Fire door inspection is one of the few parts of fire safety where the law names an interval, and it names it only for blocks of flats in England. Everywhere else the frequency comes out of the fire risk assessment, which is why a school, a care home and a warehouse can all be right with different regimes.
The fire door inspection frequency that is in law
The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 apply to buildings containing two or more sets of domestic premises above 11 metres in height. In those buildings the responsible person must check any fire doors in communal areas at least every 3 months, and must use best endeavours to check fire doors at the entrances of individual domestic premises at least every 12 months. Those are the only statutory fire door intervals in the England regime.
Everywhere else
In a workplace, a school or a shop there is no named interval. The duty is to maintain the doors in efficient working order, and the fire risk assessment decides how often they are looked at. A door on a busy corridor taking trolley impacts every day warrants a shorter interval than a door to a plant room nobody opens, and a regime that treats both the same is either wasting effort or missing damage.
What fire door checks cover
The gaps around the leaf and under it, against the tolerance the door was certificated to. The intumescent and smoke seals, intact and unpainted. The hinges, with all screws present and not loose. The closer, and whether the door closes fully onto the latch from any angle. The latch or lock engaging. The glazing and beads. The certification label, usually on the top edge. And whether the door has been wedged, propped or damaged.
The record
A check that is not recorded did not happen, as far as anybody reading afterwards is concerned. The record should identify each door individually, by a number on the door or the frame, and say what was found and what was done. A summary saying all doors checked is worth very little, because nobody can tell whether the one that failed later was included.
Questions people ask about fire door inspection requirements
How often do fire doors need to be inspected?
In England, in blocks of flats above 11 metres, communal doors at least every 3 months and flat entrance doors at least every 12 months on a best endeavours basis. In other buildings the fire risk assessment sets the frequency.
Who can inspect a fire door?
A competent person. For routine checks that can be trained site staff following a checklist; for detailed surveys and remedial specification, a fire door inspector with recognised training and, ideally, third party certification.
What does best endeavours mean for flat entrance doors?
It recognises that the responsible person cannot enter a private flat at will. It means making genuine, recorded attempts to gain access rather than treating a locked door as the end of the matter.
What do the fire door inspection regulations uk buildings are held to actually say?
There is one named interval and it applies to a narrow set of buildings. The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 cover buildings containing two or more sets of domestic premises above 11 metres, and in those the responsible person has duties on the flat entrance doors and the common parts doors. Everywhere else, in a workplace, a school or a shop, no interval is named at all: the duty is to keep the doors in efficient working order and the fire risk assessment decides how often that is checked.
Where are the fire door regs written down?
In three places rather than one, which is why the answer sounds evasive. Building Regulations decide what the door had to be when it was installed. The Fire Safety Order requires whatever is there to be maintained in efficient working order. The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 add the named duties for higher residential buildings. A door can satisfy the first and fail the second, which is what most inspections find.