The duty sits with you, not the installer

The fire damper above a communal riser has not been operated in years, and nobody can say for certain whether it still closes. That gap — between a damper that exists and a damper that works — is where legal exposure lives, and closing it is your responsibility as the Responsible Person.

Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the duty to maintain fire safety measures in a building sits with the Responsible Person. In most commercial and multi-occupied residential buildings that is the employer, the owner, or whoever has control of the premises. Fire dampers are a fire safety measure. They are the components that stop fire and smoke travelling through ductwork from one fire compartment into another. If they are installed, the RRFSO requires them to be maintained in efficient working order — and "maintained" means tested and evidenced, not simply assumed to be fine because they were fitted correctly once.

The person who installed your ductwork is not the person on the hook if a damper fails. You are. That is the first thing to be clear about, because the installer's involvement usually ended years ago.

What the law requires, layer by layer

The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 sharpened record-keeping and information duties, particularly for higher-risk and multi-occupied residential buildings. They reinforced the expectation that fire safety measures are documented, that information is available, and that duty-holders can demonstrate what has been done rather than describe it verbally.

The Building Safety Act 2022 introduced the "golden thread" — the principle that safety-critical information about a building must be created, kept current, and be accessible throughout the building's life. For fire dampers, that means the record of what is installed, where it is, and when it was last tested is not a nice-to-have. It is part of the information you are expected to hold and produce. [VERIFY: golden thread applies most stringently to higher-risk buildings, but the record-keeping principle informs good practice across the estate.]

For estates in Scotland, the equivalent duty comes through the Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006 and the associated Part 3 of the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005. The mechanism differs but the substance is the same: the duty-holder must maintain fire safety measures and be able to show it.

How often — and the routine versus critical distinction

This is where owners most often get the wrong answer.

BS 9999 provides guidance on the management of fire safety, including the periodic testing of fire dampers. The recognised position is that dampers should be tested at regular intervals, with the frequency depending on the nature of the installation. Dampers serving critical or high-risk environments — or those in locations where failure would have serious consequences — warrant more frequent attention than routine installations. [VERIFY: BS 9999 recommends drop-testing of fire dampers at defined intervals, with more frequent testing for critical installations; confirm current recommended interval before publication.]

The practical point: there is no single number that applies to every damper in every building. A blanket "we test them all once and forget it" approach will not stand up, and neither will assuming a low-risk interval for a damper protecting a critical compartment.

Why DW/145 matters — even though it is not law

BESA's DW/145, the Guide to Good Practice for the installation of fire and smoke dampers, is exactly that: guidance, not statute. No regulation says "you must comply with DW/145." So why does it matter?

Because when something goes wrong and your maintenance regime is examined, the question is whether you acted reasonably. Recognised industry good practice is the benchmark against which "reasonable" is measured. If you followed DW/145, you can point to a published, respected standard. If you departed from it, you need a defensible reason. Guidance is not law — but ignoring guidance is difficult to justify after the fact, and "we didn't have to" is rarely an answer that survives scrutiny.

What an acceptable evidence trail looks like

A regulator, an insurer or an incoming compliance lead should be able to ask for your damper records and receive something coherent. In practice that means:

  • An asset register listing every fire damper, its location, its type, and its access route.
  • Per-damper test records — not a single certificate saying "dampers tested," but a record for each unit showing it was operated and that it closed and reset correctly.
  • Photographic evidence capturing the condition and the test, tied to the specific damper.
  • Retained documentation stored so it can be produced on request, not scattered across email inboxes or lost with a departed contractor.

One further point that catches people out: a damper is only as good as the compartment wall it sits in. If the surrounding penetration is poorly sealed, the damper's integrity is compromised regardless of whether it operates. Damper testing and compartmentation and fire stopping belong in the same conversation — testing the damper while ignoring a failed seal around it proves very little.

If you don't know your current position

Plenty of building owners genuinely cannot say when their dampers were last tested, or even how many they have. That is a common starting point, not a failure — but it is not a position to stay in.

The sensible first step is a survey to establish what you have and its condition, followed by a testing programme built around the risk profile of each installation. From there you hold an evidence trail that answers the question before anyone asks it.

If you're unsure where you stand, our fire damper testing team can establish your asset position and put a defensible programme in place.