Why fire doors get their own inspection duty
Under the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, in force since January 2023, responsible persons in multi-occupied residential buildings over 11 metres must check fire doors in the common parts at least every three months, and use best endeavours to check flat entrance doors at least every twelve months. Below those thresholds the named cadence does not bite, but fire doors still have to be maintained under the responsible person's general duties, and guidance such as BS 9999 points the same way: regular inspection of installed measures.
Every one of those checks silently depends on information: what door is this, what was it rated to do, how was it fitted, and what state was it in last time? Without that, each inspection starts from zero - and a door that is slowly failing looks exactly like a door that was always mediocre.
What a defensible fire door record contains
- The doorset's identity and rating - what it is and what it was installed to achieve
- Its location pinned on the plan - not "third floor, near the lift", but a point on the current drawing
- The condition found at the check - gaps and margins, closer, hinges and hardware, intumescent strips and smoke seals, glazing, signage, damage
- Photographs - tied to that door and that visit, not loose in a camera roll
- Who checked it and when - and what the outcome was, including any remedial action raised
- The history - every previous installation record, check and repair on the same door, tamper-evident, so the trail can be trusted
The repeat-inspection problem
Paper checklists and spreadsheets can capture one inspection adequately. The difficulty is the fifth inspection, two years and one staff change later: which form was this door on, which version is current, where are the photos, and did anyone act on the remedial item from last spring? Software earns its keep here - one identity per door, one history per identity, every check appended rather than filed somewhere new. Recurring checks then build a trail that shows the maintenance duty being met, instead of a drawer of loose forms that shows effort but proves nothing.
Installation records and inspection records belong together
If you hang, remediate or replace fire doors, your installation evidence is the anchor for every later check - the doorset's identity, rating and fit are what the condition gets judged against. Keeping installs in one system and inspections in another quietly breaks that chain. In Assaya, fire doors are a native trade alongside fire stopping, dampers, intumescent coating and board encasement: the installation record and every subsequent status change live on the same pin, on the same drawing, with a hash-chained, tamper-evident history. Photographs captured in the app carry their reference, location and UTC capture time burned into the image itself, so the evidence stays readable wherever it travels.
It is offline-first - stair cores and corridors are reliably the worst places in a building for signal - UK-hosted in a London data centre, ICO-registered (ZC191719) and Cyber Essentials certified, with an admin console and a client-facing golden-thread portal so the people who must show the duty is being met can actually see the records. The wider legal picture, including the golden thread duty the records feed into, is covered in our golden thread guide.
See fire door records pinned to the drawing, photographed with provenance burned in, and building a tamper-evident history check after check - with the whole price list published and no demo to sit through first.
How often must fire doors be checked?
Under the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, in multi-occupied residential buildings over 11 metres the responsible person must check fire doors in common parts at least quarterly, and use best endeavours to check flat entrance doors at least annually. Below those thresholds, fire doors still need maintaining under the responsible person's general fire safety duties, and guidance such as BS 9999 points to regular inspection. Confirm your building's specific position with a competent person.
What should a fire door inspection record include?
The doorset's identity and location pinned on the plan, its fire rating, and the condition found at that check: gaps and margins, the closer, hinges and hardware, intumescent strips and smoke seals, glazing, signage and any damage - with photographs, the inspector's identity, the date, the outcome, and any remedial action required. Each record should sit on the same door's history so the next check starts from what was found last time.
Do I need software for fire door checks, or is a paper checklist enough?
A paper checklist can capture one inspection; the difficulty is the fifth inspection, two years and one staff change later. Software earns its keep by holding every door's identity, position and full history in one place, so recurring checks build a trail instead of a drawer of loose forms - and by making the evidence available to whoever must show the duty is being met.
Can the same record cover installation and later inspections?
It should. A door is installed once and checked many times, and the checks only mean something against the installation record - what the doorset is, what it was rated to do, and how it was fitted. In Assaya, fire doors are a native trade: the installation record and every subsequent status change live on the same pin, on the same drawing, with a tamper-evident history.
Does fire door software need to work offline?
Yes. Door checks happen in stair cores, corridors and basements - reliably the worst places for signal in the building. If the record cannot be captured in full on the device and synced later, checks get batched up from memory at the end of the day and the record stops being evidence. Test any tool in airplane mode.
This page is general information about fire door record-keeping and current UK fire-safety legislation, not legal or compliance advice. Confirm your specific duties with a competent person.