Side door left unlocked in apartment block?

Mellor · 23-06-2023 10:44am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120752751#Comment_120752751

No. You are making a similar mistake to the other poster.

A required fire exit is a permanent means of escape in a fire. Where is purely utilitarian, it can be a one way steel plate door with a panic bar. But most fire doors are not. Look at the majority of space you are in. Fire exits are very often simply the front door.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120752774#Comment_120752774

A fire exit can never be locked. You mention that was changed after some time. It's possible that when that door was locked, the other door had to be unlocked to comply. It might not be a fire door, I'm just raising that it make be and having a panic bar fitted is not what defines a fire door.

The door is there for some reason, expecting it to function only as a window or a wall seems silly. I think a better aspiration is making it functional for the tenants, but not a hindrance or a security risk.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120752821#Comment_120752821

That sign and how the door is used is entirely up to the landlord (statutory requirements aside).

o1s1n · 23-06-2023 10:53am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120719973#Comment_120719973

Do people usually break locks on locked doors?

I dunno about you but if I come up against a locked door I generally find another route?

Hardly see residents deciding to bash a locked door to their own building in when there's another door available, seems fairly extreme.

Orlak2410 · 23-06-2023 8:12pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120753087#Comment_120753087

I'm quite surprised at that as the point of a fire exit with a push bar handle is to facilite fast and unobstructed escape so you'd wonder why most fire exits have them if not legally required.

So how many fire exits does a building need? Because there are already two doors open (one fire exit and the hall door).

Del2005 · 23-06-2023 9:10pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120753134#Comment_120753134

I work in a secure environment and people regularly defeat the door locks.

The OPs apartment is on the Desire Path to the complex, where the entrance is is irrelevant. No one has based the door, they just leave it open.

Desire path - Wikipedia

Mellor · 24-06-2023 12:54am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120756224#Comment_120756224

Re-read my post. Most fire exits in this context do NOT have them. You are thinking of only that type of exit. A front door to a house is a fire exit, the front door to your apartment is your fire exit too.

They are not primarily there to facilitate escape, they are there for security. A door they swings freely is just as good for escape. There is no legal need to have a panic a bar.

The number of exits depends on the building. A shop might have 1. A shopping centre might have 10. Based you the number of units you describe, i’d day you need 2 minimum.

Mellor · 24-06-2023 12:58am

It would be easy to speak to the landlord and clarify all of this.

Orlak2410 · 24-06-2023 9:32am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120757574#Comment_120757574

Well if there's already another two doors open, then the landlord can't say that he has to leave it open for fire regulations.

Maybe it's different in England because from what I could find online, emergency escape doors there must open outwards and have a panic bar. I couldn't find anything for ireland.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120757581#Comment_120757581

I plan on doing that, I was just hoping to have something in my back pocket incase he said no (after all, the needs of the many outweighs the needs of the few).

Mellor · 24-06-2023 11:19am

Landlord doesn’t need a reason, he can probably just open it if he wishes.

You said previously that the other door adjacent was locked. If so it doesn’t count as an exit.

It may or may not be due to fire regs. That was suggested as a possibility, as you asserted that it wasn’t an exit -without knowing the requirements. But you have Google and you know best, so I’ll leave you to it.

Good luck with the Landlord

Orlak2410 · 24-06-2023 11:56am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120758511#Comment_120758511

Yes, the adjacent door is locked but there is a fire exit the other side of the building that's open and so is the hall door

I don't know the fire regulations as i could not find them online, I did find the English o especially though and usually Ireland just follow england in everything so I thought they might be similar.

o1s1n · 25-06-2023 11:06am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120756486#Comment_120756486

If that were the case, there'd be no locked doors anywhere as they'd all be broken.

I'm on the OMC of a pretty major Dublin apartment complex and none of the door locks are ever broken. The complex main entrance can be used as a shortcut from a main street on Dublin to another main street. We get a lot of people tailing behind others (you could consider it a 'desire path') and unauthorized entries (people coming in to steal bikes and breaking into cars) but the actual locks have never been broken.

Maybe you need to upgrade the locks in your 'secure environment'.

Side door left unlocked in apartment block?

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