Dispute or confusion over who is responsible for fire doors — freeholder, leaseholder, or managing agent in London
Dispute or confusion over who is responsible for fire doors — freeholder, leaseholder, or managing agent? Here's what it usually means — and how we help across London.
Fire Door Specialists London Landlords And Leaseholders Call When Responsibility Is Disputed
This one comes up constantly on London's older stock. A leaseholder in a converted Victorian terrace in East London gets a letter saying their flat entrance door has failed a check - and nobody can agree who's supposed to pay for it. A resident in a post-war council block in South East London reports a broken self-closer on the communal fire door, and it sits unrepaired for months while the managing agent and the freeholder argue about whose budget it comes out of. Sound familiar?
It's one of the most common calls we get - not "my door's broken" but "whose job is it to fix my door?" And that confusion is exactly why so many fire doors across London sit unmaintained for years.
What It Might Mean
In most cases the lease sets out who's responsible for what - typically the freeholder covers communal fire doors and the leaseholder covers their own flat entrance door. But leases vary, and plenty are vague or contradictory on the point, especially on older conversions where the lease was drafted decades before fire door standards existed.
Since the Fire Safety Act 2021, the position on flat entrance doors has become clearer in law - the responsible person under the Fire Safety Order now has to assess flat entrance doors in buildings with two or more sets of domestic premises, not just communal areas. That doesn't automatically settle who pays. It does mean the door has to be assessed regardless of the dispute.
It's also worth saying plainly: managing agents sometim
Not Sure Where Your Doors Actually Stand?
If you're managing blocks across North London or South West London and can't remember when the fire doors were last checked properly, that's worth sorting now, not after an incident. Request a fire door survey and written quote, and you'll get a clear picture of which doors pass, which don't, and what it'll take to bring them up to scratch - with inspection reports and documentation supplied for the work carried out.
Get a Written Fire Door Quote
If you've read this far, you already know whether your doors would stand up to a Regulation 10 check. Book a survey and we'll give you a clear written quote for what needs doing, with inspection reports and installation records supplied for the work carried out. Landlords and managing agents across North London and South East London use these documents to show their building safety case is up to date - get in touch and we'll arrange a visit.