Blog · Compliance

Smart locks on escape routes: what the Building Code actually requires

There is a belief in the trade that a mechanical key override makes an electronic lock safe on an escape route. Read the clause and it does not. This is the part of a smart lock job most likely to go wrong on paper rather than on the door.

The clause

Acceptable Solution C/AS2 deals with fire safety in buildings other than standalone houses. Clause 3.15.2 covers how a door on a means of escape has to open. The requirement is that it can be opened from the inside without a key or other security device.

That phrase is the whole problem. A mechanical key override is, by definition, opening the door with a key. So it cannot be the thing that satisfies the clause. It is a genuinely useful backup for a flat battery, and all five of our current models have one, but a backup for the batteries and a compliant escape method are two different things.

In practice

On a standalone house it usually does not arise. Where it does arise, and where we see it, is:

• Apartment and multi-unit buildings, on doors that open onto a shared corridor or stair.
• Commercial tenancies, where a smart lock is fitted to a door that is also a fire exit.
• Body corporate common doors, where one person orders a lock and nobody checks what the door is.
• Short-stay accommodation, where a smart lock is exactly the right product and the door is exactly the wrong one.

The pattern is the same each time. Somebody buys a lock that is perfect for the job it was bought for, and nobody asks what that particular door is doing in the fire design.

Fire rated doorsets are a separate problem again

If the door is fire rated, there is a second issue that catches even careful installers. In New Zealand, hardware is not generically approved for fire doors. It has to be approved on that maker's doorset, as tested. A lock that is fine on one manufacturer's fire door is not automatically fine on another's.

So a fire rated door is not a question of whether the lock is a good lock. It is a question of whether that specific combination has been tested and approved. That answer comes from the doorset manufacturer, not from us and not from the lock.

What we do about it

Every install guide we publish carries this warning on its first page, before any step, and it says plainly that the key override does not satisfy the clause. We would rather an installer stops and makes a phone call than fits a lock that has to come off again.

Altering a means of escape can require building consent. That is worth knowing before the chisel comes out, not after.

The four questions to ask before you fit

• Is this door on a means of escape? If you are not certain, treat it as if it is.
• Is the doorset fire rated? Look for a tag or a label on the hinge edge.
• Who signed off the fire design, and have they seen this change?
• Does the work need consent?

None of those are questions a lock supplier can answer for you. They are all questions someone has to answer before the door is cut.