Fire Safety

Council treats fire safety very seriously. Where required under legislation to provide a statement, the owner is responsible to ensure lodgement, regardless as to whether the property is tenanted or vacant.

Please consider the following:

• Incomplete or late fire safety statements may result in a fine.

• If the fire safety statement is not completed satisfactorily you will be required to submit a corrected statement.

• Failure to provide an annual/supplementary fire safety statement can result in on-the-spot fines ranging from $1,000 to $4,000 per week.

• If a fine is issued, it will not excuse you from the need to submit an annual fire safety statement.

• If you fail to meet your statutory requirements, Council will take legal action against you and/or will continue to issue on-the-spot fines. "Failure to maintain essential fire safety measures" (which is a separate offence) can also result in a fine. The penalty in this instance is from $3,000 to $6,000 and Council will impose this as necessary.

• The legislation does not permit Council to issue an extension of time to submit an annual fire safety statement, so please do not ask for one.

All fire safety measures listed on the annual fire safety statement and fire safety schedule including egress paths and exits must be maintained at all times even when the building becomes vacant.

Vacant Buildings should also be the subject of regular security checks and ongoing maintenance to prevent the premises falling into disrepair and possible unauthorised access by squatters and vandals. Maintaining the fire safety measures and ongoing maintenance will promote the safety of persons who are nearby the premises or who access vacant buildings (e.g. security, Fire and Rescue NSW, police, building owners, Council staff, real estate agents, etc.).

If you have existing essential fire safety measures in your building and:

• intend to carry out work for which development consent or a Complying Development Certificate is required, or
• intend to change the use of the building for which consent is required.

A suitably qualified competent person should be engaged in order to research and verify the design standards to which those measures were originally installed. Once this has been undertaken, verification in the form of a fire safety audit report is to be forwarded to Council's Assessments department. Assuming approval is granted, Council will nominate (via either consent conditions and/or a fire safety schedule), any additional essential fire safety measures required in the building and the appropriate design standard to which they must be installed.

If you intend to construct a new building, approval is required. Forming part of any construction certificate that is issued, Council or a private certifier will nominate the essential fire safety measures required and the design standards to which they must be installed.

A fire safety schedule specifies the safety measures – both current and proposed – that should be implemented in a building premises, and the minimum standard of performance for each fire safety measure included in the schedule.

A fire safety schedule will be issued with the construction certificate listing the essential fire safety measures that are to be installed in the building. A fire safety certificate must be submitted prior to the issue of an occupation certificate. This certifies that each of the specified essential fire safety measures are capable of operating to the performance listed in the fire safety schedule. Subsequently, an annual fire safety statement must then be submitted to Council and Fire and Rescue NSW as well as prominently displayed within the building every year.

Old buildings and buildings built before current Building Code of Australia standards are not exempt from fire safety requirements, and it is the obligation of the owner to ensure that sufficient fire safety measures are in place.

It is necessary for owners to work with Council to achieve acceptable fire safety compliance and to undertake voluntary upgrades as needed by engaging the services of private fire safety consultants and engineers. Where current BCA compliance is not achievable without substantial demolition and/or redevelopment, alternative solutions may be proposed to Council by accredited professionals who have undertaken a detailed assessment of the building.

Owners of heritage buildings can contact the Heritage Council of NSW for guidance with fire safety compliance.

In August 2012, the NSW Government announced it would become mandatory for all residential aged care facilities to have an automatic sprinkler system installed. The new laws include the Environmental Planning and Assessment (Fire Sprinkler Systems) Regulation 2012, the State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP) Amendment (Fire Sprinkler Systems) 2012 and the Fire Sprinkler Standard.

The NSW Government encouraged all facilities without a sprinkler system to install them as soon as possible to improve the safety of residents. Existing facilities were required to install a sprinkler system within 18 months, however some providers may have requested three years to complete the installation. For more information see the NSW Planning and Environment website – Fire sprinklers in aged care facilities.

Boarding houses either have consent/approval (development application, building applications, construction certificates) and/or previous repealed Ordinance 42 Local Government Act 1919 licenses. Please note that BH premises are no longer licensed under Ordinance 42.

The premises must comply with the requirements of the Building Code of Australia, the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, and the Local Government Act 1993, which refer to such things as the number of boarders/rooms, light and ventilation, kitchen facilities, general cleanliness and hygiene, fittings and fixtures, furniture, consent requirements to ensure compliance with the approval, and – in particular – fire safety.

The building owner is responsible to ensure that all required fire safety measures installed within the boarding house are maintained so they work at the required standard during a fire emergency. Every boarding house is required to have suitable fire safety measures.

Each year boarding house owners are required by regulation to provide an annual fire safety statement (AFSS) to Council and to NSW Fire and Rescue.

The implementation of good fire safety management practices which involves the owner, operator, manager, agent and occupants can reduce the likelihood of an outbreak and impact of fire.

Planning/zoning requirements as to where boarding houses can be permitted are regulated by Council's local environmental plans (LEPs). The type of construction and level of fire safety is regulated by the BCA (Building Code of Australia). Council's controls, plans and policies provide an urban planning framework to guide development in the local government area. Planning controls can be in the form of LEPs, development control plans (DCPs), State Environmental Planning Policies (SEPPs) such as the Affordable Rental Housing SEPP 2009, as well as Council-specific codes, strategies and policies.

The following provides an overview of the Boarding House Act 2012:

• The Boarding House Act 2012 (BHA) and the Boarding House Regulations 2013 were passed as a whole-of-government response to concerns about the rights and safety of people living in boarding houses.
• The BHA requires operators of two types of boarding houses to register their boarding house with NSW Fair Trading. The 2 types of boarding houses that need to be registered are:
  • "general" boarding houses – boarding premises of 5 or more residents, and
  • "assisted" boarding houses – boarding premises where 2 or more residents have "additional needs".

Once boarding houses have been registered with Fair Trading, councils must inspect the premises within 12 months. The BHA provides councils with new powers to gain access to boarding houses in order to conduct the initial compliance inspection. The inspection is to ensure the premises comply with the council's own policies and existing laws including the Local Government Act 1993 and the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EPAA).

The following links provide information concerning boarding houses:

• Affordable Rental Housing SEPP
• Affordable Housing | Family and Community Services (FACS)
• Boarding Houses Act 2012 | Boarding house operators must register with NSW Fair Trading under the Boarding Houses Act 2012.
• Assisted Boarding Houses | The Boarding Houses Regulation 2013 provides standards for assisted boarding houses and also sets out some additional requirements for the Boarding Houses Register. 

For additional information please visit:

• NSW Legislation
• NSW Fire and Rescue (smoke alarm information)
• NSW Fair Trading
• Housing NSW
• Department of Family and Community Services (FACS)
• Tenants NSW
• Homelessness NSW

Classification of boarding houses – National Construction Code, Building Code of Australia

Class 1b:

1. a boarding house, guest house, hostel or the like: 
   1. with a total area of all floors not exceeding 300 m² measured over the enclosing walls of the Class 1b; and
   2. in which not more than 12 persons would ordinarily be resident; or
2. 4 or more single dwellings located on one allotment and used for short-term holiday accommodation, which are not located above or below another dwelling or another Class of building other than a private garage.

Class 3:

1. a residential building, other than a building of Class 1 or 2, which is a common place of long term or transient living for a number of unrelated persons, including:
   1. a boarding house, guest house, hostel, lodging house or backpackers accommodation; or
   2. a residential part of a hotel or motel; or 
   3. a residential part of a school; or
   4. accommodation for the aged, children or people with disabilities; or
   5. a residential part of a health-care building which accommodates members of staff; or
   6. a residential part of a detention centre

All building owners and property managers must maintain essential fire safety measures in their buildings, as outlined in the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2000.

There is no requirement to submit an annual fire safety statement for single dwelling houses classified as 1a under the Building Code of Australia. Typically, Class 1a refers to single dwelling houses, terraces or villa houses. If in doubt, ask.

Section 81 of the Regulation requires the owner of a building maintain each essential fire safety measure in that building in accordance with relevant standards of performance, and those standards are usually nominated by Council or an accredited certifier in a previous development consent, construction certificate or complying development certificate, or a previous fire safety order that was issued upon that property.

Section 81 places ultimate responsibility for the maintenance of fire safety measures on the building owner.

Apart from legal requirements, other vital reasons for maintaining fire safety measure include:

• to ensure safety of building occupants.
• to preserve the function and performance of fire safety systems and equipment;
• to maintain and protect assets – proper preventative maintenance can save money; and
• to avoid business interruption and disruption to activities/operations in the event of fire.

An annual fire safety statement is a statement issued by or on behalf of the owner of a building to the effect that:

1. each essential fire safety measure specified in the statement has been assessed by a properly qualified person and was found, when it was assessed, to be capable of performing:

   1. in the case of an essential fire safety measure applicable by virtue of a fire safety schedule, to a standard no less than that specified in the schedule, or

   2. in the case of an essential fire safety measure applicable otherwise than by virtue of a fire safety schedule, to a standard no less than that to which the measure was originally designed and implemented, and

2. the building has been inspected by a properly qualified person and was found, when it was inspected, to be in a condition that did not disclose any grounds for a prosecution under Division 7 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2000.

Generally what will happen every year is that you may have several different contractors attending the premises at specific intervals throughout the year to provide a maintenance service for several different fire safety measures.

Each contractor should then give you some type of certification in relation to the assessment they have carried out, listing the specific measure/s they have serviced and referencing a particular Standard of Performance that the installed measure is achieving. Once you have obtained and gathered all this together, you are then required to consolidate all this information and transfer it collectively onto the one document known as an annual fire safety statement.

An annual fire safety statement for a building must deal with each essential fire safety measure in the building premises.

It must be submitted within 12 months after the date on which the previous statement or the final fire safety certificate was given, and it must be lodged within 3 months of the date of inspection and assessment. The statement must be submitted to Council and the Commissioner of NSW Fire and Rescue.

Engage an accredited practitioner (fire safety) to assess the essential fire safety measures in your building e.g. smoke alarms, fire extinguishers, exit signs etc. Once assessed submit a copy of the Annual Fire Safety Statement to Council and Fire and Rescue NSW as well as display a copy in a prominent position within the building.

Annual fire safety statement forms, as well as final and interim fire safety certificate forms, can be found on Council’s website. Enter the search term Forms, then scroll down until you find the desired form e.g. Annual Fire Safety Statement. Alternatively, enter Annual Fire Safety Statement into the search bar.

If you require a copy of a fire safety schedule for your building you can apply online by clicking on Access to Information (GIPA) or go to Forms on Council’s website and complete an Access to Information – Informal access application. The request is free of charge.

Suitably qualified fire contractors are referred to as accredited practitioner (fire safety). They must be trained and have an accreditation number. To find one near you go to www.fpaa.com.au, go to the Accreditation and Licensing tab, and click on the Accredited Practitioner link.

The due date or anniversary date for the submission of your annual fire safety statement is 12 months from the date the final fire safety certificate for the building was issued, or 12 months from the date the last annual fire safety statement was issued – whichever is more recent. If you have submitted a statement before, you will be on Council’s Essential Services Register and will by notified approximately 60 days in advance of when your next statement is due.

The Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2000 (Regs) does not provide for an extension of time to submit an AFSS, accordingly Council legally cannot grant you an extension. Council is also unable to put on hold the date your AFSS submission is due. The legislation stipulates that an AFSS must be submitted on or within 12 months from the date the last AFSS was issued; failure to do so is an offence under the Regs.

Council does not offer the ability to stay a penalty infringement notice i.e. ask that a fine not be issued where you know the AFSS submission will either be late or incomplete. In such circumstances you should submit an AFSS for those fire safety measures that can be certified i.e. an incomplete submission. Once all measures can be certified you will need to either submit an Interim fire safety certificate (where items have been replaced/installed) or a complete AFSS (where no items have been replaced/installed). Your fire contractor/accredited practitioner (fire safety) will be able to advise you which form is applicable in your circumstance.

Council will accept submission of an annual fire safety statement in any of the following ways:

• Mail: City of Ryde locked bag 2069, North Ryde
• Email: cityofryde@ryde.nsw.gov.au

Your contractor may need to attend your property at different times of the year, as certain fire safety measures require a greater frequency of testing. However, you are only required to submit an annual fire safety statement to Council once a year. Please note that for a statement to be valid the assessment/inspection date of all fire safety measures in the building and the date when the statement is issued i.e. signed, must not be more than 3 months apart. If they are the submission is considered invalid under the regulations and the measures will need to be reassessed/reinspected and a new Statement issued.

On larger more complex buildings you may have multiple contractors supplying you with certificates. These certificates must be combined into one annual fire safety statement and submitted to Council. You may attach the individual certificates to the back of the statement for Council’s records. NB: Council won’t accept the submission of an individual certificate unless it is a final or interim fire safety certificate – otherwise it must all be completed on one annual fire safety statement.

No. A test report, invoice or similar paperwork is not a substitute for an annual fire safety statement and will not be accepted by Council. What you should seek from your contractor is correspondence which specifically lists what fire safety measures they’ve tested/inspected, together with what standard of performance those measures have been tested/inspected against. This is the kind of supporting documentation you will need to obtain to assist in the proper preparation and submission of an annual fire safety statement.

A supplementary fire safety statement is used to certify critical fire safety measures only. A critical fire safety measure is one that’s important enough to warrant certification on a more regular basis, and therefore a Supplementary Fire Safety Statement is prepared and may need to be supplied to Council at monthly, quarterly or 6-monthly intervals.  If Council identifies that a measure qualifies to be a critical fire safety measure, then Council will nominate this as part of a Development Consent, Construction Certificate or Fire Safety Order, and Council will also specify the frequency of how often a supplementary fire safety statement is required.

This is something that the operational capacity and effectiveness of a fire safety measure is measured against and is usually a standard that specifies how a fire safety measure is to perform/be installed. This must be included in the annual fire safety statement.

A fire safety schedule is a document specifying the fire safety measures installed or to be installed in a building and can form part of any of the following:

• A Development Consent
• A Complying Development Certificate
• A Construction Certificate
• An Occupation Certificate
• A Fire Safety Order

The annual fire safety statement may be prepared by your maintenance contractor after an assessment has been performed, however must only be signed by the owner or agent.

The preparation and submission of an Annual Fire Safety Statement is mandatory for all buildings issued with either a Development Consent, Change of Use of Fire Safety Order on or after 1 July 1988.

In a strata titled property, one annual fire safety statement covering the entire building must be submitted to Council. It is the agent responsible for managing the strata or the executive committee's/body corporate's responsibility to arrange the assessment and submission of an annual fire safety statement, not the individual lot/unit owners.

As part of its internal fire safety upgrading program, Council may, at any time, assess the fire safety level of an existing building and if it is considered necessary, order the owner/s to carry out upgrading works and install essential fire safety measures compatible to the building use and inherent with the risks involved as part of an overall risk management strategy.

If you require a fire safety schedule from Council, please lodge an "access to information (GIPA)" request.

A pyrotechnician's licence or fireworks (single-use) licence is issued by SafeWork NSW by way of legislation known as the Explosives Regulation 2005

The Regulation requires that, as a condition of each licence issued, the licensee must notify each of the following authorities of an intention to use any fireworks, distress signal or model rocket propellant device:

• SafeWork NSW – at least 7 working days before the fireworks, signal or device is to be used
• Council – at least 7 working days before the fireworks, signal or device is to be used
• Local area commander of Police – at least 2 working days before the fireworks, signal or device is to be used
• Fire and Rescue NSW – at least 2 working days before the fireworks, signal or device is to be used

While Council must be given notice, Council has no power to approve the use of fireworks – however Council may object to or impose conditions on their use. After receiving notification of the intended use of fireworks, Council may decide to object to the use of the fireworks and inform the pyrotechnician and SafeWork NSW of this decision. The fireworks display must not proceed unless the licensee has been able to resolve any objections by Council.

Issues that Council may take into consideration when deciding whether to object to or impose conditions may include:

• Appropriateness of the location, e.g. proximity to residences or hospitals
• Reason for the display, e.g. is the display in the public interest?
• Types of fireworks, e.g. Aerial fireworks may have greater impact on surrounding areas that ground fireworks
• Impact on any affected residents and businesses
• Impact on animal welfare
• Public liability issues
• Noise
• Pollution
• Public nuisance
• Appropriate notification to neighbouring properties. Council may need to decide what it believes to be a reasonable area of coverage for notification, and how this should be done by the applicant, e.g. Letterbox drop, media advertisement
• Proposed procedure for disposal of spent fireworks
• Whether appropriate crowd and traffic management issues have been addressed where the display is likely to draw crowds
• Whether a usage fee is charged in cases where Council land assets are utilised
• Any other local conditions that Council may consider relevant

All these matters are covered by a self-assessment fireworks display checklist, which is available on the SafeWork NSW website.

Council may request the completed checklist to be submitted to assist with review of the notification. In the event of a late notification being received by Council, then either of the following will be done:

• Council will notify SafeWork NSW no less than 2 working days prior to the event that it raises an objection, or
• Council will provide SafeWork NSW with written confirmation that no objections are raised, or
• where Council is unable to provide SafeWork NSW with written confirmation that there are no objections due to the late notification, then Council may object on the grounds that there has been insufficient time to assess the notification.

As parts of the local government area are bounded by maritime property, if any fireworks events are proposed to be held on maritime property then the NSW Waterways Authority must also be contacted and notified of the proposed display, with any approvals to also be obtained, if required. For further information, please contact SafeWork NSW.

Recent high-profile building fires in Melbourne and Grenfell Tower in London have identified concerns and potential risks for buildings that have non-compliant wall cladding which can consist of aluminium composite panels (ACP).

As a building owner, you are responsible for ensuring your premises are maintained, safe for occupation and that essential fire safety measures are in working order.

Owners of certain buildings with external combustible cladding are required to register their building with the NSW Government through its cladding registration online portal.

For buildings occupied before 22 October 2018, the deadline for registration is 22 February 2019. Owners of new buildings will be required to register their building within four months of the building first being occupied.

For further information on actions taken by the NSW Government, details on external wall cladding and next steps for property owners/occupiers, please visit the NSW Fair Trading website or contact Council's fire safety team during business hours.

The Building Legislation Amendment (Smoke Alarms) Act 2005 and the Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment (Smoke Alarms) Regulation 2006 commenced in NSW on 1 May 2006. The legislation refers to residential and certain shared accommodation across NSW and requires:

1. the installation of one or more smoke alarms in buildings in which persons sleep;
2. smoke alarms installed in such buildings must be operational; and
3. persons do not remove or interfere with the operation of smoke alarms installed in such buildings.

Do you live in a Residential accommodation?

• detached houses, terrace houses, town houses, villa units (Class 1a buildings).
• apartments, home units, flats (Class 2 buildings).
• caretakers flats, single residences above shops (Class 4 parts of buildings).
• relocatable homes, e.g. manufactured homes and moveable dwellings, but not tents, camper vans, caravans or the like.

Do you live in a boarding houses/shared accommodation?

• small boarding houses, guest houses, hostels; backpackers accommodation; bed and breakfast accommodation (Class 1b buildings not more than 12 persons with a total floor area not exceeding 300m²).
• large boarding houses, guest houses, hostels, backpacker accommodation; residential parts of hotels, motels, schools, health care buildings, detention centres; certain residential accommodation for the aged, children and people with disabilities (Class 3 buildings more than 12 persons).
• hospitals and nursing homes (Class 9a health care buildings).

If you answered "yes" to any of the above, then the laws apply to you and you must have a minimum of one working smoke alarm on each level of your property.

The state government allows building owners to install either hard-wired smoke alarms, or ones that are battery-only operated in certain existing buildings. However, the Regulation amendment does not override a local council's role under the Environment Planning and Assessment Act 1979 when Council must consider a development application where changes are proposed to existing buildings.

The Regulation amendment does not override the need for a new building or an addition/alteration to an existing building to comply with the Building Code of Australia (BCA). Construction certificates and complying development certificates for building work cannot be issued unless the proposed works demonstrate compliance with the BCA which requires the installation of a hard-wired battery backup smoke alarm. The Regulation amendment also does not prevent a Council from issuing a fire safety upgrade order on a building to which the Regulation amendment applies, because if an existing building is subject to a current order, the Regulation amendment does not override that order.

If any residential premises (i.e. dwelling, unit, hotel, motel, boarding house, backpackers etc.) ever comes under the scrutiny of Council through an application that is submitted such as a development application, complying development certificate, etc., then that application will be subject to an assessment under the BCA. If that occurs, then the requirements of the BCA will be applied to that assessment and it will be insisted at that time that the BCA requirements for a “hard-wired” smoke alarm system compatible with that particular building use be provided.

Similarly, these same requirements will be applied to buildings for fire safety purposes and then follows-up with the issuing of a fire safety order. Basically, more stringent BCA requirements will be applied to any buildings that attract Council's involvement for any sort of assessment or audit.

Smoke Alarms in Single residency buildings – Class 1a, Clause 186A of the EPA Regulation 2000. 

These buildings or parts of a building in which smoke alarms or smoke detection and alarm systems are installed, or are required to be installed, must be  in accordance with a requirement under the Act or any other Act or law (including an order or a condition of an approval),

Note—

An example of a requirement under the Act is an order under section 9.34 of the Act requiring the installation of smoke alarms or smoke detection and alarm systems.

(b)  those buildings or parts of buildings occupied by a public authority, but only if the Minister responsible for the public authority has determined, by order published in the Gazette, that those buildings or parts of buildings are not to be subject to this clause,
(c)  buildings in which no person sleeps.

(2)  The owner of a class 1a residential building or relocatable home must ensure that the building or home is equipped with smoke alarms that are located, on or near the ceiling—

(a)  in any storey of the building or home containing bedrooms—in every corridor or hallway associated with a bedroom, and if there is no such corridor or hallway associated with a bedroom, between that part of the building or home containing the bedroom and the remainder of the building or home, and
(b)  in any other storey of the building not containing bedrooms.”

Smoke alarm locations

• Smoke alarm locations. Smoke alarms need to be positioned to wake sleeping occupants. They must be located between each bedroom area and the rest of the house.
• Smoke alarm installation. Homes constructed after 1st August 1997 must have smoke alarms connected to 240V mains power and have a backup battery.

  and must be installed in every residential property on or near the ceiling of every storey. Residential buildings include the following building classes as broadly defined in the National Construction Code (NCC): Class 1a

•  Only working smoke alarms save lives. If you are renting a house or unit, it is the landlord's responsibility to ensure smoke alarms are installed and kept in working condition

For rented properties please visit Key changes to smoke alarm requirements for rented homes on the NSW Fair Trading website.