Do internal doors in rental property need to be fire doors?

[Autumnalsky]

I'm an owner-occupier. Some of the internal doors in my flat need replacing. I'm wondering whether to replace them with fire doors or non-fire doors - the latter would obviously be cheaper.

At the moment I have no plans to move out and let my flat, but it would be good to know that if I ever wanted to do that, I wouldn't need to change the doors! So it would be good to know whether internal doors in a rental property need to be fire doors.

(Obviously the front door of my flat, which opens onto the communal staircase, is a fire door.)

The fire regulations for accommodation has recently changed, it may be worth you reviewing this. The important question to ask is where is the fire compartment? Is the flat itself a compartment or are there additional compartments within the flat? Any door on the fire line must be a fire door. Any other door can be non fire rated. Note, the fire rating of the door must meet the fire rating of the compartment ie. 30minute, 60minute etc

Depends on your local council. Some insist on fire doors. Other ask for a mains powered smoke alarm in every room but not fire doors.

Look up your local council.

Thank you for the messages. For the purposes of me living in my own flat, the managing agent for the property is clear that the only door that needs to be a fire door is the front door of the flat. We have a fire inspection each year, which is very rigorous, and they only ever check the front door.

I guess this means that for owner-occupier purposes, the flat itself is the fire compartment. Could the rules be any different for lettings?

The rules evolve all the time. If you have no current plans to rent, I wouldn't bother. Just do it all if/when you need. You could end up putting fire doors in that wouldn't be acceptable in a few years time.

Good point! Thank you!

It depends. Usually, it’s just the main entrance door if that leads to a communal area.

I ended up swapping mine for proper FD30s because my block’s fire risk assessment flagged the old ones. It wasn’t a huge faff, but I did get a specialist to fit them so the seals and closers were done right. Fireresist.co.uk was handy for choosing a door that actually met the regs without looking too industrial. Even in a flat you own, it keeps you covered if you ever rent it out.

No
If your flat is a compartment in itself it makes no difference whose living there
Building regs are not any different