inspections, maintenance records, and compliance data are centrally stored, digitally traceable, and aligned with broader fire risk assessments.
This level of digital traceability extends beyond fire doors, supporting a more comprehensive approach to building safety management. A cloud-based platform like Zutec ensures that all critical building information — including fire safety, O&M records, and compliance documents — is accessible anytime, from anywhere. Once a building enters the operational phase, Zutec serves as the central record of all key information collected during construction, enabling asset owners to maintain compliance and streamline ongoing management.
Asset owners typically specify Zutec at the construction stage to manage O&M information, but our platform also supports in-use buildings by migrating existing documentation into a consistent digital format. This standardised approach is essential for managing the vast amount of data associated with high-rise buildings — often thousands of documents — ensuring quick and easy access across entire portfolios.
As the demand for digital building information grows, Zutec continues to expand its market presence. For example, in the rapidly growing Build-to-Rent sector, we now host data for over 30% of high-rise units in the UK. Our solutions are also increasingly adopted across purpose-built student accommodation and housing associations, ensuring compliance, efficiency, and seamless information management at scale.
For more information on how Zutec can help you up-level your fire door inspections, download our flyer or book a demo today.