Shared houses and HMOs
Bedroom doors, kitchen doors, the stair and the front door, checked in one visit.
Get a priceA five-bed house, let to five separate people. Each has a bedroom door with a lock of their own fitting. There's a kitchen door, a front door, and one stair that everyone has to use to get out. Here's an invented sheet for a house like that.
Bedroom 1. Panelled door, painted nine or ten times. Lock fitted by the tenant, two extra holes. No label. Head gap 6mm.
Bedroom 3. Flush door, FD30 plug in the top edge. Closer missing. Wedge under the door.
Kitchen. Original door, gap at the bottom you could post a letter through. No seals.
Stair. Nothing at all at the foot of it.
Front door. Letterbox with no lining, glass panel, no mark.
One bad door on the escape route matters more than three bad ones in a corner.
Why landlords ask for it
Usually someone else has raised it. A council officer at a licence inspection, a letting agent who won't take the house on without a report, an insurer, or a fire risk assessment that ended with a line about doors. A house with five or more people from two or more households needs a mandatory HMO licence, and the conditions the council sets can cover fire doors. Check yours.
Panelled doors
Doors made from thin timber panels do not give you the protection a rated door does. Painting the panels does not change that. Fitting seals round one does not make it a fire door.
Where a door like that is on the escape route, we tell you plainly and say what would replace it. Usually that is a plain certified door and frame set, not a repair.
Getting in
Tenants are usually out at work or at lectures, so a key held by the agent is the easiest way in. A set day, with every tenant warned by text the evening before, works nearly as well. We look at the gaps, hinges, seals and closer on every door we can reach.
Tenants in a shared house are often out at work. Many landlords have a key held by the agent, or arrange a time when everyone has been told. We work to whichever suits.
We try to see every bedroom door. If someone refuses, we note it and move on.
What you get
A report with one entry for each door. Photos, measurements, what is wrong and how urgent it is. You can pass it to the council, your agent or your insurer.
We can price repairs from it. You may prefer to use your own carpenter, and that is fine.
Questions we get asked
Does every bedroom door need to be a fire door?
It depends on the layout and on your fire risk assessment. In many shared houses the stair and the doors off it are the priority.
Is this a fire risk assessment?
No. That is a separate service. We look at the doors in detail.
Send us the postcode and a rough door count and we will come back with a price the same day.
Get a price