OK. Any specific requirements? Is there a particular code or reference I can use to leverage my argument here w/ a builder that is resisting addressing this issue?

thanks,

Here's the Code in my jurisdiction:

As I've noted before, it was only in the late 1980s that the Province allowed new homes to be accessed directly from the garage.

I don't understand why, if you want a reference, you don't Google on building regulations garage door to house or similar.

^^^

Reference your state or province as Codes are not national.

To provide you with code references we would need to know what codes apply or at least where the project is located.

Auto or Automatic closing usually means a door is held open and closes when a sensor detects smoke or fire.

I don't know the code, but in our area it is a requirement that any fire door between the garage and the house has to have a springs to close fully on its own.  Those hinge springs can be tightened to give more tension so that it will close harder.

Fire code but check w building department even though they didn't call it out. Typically door to garage is a fire door in a fire rated wall. Spring hinges should be adjusted by installer to latch. If the door has a "20 minute" label likely it is this.

A fire rated door that does not fully close and latch would not be considered a fire door in my opinion. Agree with Jeffrey above, it must be adjusted to properly latch securely to be considered a fire rated door, otherwise fire will move around the door.

Since you asked here is the specific IRC code excerpt applying in the U.S.:

It is not as specific like Ontario's, but interpretation of "self-closing" is inherent. If the builder has passed inspection and you are moved in, it may be hard to move mountains for this. Maybe keep it with the list of other warranty items to do. FWIW I have never been in a house that has self-closing hinges, even if removed after inspection, so there's the usability viewpoint of others. If you can't adjust the tension there are different styles of hinge closers that you might like better (probably on your dime). Make sure that if the lockset is like a Schlage where when you turn the knob from inside it does not automatically unlock, that the family pays attention to the lock setting.

Also FWIW the garage separation wall in a single family dwelling is not a fire wall, and seldom is the code amended to isolate having a listed fire-rated door.

There is no national residential consensus code in the US that requires a fire rating for the separation wall between a house and a garage nor is an opening in such a wall required to be fire-rated or a "fire door". Such assemblies are required by building codes between different Occupancies and that is not the case for single-family dwellings.

Instead, US residential building codes provide written prescriptive requirements for that separation wall and openings in it. Many jurisdictions modify the closer requirements but none to my knowledge requires the wall or door to be fire-rated.

Here are the latest unmodified IRC requirements:

Here is a typical US residential building code requirement for a door between a house and a garage:

Often the option for a 20-minute fire-rated door is misunderstood. Fire ratings are only granted for "assemblies", not parts of an assembly. The intent of the IRC is to allow for the door "panel" of a fire-rated assembly to be used in an unrated frame with unrated hardware so the assembly is not fire-rated. Also there would be little purpose in requiring a fire-rated door in an unrated wall assembly.

I don't know of any of this applies to the OP.

Ah, I love grammar. The code quoted below by @3onthetree reminds me of a book I read awhile back called "Eats, shoots and leaves" - an unfortunately placed comma turned a sentence about what pandas eat into a rather sinister plot.

Suffice it to say that the commas in that sentence can lead you to believe that either all doors need to be self closing, or only fire rated doors do.

In my state I have never seen a self-closing door from the garage to the house (and there are a lot of attached garages here), so it's possible my state removes that requirement, or interprets the code differently.

OP - whatever the code is in your neck of the woods, I would hate a self-closing door there and am glad I don't have one.

So true, that one little comma after the rated door blurb makes the self-closer apply to all versions of these doors. You wouldn't believe how many hours you have to scrutinize the grammar in code, especially when you get into complicated things like auditoriums, stages, and fire protection. I think most inspectors are practical on this tiny code requirement because people don't leave the garage door open anyway - inspectors have bigger fish to fry in their alotted time.