Fire door checks in a block over 11 metres: flat entrance doors every 12 months, communal doors every 3 months, worked for 24 flats

A managing agent takes over a five-storey block of 24 flats, built in the 1990s, with a top floor at about 14 metres. The handover pack contains a fire risk assessment and no door-check log. What the regulations require, and how often, is simple enough to count. This guide does the count for that block and says what I did not read.

What regulations 9 and 10 say

Regulation 9 applies to a building with two or more sets of domestic premises and common parts residents would evacuate through. The responsible person must display fire safety instructions in a conspicuous part of the building, give copies to new residents as soon as reasonably practicable after they move in, and give them to all residents within each period of 12 months. They must be re-displayed and re-provided after any material change.

Regulation 10 has two parts. First, residents must be told that fire doors should stay shut when not in use, not to tamper with self-closing devices and to report faults promptly; again to new residents soon after they move in and to everyone every 12 months. Second, for a building "above 11 metres in height" with two or more sets of domestic premises, the responsible person must use best endeavours to check the fire doors at the entrances of individual flats at least every 12 months, and check any fire doors in communal areas at least every 3 months. Height is measured to the top storey under regulation 3(2)(a).

The count for a 24-flat block

Our arithmetic. That is four communal rounds a year and one round of the flats. "Best endeavours" is the standard for entrances because a leaseholder can refuse entry, so the log has to show the attempts: the date, the letters, the outcome.

Under 11 metres

A block that does not reach 11 metres is outside the two check duties, but regulation 9 and the information part of regulation 10 still apply to any multi-occupied residential building. So the annual instruction pack and resident information stay in the diary either way.

What to put in the log

• A door schedule: every door, its location and its flat number.
• Check date and name, each quarter for communal doors, each year for entrances.
• Access attempts, for each flat not entered.
• Faults and repair dates, with the invoice, so the cost can be recovered fairly: see whether the repair needs Section 20 consultation.

The same agent is often the company secretary of the residents' company, whose own duty is in the PSC register guide.

I read regulations 9 and 10 only. I did not read the other duties in the 2022 Regulations (for example regulation 6 on lifts and regulation 8 on information to the fire service), nor how a check differs from a competent fire door inspection, so read the full instrument and the Home Office guidance before you draft a policy.

Overlyft builds AI staff who join your block-management team and keep each block's door schedule, put each quarterly and annual check in the diary, and chase the flats not yet entered, for the property manager to review.

This is general information, not legal advice. Check legislation.gov.uk and your fire risk assessment.