New Fire Door regulations?

[Richard H]

Hello,

I am being told by the managing agent of the building (6 flats, none rented out so not an HMO) that ‘post Grenfell’ there are new regulations regarding fire doors in communal areas, and they need to be checked and assessed by a qualified fire door inspector.

Does anyone know if this is true? I have had a search on the Internet and is unclear to me what new regulations there are, and if actually there is a need for a fire door inspector to look at every door in the property. The fire door inspection qualification seems to be one generated by the fire door industry itself.

They are quoting quite a lot of money to do this so I thought I would ask here about it.

I am one of the joint freeholders of the building.

Any knowledge on this most appreciated.

Thank you

 

[KenGMac]

Richard H, good evening.

As a start point suggest you have a look at --

http://www.fdis.co.uk/fire-door-law

it appears the same organisation can do you an on-line certification course?

Ken

 

[^woody^]

There are no new regulations.

However, landlords and managing agents have got twitchy sphincters regarding their fire risk assessments and are going way OTT to protect themselves from any risk at all. All at your cost.

Ask them to state these supposedly new regulations, and I'll pay your service charge if they can.

 

[Richard H]

Thanks, I did look at the FDIS website - I am still unsure as to who is actually qualified to assess the doors. For instance - could I do their online course and become a qualified Fire Door Inspector after a few days/weeks?

Does a qualified fire door inspector assess doors on a new build? Or is that building control?

To be clear I am not trying to dodge or avoid any responsibility here - but it is difficult to ascertain who is qualified by law to carry out these checks.

Thanks again

R

 

[^woody^]

All building owners or managers are required to undertake regular fire risk assessments to the communal parts under the 2005 RRFSO.

What is happening now is that the fire risk assessor is recommending further "specialist" checks, or the building owner/manager is implementing these extra checks as part of a new level of self-imposed risk aversion.

All the door inspection training courses are a nonsense are are essentially companies setting themselves up as trainers and issuing certificates which have no real basis in law. But yes, you could do a course and get a certificate, but in any future investigation folowing fire, I would question your independence and impartiality if it was your own home.

Anyone "suitably qualified" can check doors or even do the risk assessments. There are no formal qualifications required nor courses to pass in the eyes of the law. But like most things, someone who has shelled out a few £,000's on a course and shiny badge will carry more weight than someone who has done a few hours googling.