Overview Fire Door Inspection App
"Our Fire Door Inspection App makes light work of booking Apartment Fire Door Inspections. Simply set up slots and invite residents to book, tick to auto send reminders, or allocate fixed slots.
Our Tech can issue "no show fines", creates the Bill of Quantities to tender works, has works pre-pricing algorithms and a range of Fire door PASS/FAIL Advice Notes too.”
The Fire Safety Act 2021 set new requirements for inspecting fire doors. How often doors need to be inspected depends on the height of a building:
Buildings under 11 metres
- Communal doors 6 monthly
Building over 11 metres
- Apartment doors annually
- Communal doors quarterly
The Toolkit : How it Works
To use the FDI App you need
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Download the App from Google Play or the App Store. Search 'Ringley Group Fire door inspection' App'.
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Buy QR codes
QR codes are really useful for communal doors. They can be fixed top corner and are hidden when the door closes into the frame. The recommended format is for the QR Code to store a unique number. The FDI App scans the QR code, identifies the door which speeds up inspections and ensures any remedial works are carried out to the right door.
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QR Code numbers and door descriptions are imported via an excel. There should be one QR code sticker for each communal door leaf. For Apartment doors the Apartment number suffices.
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Before you import your excel it is worth thinking about the way you name the doors as the PDF reports names will follow this convention. So you can incorporate property reference numbers if you like, e.g., 3000_001_prospect place_caldy island_apartment 1. When you are ready our App Support Team will import your data and get you set up to make the doors available for inspection.
Table Row | QR CODE* | Location | Unit | Entrance | Category* | Asset Type* | Floor Level* | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Example | 000001 | Flat 1 | 1 | Main entrance | Communal or Apartment | Single Door Double Door L/R | 1st Floor | FD 30/60 |
Carrying out Fire Door Inspections
For large sites we recommend QR code and mport your doors then start inspecting. For smaller sites you can add doors one by one as you go.
Inspections are saved as you go so you can work through a site over time.
Unless you intend to go door knocking, Apartment fire door inspections need to be booked. The App allows you to either;
- setup slots and send out invites for Residents to book, or
- to book slots and advise them.
Our tool kit supports the booking appointments. To get fully booked days, it is best to release inspections one block at time.
To minimise 'no shows,' invites should be sent to owners, estate agents, and tenants. Owners should be advised of thr bulk booking rate (usually covered by the service charge) and that a 'no show' or an individual appointment as a one-off visit will be considerably more expensive and charged to them.
Fire Door Inspection Journey
Fire Door Inspection Certificates
- Individual Owners Inspection Certificate
- Site Wide or Block by Block Inspection Report bundle
- PASS
- FAIL - Remedial works required
- FAIL - Replace Door
- FAIL - Replace Doorset
Owners selling will need to priduce their Firr Door Inspection Certificate as part of the legal pre-sale due diligence LPSE1 enquiries.
To make things easy for Managing Agents, the reports are suitably named; names follow the convention of the EXCEL list initially imported.
Depending on the size of your site you may want the report converted and collated into a Bill of Quantities that is instantly ready for tendering.
A Bill of Quantities will contain this:
1) | Title Page | ||||||
2) |
Faults and Quantity
|
||||||
3) | QR code and Door locations for each faults | ||||||
4) | Actions required notes for each faults |
Fire Door Remedial Works
The government has not made it easy to get fire door remedial works done. Whilst the duty to inspect is now a service charge matter, as Apartment front doors are demised, the remedial works are not. Put simply, The Fire Safety Act 2021 did not change the fact that Flat Owners still 'own' their front doors,.
Whilst service charge monies can be used for the inspection, it is not reasonable for owners to pay for failed inspections and reinspections. We recommend charging 'no show' fines as a Schedule 11 Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 Administration Charge to the Owner in default.
For getting works done, either the owner needs to get works done or to opt into a communal programme.
For owner repairs, the Responsible Person's still needs to check in that works are done. Our system enables this by advising owners how to find a suitably skilled and accredited company and post repairs allowing them to upload evidence of what was done, photos, job sheets etc...
See below the NEXT STEPS emails
- Fire Door PASS - no further action required
- Fire Door FAIL REMEDIAL WORKS REQUIRED - and next steps if action is not taken
- Fire Door FAIL DOORSET REPLACEMENT REQUIRED - and next steps if action is not taken
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Whose is responsible for the repairs to residents' doors?
The legal Property Owner i.e. the leaseholder
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Can works to private front doors be treated as a communal service charge item?
No, because service charge monies cannot be spent on matters relating to a non communal areas, i.e., a demised flat.
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Can works to private front doors be an OPT IN communal programme?
Yes, by simple agreement the parties can opt in for an additional service and be charged an charge for works to their door.
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What happens to check if works have been done?
Ultimately, this decision is a Client decision;
- Reinspection is an option.
- Submission of evidence to confirm works are done is an option also.
- Checking works have been done is important. Depending on the severity of the works a judgement has to be made; for example inspecting whether missing screws have been fitted, could be by way of the owner submitting a photo.
- For larger works an itemised invoice and photos from an accredited fire door installation company may suffice. Alternatively, re-inspection is an option.
- The exact strategy is for the Responsible Person to be happy with. As in case of fire, it is they that will have to defend their policy to any Fire Service Investigation.
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How long does a fire door last?
Fire doors and their frames are usually tested to hold back fire for 30 minutes (FD30) or 60 minutes (FD60). Their ability to withstand fire is dependent on them being properly installed with the correct seals and fire rated hardware including fire door closers.
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How often do fire doors need to be inspected?
The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 made it a legal requirement from 23 January 2023 for responsible persons for all multi-occupied residential buildings in England with storeys over 11 metres in height to: 1) undertake quarterly checks of all fire doors in the common parts; 2) undertake – on a best endeavour basis – annual checks of all flat entrance doors that lead onto a building’s common parts.
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Do you need to be certified to inspect fire doors?
As laid out in the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) 2005, a competent person should carry out an inspections on your fire doors. Fire door inspectors should be approved and qualified to carry out the assessment of your door sets competently.
We have Institute of Fire Safety Managers trained Fire Risk Assessors and Fire Door Inspectors.
We also train Site Staff to carry out Fire Door Inspections.
We licence our Fire Door Inspection Toolkit to other Managing Agents and Fire Door Practiioners too.
Fire Door Inspection Brochure
We appreciate that there are a range of Fire Door Inspections Apps on the market, what makes ours special is that it is a complete workflow management system which will save time and energy.
When developing our Fire door Inspection Toolkit, given within the Ringley Group we are both a Managing Agent and BTR Operator, we knew that our Property Managers would be overloaded if they received hundreds of PDF reports. This is why we created a full workflow tools. These tools::
- make light work of booking inspections . (connect to data or upload Excel)
- issue reports at a touch of a button
- include Owner Advice Notes to help Owners know what to do
- collate individual door inspection reports into a Bill of Quantities
- pre-price works (uses an algorithm that averages all tenders received in the last 12 months)
- a list of accredited Contractors to tender to (or add your own)
- enables Contractors to upload their item price and applies this to the Bill of Quantities to make it easy for Contractors to tender
- auto analyses Fire Door tenders and pre-drafts a full tender analysis report
- has a Fire Door Remedial Works Dashboard to help manage and get works done
- can include a portal for Owners to upload proof that they have completed their fire door remedial works
Our Team
The key to our success is our people