When an extension, change of use or fit-out finishes, the keys usually arrive on time. The information you need to run the building safely often doesn’t. What regulation 38 of the Building Regulations actually requires, where it stops, and what to put in the contract so you’re not left piecing it together later.

Approved Document B changes on fixed dates in March 2025, September 2026 and September 2029, and a government consultation proposes more. In our view, none of it on its own requires you to upgrade a building you already own. Where it does matter is when you plan work, so here is what is decided, what is only proposed, and what to check before the builders arrive.

In blocks of flats in England above 11 metres, communal fire doors must be checked every three months, and flat entrance doors every 12 months as far as best endeavours allow. Those frequencies are well known. Less well understood is what a “check” actually is, what it isn’t, and what your records need to show when a resident won’t open the door.

A letter from the fire service listing fire safety deficiencies is unsettling, but it’s rarely the start of a prosecution. Most findings are handled informally. How yours ends mostly depends on how serious the risk is and what you do in the next few weeks.

A long action plan is not a to-do list to be ticked off from the top. It is a description of the fire risk in your building. How you prioritise, assign, verify and feed back those actions decides whether the building is actually safer, or whether the spreadsheet just looks better.

From September 2029, Approved Document B will drop its references to British Standard 476 fire tests for fire doors and rely on European classification instead. If you’re replacing flat entrance doors or common-parts doors in the next few years, this changes what you should ask for. The change doesn’t make the doors you already have non-compliant.