At a Glance
Many apartment owners install security or screen doors for ventilation, security or pet containment without realising they may compromise a fire door’s compliance. Fire & Rescue NSW and Accredited Practitioners – Fire Safety (APFS) have increasingly identified screen doors fitted to fire-rated entry doors as a compliance issue because they can affect fire containment, evacuation safety and certification requirements under Australian Standard AS 1905.1. For strata schemes, even a small number of non-compliant doors can impact Annual Fire Safety Statement (AFSS) compliance and potentially expose the Owners Corporation to regulatory and insurance risks. Owners and committees should seek advice before installing screen doors and work closely with their strata manager and fire safety practitioner to address any existing issues.
If you live in an apartment building, the front door to your unit is almost certainly a fire door – a specially engineered door designed to contain fire and smoke for a set period of time. It’s part of what keeps everyone in the building safe during an emergency, and it’s a critical component of your building’s Annual Fire Safety Statement (AFSS) or general fire safety maintenance program. Recently, Jamesons Strata Management has been made aware of a growing compliance issue: security and screen doors fitted to fire doors in residential apartment buildings. The short version is that the addition of a screen door is very likely to render the fire door non-compliant with the relevant Australian Standard (AS 1905.1), even though plenty of these doors have been installed and signed off in the past. Here’s what that means for you.
🚪 AT A GLANCE
What’s the issue? Security/screen doors fitted to fire doors compromise their fire and smoke containment performance.
What standard? AS 1905.1, the Australian Standard for fire-resistant doorsets.
Who’s flagged it? Fire & Rescue NSW (FRNSW) in position statements.
Is this new? No. The standard hasn’t changed, but Accredited Practitioners – Fire Safety (APFS) are no longer signing these doors off.
Affects: The entry doors of sole-occupancy units in residential flat buildings.
Why Screen Doors Compromise Fire Doors
A fire door isn’t just a heavy door, it’s a fully engineered system that includes the leaf, the frame, the seals, and the self-closing mechanism, all certified to work together.
Fitting a secondary screen or security door affects that system in four ways:
1. Structural integrity. Screen doors are fixed into the existing fire door frame. The additional fixings can compromise the frame’s structural performance, which the fire door relies on to function in a fire event.
2. Occupant behaviour. Once a screen door is in place, occupants often prop the fire door open behind it for airflow or convenience. That defeats the entire purpose of the fire door, allowing fire and smoke to spread into the common corridor.
3. Egress obstruction. Screen doors typically open outward into the common corridor — the same path residents need to use to evacuate. A door swinging into that path is a hazard for everyone on the floor.
4. Standards non-compliance. For the reasons above, a fire door with a screen door fitted is unlikely to comply with AS 1905.1, and that has flow-on consequences for the building’s overall fire safety certification.
What This Means for Your Building’s Annual Fire Safety Statement
This is where it gets serious for committees. Residential apartment buildings in NSW that are required to lodge an Annual Fire Safety Statement (AFSS) are certifying that essential fire safety measures have been assessed by an accredited practitioner and meet the required performance standards.
If an Accredited Practitioner in Fire Safety (APFS) won’t sign off on a non-compliant fire door, the AFSS can’t be lodged as fully compliant.
Even a small number of affected units can hold up the entire building’s certification, which carries penalties under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation and can have implications for the building’s insurance and the Owners Corporation’s broader liability position.
What Owners Need to Do
If you’ve installed a screen or security door on your unit’s entry door, or you’re thinking about it:
1. Don’t install a new one without checking first. If you’re considering a screen door for security, ventilation or pets, talk to your strata manager before doing anything. There are compliant alternatives.
2. Tell your strata manager about existing screen doors. If one is already fitted, raise it proactively. The earlier it’s known, the easier it is to coordinate with the building’s fire safety assessment cycle.
3. Never prop your fire door open. Even briefly. Self-closing devices exist for a reason, and disengaging them puts every resident on your floor at risk.
What Committees Need to Do
If you’re on the strata committee, the next steps are usually to:
1. Raise it at the next committee meeting, particularly ahead of your next AFSS due date.
2. Coordinate an audit with your APFS. Your strata manager can arrange for the building’s accredited fire safety practitioner to identify any affected units and provide a remediation pathway.
3. Communicate clearly with owners. Anyone who has had a screen door signed off in previous years may understandably push back. The advice from Penrith Council is clear: this is non-compliance with an Australian Standard, not a new local rule.
How to Work With Your Strata Manager to Stay Compliant
Fire safety compliance isn’t a one-off task, it’s an ongoing partnership between owners, the committee, your strata manager, and your APFS.
The buildings that stay ahead of issues like this one tend to have a few habits in common:
1. Tell us before, not after. Whether it’s a screen door, an air-conditioner, a renovation, or any change to the building fabric, let your strata manager know before the work happens.
2. Don’t rely on what was signed off last time. Standards, interpretations and APFS positions evolve. Something approved five years ago may not pass an assessment today.
3. Respond promptly when access is needed. When your APFS is conducting the annual fire safety assessment, access to units matters.
4. Keep your contact details current. When time-sensitive compliance issues arise, we need to be able to reach owners quickly.
5. Use formal channels for decisions. The right paperwork at the right time protects every owner.
6. Treat compliance advice as the starting point, not pushback. Engaging early is always cheaper and easier than reacting late.
Fire doors are one of the most important, and most easily compromised, fire safety measures in any apartment building.
The good news is that this is a known issue with a clear remediation pathway, and your strata manager is the right person to help your building navigate it.
If you’re unsure whether your front door is a fire door, or whether a screen door fitted to it is compliant, contact your Jamesons strata manager. We can coordinate with the building’s fire contractors and APFS to give you a definitive answer, and a plan if anything needs to be addressed.
