Fire door regulations

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FIRE DOOR REGULATIONS
A comment on Facebook made me sit up and realise that my son’s flat doesn’t even have any proper fire doors, never mind meet any new regulations! It’s an absolute can of worms. So I’m sure this isn’t the right place for this subject, but don’t know where else to put it. I’ve tried and failed to find a Tenants Guide to the subject, but it’s nearly midnight and my cocoa is cooling!! Anyone else have a relative in a flat or HMO?

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@bowlingbun The local fire brigade can be asked to do a safety assessment, usually they’re very helpful, as I’m sure you know re. checking batteries, where the alarms are etc. They came every year to check, whilst Dad was alive.
Just in case here’s the housing ombudsman too tho: Fire safety - Housing Ombudsman.
Hope that helps BB!

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Heya.

Ask your local fire station team to come out in order to do a safety check. Alternatively you can even do a test on fire and carbon monoxide detection alarms yourself. There is a good online fire safety assessment tool online worth using as well. You can also ask local safety alarm companies to test your doors using their own testing equipment. Best wishes. Keep us updated. Fire safety and carbon monoxide alarms are tricky things that fail from time to time.

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I,m going to get a proper assessment, but hoped to find a good tenant’s guide to share with everyone else. I am going to have words with the letting agent who do 6 month checks on the property. Clearly need to add doors to their list!

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Hi BB - this may help:

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Thanks Chris, lots of useful information but unless I’ve missed it, there’s nothing about fire doors apart from not leaving them open? I was at M’s today, we went to a steam rally. His doors definitely don’t comply!

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I think that any regulations involving a mandatory requirement to fit fire doors will/should be found in building regulations ? Perhaps your LA Housing Department or the Planning Department could point you in the right direction ?

(I seem to remember the subject coming up on some of the home improvement TV programmes like “Grand Designs”)

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I’ve learned a lot this weekend. M lives in what was a house, extended and altered to form 2 flats, common front door. Upstairs tenant has a lockable door at the bottom of the stairs, M goes down the hallway and has a lockable door. The door to each flat should have a fire door, ie thicker than average, 3 sets of hinges, be close fitting and have intumescent material at the edge which melts to form a seal if there is a fire, and an automatic door closer and what I think of as a crash bar as you would find for a fire exit of a public building. Neither his door nor his neighbours meet any of these requirements. So next time anyone who has a relative living in flats, or HMO’s, can I suggest you look at their doors?

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BB, it sounds rather like the converted terrace house my friend and I lived in a our mid twenties. There was a flat upstairs with a front door at the bottom of the stairs and we shared the downstairs. I had the front room as my bed sitting room and my friend had the bedroom as hers. We had a Yale on my door and the hall door which led to the rest of the house. We had a saniflow toilet like @selinakylie and when it went wrong we had to use the outside lav for ages.

The regs keep changing eg gas boilers and fires should no longer be on bedrooms etc