Fire Door Records: What Every Facilities Manager Needs to Keep, and Why It Matters

TL;DR

• Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the responsible person must be able to show fire doors are properly maintained, not just say so.

• A memory, a verbal handover or a photo on someone's phone is not a compliant record.

• A good fire door record shows which door, what was checked, what was found, what was fixed, and who did it.

• The most common mistake isn't skipping inspections. It's failing to write down and store what the inspection found.

• A simple, central log beats a folder of scattered emails and spreadsheets every time.

Ask a facilities manager whether their fire doors get inspected, and most will say yes with confidence. Ask them to produce the written record of the last inspection, including what was found and what was done about it, and the confidence often drops.

That gap matters. An inspection that happened but was never written down is very hard to prove happened at all. During Fire Door Safety Week, most attention goes on the physical condition of doors, seals and hardware. This guide covers the other half of the job: the paperwork that shows the work was actually done.

Why fire door records matter more than people think

Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the responsible person for most non-domestic premises in England and Wales must ensure fire safety arrangements are kept in efficient working order and in good repair. Fire doors sit squarely inside that duty.

In practice, that duty is judged on evidence. If something goes wrong, or an inspector, insurer or new building owner asks questions, "we check our doors regularly" is not an answer. A dated record showing what was checked, what was found and what was fixed is.

Records also protect the people doing the work. A facilities manager who inspected a door, logged a defect and raised a remedial job has done their part. Without a record, that same person has no way to demonstrate it, months or years later, if the question ever comes up.

What a fire door record should actually contain

A useful record answers four questions for every door: which one, what state was it in, what happened next, and who confirmed it.

Door identification and location

Each fire door needs a way to be identified individually, not just "the fire doors on the third floor". A simple reference number or location description tied to a floor plan is usually enough. Without this, a defect noted in one visit is hard to match against the same door at the next.

Inspection findings

The record should state clearly what was checked and what was found, not just "passed" or "failed". Noting specific issues, such as a gap out of tolerance or a damaged seal, makes the record useful for tracking recurring problems and for briefing whoever carries out the remedial work.

Remedial actions taken

When a defect is found, the record should show what was done to fix it and when. A defect that was found but never closed out is arguably worse on paper than one that was never found, since it shows a known issue that wasn't actioned.

Sign-off and competence

The record should show who carried out the inspection or remedial work. This doesn't need to be complicated, but it should be someone with the training and experience to assess a fire door properly, and their name or company should appear against the work.

Common record-keeping mistakes we see

• Records that exist only as photos. A photo with no date, no location and no written findings attached is evidence of very little on its own.

• One person holding all the knowledge. If the only record of a door's history is in one manager's head or inbox, it disappears the day they change roles.

• No link between inspection and remedial work. A defect gets logged, then the fix happens separately with no reference back to the original finding, so nobody can confirm the two are connected.

• Multiple buildings mixed into one file. Without clear separation by site and door, records become difficult to search and easy to misread.

• Nothing dated. An undated record can't answer the most basic audit question: when was this door last checked?

How often should records be updated

There's no single inspection interval that suits every building. How often fire doors should be checked depends on the building, how heavily the doors are used, and what your fire risk assessment says. Whatever frequency you settle on, the record should be updated every time an inspection or remedial job takes place, not just annually as a box-ticking exercise.

A record that's only ever updated once a year, regardless of what happens in between, tends to miss the small defects that get found and fixed informally on site. Those still need to be logged, even when they're minor.

Building a simple, audit-ready system

You don't need specialist software to keep good fire door records, though it can help at scale. What matters more is consistency.

• Keep one central log per site, rather than records scattered across individual inboxes.

• Use the same format every time, so any two entries can be compared directly.

• Store records for as long as the building is in use under your responsibility, and hand them over cleanly if that responsibility changes.

• Make sure more than one person knows where the records live and how to update them.

If you're responsible for more than one building, this becomes even more important. Our guide on managing fire doors across multiple sites covers how to keep one consistent standard and reporting format across a whole portfolio, rather than a different system at every location.

Connecting records to remedial work

Records are only useful if they lead somewhere. A defect that's identified but sits unactioned in a report is a liability in its own right, arguably a clearer one than a defect that was never spotted, because it shows the organisation knew and didn't act.

The most reliable systems treat inspection and remedial work as one connected process: a defect is logged, a remedial job is raised against that specific entry, and the record is updated once the work is confirmed complete. That closes the loop and gives you a defensible history for every door, not just a snapshot of its current state.

For a wider view of what a fire door inspection should cover before you get to the paperwork, our Fire Door Safety Week facilities manager guide is a good starting point.

How Protest ES Ltd supports fire door record-keeping

We carry out fire door inspections with clear, dated written findings for every door, and complete remedial works that link directly back to the original inspection record, so nothing gets lost between finding a defect and fixing it.

Fire doors are one part of a wider passive fire protection picture, and good documentation matters just as much for fire stopping and compartmentation. If your facilities team is juggling records across several systems, our facilities management page has more on how we work alongside FM teams directly.

Fire door records FAQs

Who is legally responsible for keeping fire door records?

The responsible person under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, usually the employer, building owner or managing agent, is responsible for making sure fire safety arrangements, including fire doors, are properly maintained and evidenced. In practice, this task is often delegated to facilities or estates teams, but the legal responsibility remains with the responsible person.

What counts as an acceptable fire door inspection record?

A written, dated record that identifies the specific door, states what was checked, notes any defects found, records what remedial action was taken and when, and shows who carried out the work. A verbal confirmation or an undated photo on its own does not meet this standard.

How long should fire door records be kept?

As a general principle, records should be kept for as long as the building is in use under your responsibility, so there's always a full history available. If responsibility for the building transfers, records should be handed over rather than discarded.

Can fire door records be kept digitally?

Yes. Digital records are often easier to search, back up and share across a team than paper files, provided they're kept consistently and more than one person can access them. The format matters less than the discipline of updating it every time.

What happens if we can't produce fire door records during an audit or insurance claim?

Without records, it's very difficult to demonstrate that fire doors have been properly maintained, even if the work was actually carried out. This can affect the outcome of an audit, an insurance claim, or an investigation following an incident, since verbal assurances carry far less weight than written evidence.

Do we need separate records for each site if we manage multiple buildings?

Each site should have its own clearly identified records, ideally kept to the same format so they can be compared and rolled up into a portfolio-wide view. Mixing multiple sites into one file makes it harder to track individual doors and easier to make mistakes.

How does Protest ES Ltd help with fire door record-keeping?

Our fire door inspections produce clear, dated written findings for every door we assess, and our remedial works are logged against those same findings, so you have a connected, audit-ready record from the first inspection onward.