A fire door only protects anyone if it closes, latches and seals when it has to. Doors get used thousands of times a year, so they drift: a closer gets adjusted, a handle gets swapped, a seal gets painted over. Routine inspection under AS 1851 is how these defects get caught. This guide explains how often it has to happen, what the inspection covers, and what you need to keep afterwards.
What AS 1851 is
AS 1851-2012 is the Australian Standard for the routine servicing of fire protection systems and equipment: sprinklers, alarms, hydrants, emergency lighting, and passive fire protection such as fire doors. “Routine service” means regular inspection, testing and preventive maintenance, to a set schedule.
In NSW it’s now the law as well as good practice. Since 13 February 2026, the owner of almost every building other than a house must have its essential fire safety measures inspected, tested and serviced to AS 1851-2012, unless an approved performance solution for the building sets different maintenance. Fire doors are one of the most common of those measures.
How often fire doors are inspected
| Door | How often |
|---|---|
| Hinged and pivoted fire doors, and smoke doors | Every six months |
| Front doors of individual apartments (sole-occupancy units, or SOUs) | Can be extended to once every 12 months |
| Horizontal sliding fire doors | Every three months, with further checks every six months |
Those are the standard’s baseline. Doors that are in constant use — a stair door people use to move between floors, say — or in a harsh environment may need checking more often.
What an inspection looks at
A fire door is rated as a tested system: the leaf, frame, hardware, seals and the way it was installed, tested together. The inspection checks that the system is still the one that was tested, and that it still works. For a hinged fire door, that covers:
- Changes. Whether the door has been altered since the last inspection.
- Tags and signs. That the door leaf and frame carry their tags under AS 1905.1, the Standard for fire-resistant doorsets, and that any required signage is in place.
- Gaps. The gaps around the door and under it, measured against AS 1905.1 or the door’s test report.
- Hardware. That the closer, hinges, lock or latch are the makes and models tested with that door, fitted properly, and working — and that there are no extra fittings, or holes left where hardware used to be.
- Closing and latching. That the door closes and latches on its own, and isn’t too heavy to open.
- The closer. No oil leaks, and nothing blocking its arm.
- Seals. That any seals are the right type for the door, working, and undamaged.
- The leaf. No warping, bowing, delamination, split edges or significant damage.
- The frame. The right door stops, a striker plate, no distortion, and steel frames filled behind where the door’s system requires it.
- Glass and grilles. That any vision panel or air grille is approved for that door and intact.
- The floor and fittings. No combustible floor covering added under the door since it was installed, and any kickplate secure.
- Pairs of doors. That the strip where the two leaves meet is correct and sealed.
- Doors held open. That doors held open on magnets close properly when the alarm goes off or the power fails.
An inspection is not a full compliance audit of the building. It checks each door against the building’s records and the door’s own approvals, and looks for anything that has changed or worn.
Defects: what happens to what’s found
AS 1851 sorts problems into three kinds:
| Kind | What it means |
|---|---|
| Critical defect | Something that stops the system working and is likely to put people at real risk |
| Non-critical defect | A fault that isn’t likely to stop the system working |
| Non-conformance | Missing information or items needed to keep servicing it properly, such as an unreadable label |
The owner has to be told about a critical defect before the technician leaves site, or as soon as possible, and in writing within 24 hours. Other defects and non-conformances must be reported within a week. The standard recommends fixing critical defects with minimum delay, and the rest as soon as practicable, before the next yearly report.
Once a year, the service provider issues a condition report: a summary of the year’s servicing, any outstanding defects, and the condition of each system. It’s the document that supports your annual fire safety statement.
The records you must keep
Every inspection is recorded, either in a logbook (paper, or electronic with a signed printed copy left on site) or with service labels backed by a summary record.
- Where: on site at the building, available at all times.
- How long: at least seven years. In NSW this is now also a legal requirement, and council or Fire and Rescue NSW can ask to see them.
If service labels are used on doors, they’re the yellow AS 1851 Service Record labels, marked with the month and the type of service done. Don’t confuse them with the door’s own tag. The tag says what the door is and what it was tested to; the service label only records when it was last checked.
The frame, or jamb, carries its own AS 1905.1 tag, separate from the door leaf’s. A missing jamb tag can often be put right at inspection, where the frame can be identified. A missing leaf tag usually can’t: once a door is in a building, what it’s made of and where it came from generally can’t be proven, so it’s recorded as a finding instead.
How it fits with the annual fire safety statement
Routine inspection and the annual fire safety statement are separate jobs. Inspection happens through the year and keeps the doors working. The statement is the once-a-year assessment that they are, done within the three months before it’s signed.
The two support each other. A building whose doors have been inspected every six months, with defects fixed as they’re found, reaches statement time with few surprises. A building whose doors were last looked at a year ago usually doesn’t.
Who can do the inspecting
The standard asks for a competent person. In practice, look for FPAS Inspect and Test accreditation covering fire and smoke doors, and check it on FPA Australia’s public register. It comes at two levels: Routine covers checks up to six-monthly, and Complex covers the yearly ones as well.