Fire door maintenance: what landlords must know in 2026.

If you own rental property or manage multiple units, fire door maintenance is not optional. It's a legal requirement — and one regulators are getting markedly more aggressive about. This guide walks you through what's changed in 2026, what you need to check, and the documentation a council will actually accept.

Why 2026 is different

Two pieces of legislation now sit on top of each other for most landlords:

• The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (RRFSO) — the long-standing duty to assess and manage fire risk in all non-domestic premises and in the common parts of multi-occupied residential buildings.
• The Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA) — additional duties for "higher-risk" residential buildings (over 18m or 7 storeys), but with knock-on effects for HMOs and smaller blocks too, because the framework has lowered tolerance for paperwork gaps everywhere.

What this means in practice is that fire door inspections — historically a tickbox most landlords skipped — are now actively enforced. The London Fire Brigade and local councils issued a record number of enforcement notices in 2025, and the fines have teeth: £5,000+ per offence, with multiple-door HMOs racking up tens of thousands fast.

Who is "the responsible person"?

Under the RRFSO, every premises has one. For a single tenant let, you (the landlord) are the responsible person for the common parts. For an HMO, the freeholder or managing agent typically holds that title. For a leasehold flat in a block, the freeholder is responsible for the building structure and common parts, while leaseholders cover their own front doors.

The key thing: this isn't a duty you can delegate by handing the property to an agent. You can contract out the work, but the legal duty stays with you. Make sure whoever does your inspections gives you the certificate in your name — not theirs.

What an inspection actually checks

A competent fire door inspection (whether you do a "user check" or pay a professional for the formal annual inspection) covers the same eight points:

1. Certification. Is there a visible label, plug or marking confirming the door's fire rating (FD30, FD60, etc.)?
2. Gaps. The gap between door and frame should be 2–4mm at the sides and top, and no more than 8mm at the threshold (or 3mm if there's a cold smoke seal).
3. Seals. Intumescent and smoke seals must be present, continuous, and undamaged.
4. Hinges. Three CE-marked hinges minimum, all screws in place, no missing fixings.
5. Self-closer. Door must close fully and latch from any open angle, with no sticking.
6. Hardware. Lock, latch and handles fire-rated and intact.
7. Glazing. If glazed, the glass must be fire-rated and the beading sound.
8. Signage. "Fire door — keep shut" signage on both sides where required.

How often you need to inspect

The legal baseline is at least every 6 months for most premises. There are tighter requirements you should know about:

• HMOs and buildings over 11m: quarterly inspections of fire doors in common parts (since the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022).
• Higher-risk buildings (>18m / 7 storeys): annual inspections of flat entrance doors plus quarterly inspections of common-area doors.
• High-traffic doors: any door that gets heavy daily use (lobbies, stairwells) should be checked more often — we recommend monthly visual checks for these.

"User checks" — quick weekly or monthly look-overs by you or your managing agent — count towards your overall responsible-person duty, but they don't replace the formal annual inspection by a competent person.

The five most common failures we see

After inspecting hundreds of Beckenham, Bromley and Croydon properties, the same issues come up over and over:

1. Painted-over intumescent seals. Painters fill the groove flush, killing the seal's ability to expand. Easy fix — strip and replace — but a guaranteed failure point on first inspection.
2. Self-closers removed or wedged. Tenants disable them. They're a legal requirement on every fire door. Reinstall and document the tenant communication.
3. Threshold gaps over 8mm. Old doors warp; new doors get fitted badly. Both produce gaps that defeat the door's purpose.
4. Wrong hardware. Standard mortice locks fitted to fire doors. Hinges with only two screws per leaf. Builder's-merchant rubbish that voids the rating.
5. Missing certification. No label on the door = no proof of rating. Even if the door is genuinely fire-rated, you can't prove it, so it fails.

What documentation regulators want

A council enforcement officer will ask for one thing: a written log showing that competent inspections have been performed at the legally-required frequency, with remedial actions tracked through to completion. Specifically:

• Date of inspection and name of competent person
• Door-by-door results (pass / fail with reason)
• Photographs of each door
• List of remedial actions and target dates
• Follow-up records confirming actions completed
• Manufacturer certification for any replacement doors fitted

This documentation is also what your insurer will want in the event of a claim. No paperwork = no payout.

What happens if you fail an inspection?

Failing an inspection isn't an emergency, but ignoring the report is. You get a prioritised list of remedial actions — typically with critical safety failures flagged for 24–48 hour fix, and minor issues given 30 days. As long as you act on the list and document the work, you're fine.

What you must not do is file the report and forget it. If an inspector flags an issue and a fire later occurs that the issue contributed to, you've moved from "non-compliant" to "negligent" — and the consequences (criminal liability, prison time in extreme cases) are categorically different.

A 5-minute practical check you can do today

Pick any fire door in your building. Stand in front of it. In order:

1. Can you see a certification label or plug? (Inside top edge or on hinge side.)
2. Close it from 45° — does it close fully and latch on its own?
3. Slide a £1 coin into the gap at the sides. It should fit — but not flop around.
4. Look at the seal: is it intact, unpainted, continuous?
5. Count the hinges: three or more, all screws present?

If you've failed any of those five things on a door that needs to be fire-rated, you need a professional inspection — not a DIY repair. Wrong-spec materials and missing certification will fail you all over again.