Front Door Replacement Works

Health and Safety

Updated: 31/10/2018

The Council has recently written to all residents advising them of the actions they intend to take to address fire safety related issues with the front doors to individual flats and the communal fire doors.

Some residents have found the letter rather confusing. This is WERA's understanding of what is about to happen:

• If you are a Council tenant your flat probably has a brown coloured front door with gold coloured door fittings. These front doors were installed by the TMO in 2005/6. WERA has been advised that these doors are generally compliant with current fire/building regulations but will require a door closer to be fitted. Many will also require new letterboxes and other door fittings. Some may require minor repairs. These works are expected to start shortly and the Council's appointed contractor, London Fire Solutions, will be in touch to arrange for these works to be carried out to your front door.

• If you are a leaseholder, or the tenant of a leaseholder, you are likely to have an original 1970s front door dating back to the original construction of the estate. WERA has been advised that these doors are thought not to be compliant with current fire/building regulations and will probably need to be replaced. The Council has yet to make a decision as to how to proceed with these works. WERA expects to be consulted on the design of any proposed replacement front doors with a view to ensuring that any new front doors actually meet the needs and desires of residents. If you are a leaseholder you will also be able to independently purchase and fit a new front door of your own choosing (if that selected by the Council is not to your taste) as long as it complies with current fire/building regulations and you can provide documentary evidence that it does.

• There are a very small number of flats where the front doors do not fall into either of the above categories. The Council has yet to advise WERA how they plan to deal with these. It is likely that each door will need to be carefully examined before a decision is taken as to whether it needs to be replaced or not, or whether some form of repair will be sufficient to deal with any issues.

Finally, alongside the works to the front doors of individual flats a separate piece of work is being carried out to remedy the many problems and issues with the fire doors in communal areas. WERA has not yet been advised how extensive these works will be as the Council have yet to complete the relevant surveys and prepare an appropriate plan of action.

Should you have any questions or concerns with these proposals please do not hesitate to contact the Council's appointed Resident Liaison officer (Clive Laws, 020 8964 6064, clive.laws@rbkc.gov.uk) or WERA (020 7795 3095, wera@worlds-end.org.uk).