Fire Door Guidance Update: Focus on What Really Matters
By Anthony Walker FRICS MIFireE
Press Release version of article published in News on the Block– May 2026
Fire doors save lives. They protect escape routes, buy time for the fire service and limit damage. Yet for many leaseholders and managing agents, the rules around them have become confusing, expensive and, at times, overwhelming.
If you own, manage or live in a flat, you may have been told you must replace your front door with a new, certificated fire door or risk being “non‑compliant”.
The latest government guidance, Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022: fire door guidance (accessible), is intended to provide clarity and focus on what really matters: making sure existing fire doors work properly and are looked after, rather than replacing them unnecessarily just because they are older or built to a previous standard.
Why Has The Guidance Been Updated?
Since the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 came into force, a lot of well‑meaning but at times unhelpful advice has been given. You may have heard things like:
- “All flat entrance doors must be replaced with new certificated doors.”
- “If the door is not to the latest standard, it is non‑compliant.”
- “You must upgrade everything to today’s new‑build specification.”
This has created confusion and, in some cases, led to leaseholders being told to spend thousands on new doors they might not actually need. The updated guidance, issued in August 2025, is designed to correct this and bring a bit more common sense back into the conversation.
What The Law Actually Requires
The key point is that the law does not require all existing doors to be upgraded to the latest new‑build standard. Instead, it expects fire doors to be:
If a door was compliant when fitted and has been properly inspected and maintained, there is no automatic requirement to rip it out and replace it simply because standards have since moved on.
The August 2025 Fire Door Guidance – What Changed?
The government’s update to its fire door guidance does three important things:
- It confirms that fire doors do not automatically need replacing if they met Building Regulations at the time of installation and are still in a suitable condition.
- It clarifies that the focus should be on inspection, maintenance and keeping doors self‑closing and effective, rather than on wholesale replacement.
- It emphasises that the Responsible Person’s role is to maintain doors in line with the FRA, not to upgrade every door to the latest standard by default.
In short, the guidance realigns practice with the original intent of the law: practical fire safety, not unnecessary spend.
What Responsible Persons Should Do Now
Your priorities should be:
- Make sure you understand which buildings are in scope of the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 – for example, multi‑occupied residential buildings with common parts and buildings over 11 metres.
- Ensure that your FRA properly considers the suitability of existing fire doors, not just their age or paperwork.
- Put in place a realistic inspection regime for fire doors in common parts and flat entrance doors, in line with the Regulations and current good practice.
- Focus on maintaining doors so they continue to perform as intended: they should be self‑closing, in good repair and free from obvious defects.
Quarterly checks of fire doors in common areas and at least annual checks of flat entrance doors in higher‑risk residential buildings have become the expected baseline.
Who Can Undertake Fire Door Checks And Inspections?
It is important to distinguish between basic in‑house checks and more formal inspections.
The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 require the Responsible Person to ensure fire doors are checked and maintained by someone who is competent to do so, but they do not prescribe a single qualification. Routine visual checks of fire doors can be carried out by caretakers, housing officers or managing agents, as long as they have been properly instructed and know what defects to look for.
Formal inspections and surveys are different. These should be carried out by competent fire safety professionals who understand fire door design, installation and maintenance in the context of the building’s overall fire strategy, rather than by untrained staff working from a checklist. Those undertaking surveys and reporting on fire doors should also carry appropriate professional indemnity insurance (PII), so that leaseholders, landlords and managing agents have confidence that the advice they receive is both technically robust and backed by clear professional accountability.
When Do Doors Need Replacing?
There are certainly situations where replacement is the right, and sometimes only option. For example:
In these cases, the FRA should identify the issue and recommend appropriate action. That may involve replacing a single door, a group of doors, or, in some circumstances, a wider programme of works.
The updated guidance helps you focus works and investment where they will have the biggest impact on resident safety, rather than applying a blanket “replace everything” approach.
Existing Doors, New Standards – How To Think About The Gap
A common concern is that existing doors were installed to older standards and do not match today’s technical guidance, such as BS EN 1634, BS 8214 or the latest Approved Document B.
The updated guidance is clear that this, in itself, does not automatically make those doors unacceptable. What matters is whether:
- The doors remain suitable in the context of the building’s overall fire strategy.
- They are in good condition and work as intended.
- The FRA has considered them and still finds them acceptable, possibly with localised improvements where necessary.
In some higher‑risk scenarios, it may still be proportionate to upgrade to modern, third‑party‑certificated doorsets. But that should follow from a risk‑based assessment, not from generic, one‑size‑fits‑all advice.
PAS 24, Security Doors And Fire Doors – Don’t Mix Up The Requirements
There is sometimes confusion between security standards such as PAS 24 and fire performance.
A few key points help:
- PAS 24 is about security performance, not fire performance.
- Many new flat entrance doors will need to meet both PAS 24 (for security) and fire resistance requirements (often FD30 or FD60), particularly in new‑builds.
- For existing buildings, it is important not to assume that every door must immediately be PAS 24‑rated as well as a modern certificated fire door.
Where doors are being replaced, it usually makes sense to select doorsets that meet both the relevant fire and security standards. But again, this should be driven by the overall building risk profile and regulatory context, not by assumptions.
What This Means In Practice For Leaseholders
For leaseholders, the key messages from the updated guidance are:
- You should not be told to replace your flat entrance fire door just because it is older or not to the very latest standard, if it remains adequate and self‑closing.
- The focus is on sensible inspection and maintenance, and on ensuring that doors perform properly in a fire.
- If you receive advice that appears to conflict with this, it is reasonable to ask how that advice aligns with the latest government guidance and the building’s FRA.
There will still be buildings where upgrades are necessary, especially where existing doors are poor, damaged or clearly unsuitable. In those cases, leaseholders should expect clear, risk‑based explanations, rather than blanket statements about “new rules”.
Bringing It All Together
The direction of travel on fire safety guidance is clear. For fire doors, the emphasis is now firmly on:
- Risk‑based decision‑making, anchored in a competent FRA.
- Regular inspection and sensible maintenance.
- Clear communication with residents and leaseholders.
- Avoiding unnecessary cost where doors remain suitable and effective.
If you are responsible for a residential block, now is a good time to revisit your fire door strategy, check that your approach aligns with the August 2025 guidance, and make sure that money and effort are going into the doors and the buildings that need it most.
By Anthony Walker
FRICS MIFireE, Director at Sircle
