Fire Safety and Building Compliance for Strata: What the Committee Is Responsible For

Most compliance obligations, if you miss one, cost you money or a bit of embarrassment. Fire safety is the one where a missed box can cost someone their life, void the insurance, and land on the committee personally. And it's the obligation self-managed schemes are worst placed to handle, because it's technical, it's invisible until it's tested, and there's no strata manager quietly booking the annual inspection any more. The fire doors still have to close, the extinguishers still have to be in date, the alarms still have to work, and every year a competent person still has to inspect the lot and someone still has to sign a statement to the council — whether or not anyone on the committee knows that's the rule. This guide sets out what the owners corporation is actually responsible for, who has to certify it, and exactly where the liability lands when it's missed — so you can find the gap before an inspector, an insurer, or a coroner does.

What "fire safety" actually covers in a strata building

The phrase is broader than most committees assume. It isn't just the extinguisher on the wall — it's the whole set of essential fire safety measures the building was approved with, plus the passive features built into the structure. In a typical Class 2 residential strata building (apartments over a common area), the measures the owners corporation has to keep working commonly include:

• Fire doors and door closers — the doors to stairwells, corridors, and services cupboards that are rated to hold fire back for a set time, and that must self-close and latch. A fire door propped open with a wedge is one of the most common and most serious breaches there is.
• Exit signs and emergency lighting — so people can find the way out when the power's gone.
• Fire extinguishers, hose reels, and fire hydrants — the portable and fixed firefighting equipment, each on its own inspection interval.
• Smoke alarms and detection systems — both the alarms inside lots and any common-area detection/alarm system.
• Sprinkler systems where fitted, and smoke/heat control (fans, dampers, pressurisation).
• Fire-rated walls, floors, and penetrations — the passive barriers between lots and between floors, including where pipes and cables pass through them (a poorly sealed penetration defeats the whole compartment).
• The path of travel — corridors and stairs kept clear, and exit doors that open and aren't locked or blocked.

Which measures apply to your building depends entirely on how it was built and approved. A three-storey walk-up of six units carries a short list; a mid-rise with a lift, a basement car park, and a sprinkler system carries a long and technical one. The definitive list for your building is its fire safety schedule (NSW), occupancy permit / essential safety measures schedule (VIC), or the equivalent approval document — find it in the scheme's records before you do anything else. If you can't find it, that's the first job: you cannot maintain a list of measures you don't have.

Why this is the committee's problem, not the owners'

Nearly all of the fire safety measures above live on or serve the common property — the stairwells, the corridors, the shared alarm system, the fire doors between lots and common areas, the hydrants. That puts them squarely with the owners corporation to maintain, not the individual lot owner. The main exception is the smoke alarm inside a lot, which in many states is the resident's or owner's day-to-day responsibility — but even there the scheme usually has to make sure the requirement is being met for the building as a whole. If you're unclear on the boundary, common property vs lot property sets out where it falls; for fire safety, assume the shared systems are yours until proven otherwise.

The annual obligation: inspection, certification, and the statement

This is the part self-managed schemes most often don't know exists. In most states, once a year (or on the interval set for each measure) a competent, qualified person must inspect and test every essential fire safety measure, and then a statement or report certifying they're all working has to be issued to the council or fire authority and displayed in the building. It is not something a committee member can sign off by having a look around. The sequence is consistent across the country even though the paperwork's name changes:

1. Engage a qualified fire safety practitioner to inspect and test each measure against the standard it was installed to. Fire doors, extinguishers, hydrants, and alarms often have different required intervals — some annual, some six-monthly — so the "annual statement" usually sits on top of more frequent servicing.
2. Fix any measure that fails. A measure that isn't performing can't be certified. This is where a lapse turns into money: a failed fire door or a dead detection panel has to be repaired before anyone can sign, and that repair can't wait for the next levy.
3. Have the competent person certify each measure to the required standard of performance.
4. Lodge/display the statement with the council or fire authority by the due date, and keep a copy in the scheme's records. Missing the lodgement date is itself an offence in several states, separately from any actual fault.

Because the whole cycle hangs off a single annual date, it belongs on your compliance calendar with a reminder set weeks ahead — you need lead time to book the inspection, get the repairs done, and still lodge on time. Discovering in the last week that a fire door needs replacing means you've already missed the date.

"Competent person" means qualified — not a committee member

Every state requires the certification to come from someone with the relevant competence or accreditation, and the bar has been rising. A committee member walking the building with a clipboard does not meet it, and a statement signed by an unqualified person is worthless — worse than worthless, because it creates a false record. Engage an accredited fire safety practitioner or a specialist fire-protection contractor. Get the scope in writing (which measures, what standard, what intervals), and keep every inspection report — that paper trail is what protects the committee if a measure later fails.

Where the liability actually lands

This is the reason fire safety sits at the top of the compliance pile rather than in the middle. When a fire safety obligation is missed, exposure can land in several places at once:

• The owners corporation carries the primary duty to maintain the common-property safety measures and can be prosecuted or fined for failing to — for an un-lodged statement, for a defective measure, for a blocked exit.
• Individual committee members / office-bearers can be personally exposed where a compulsory duty was simply neglected — particularly where the committee knew, or should have known, and did nothing. "We didn't realise it was our job" is not a defence to an obligation that's been on the books for years.
• The insurance can be jeopardised. Insurers can decline or reduce a claim where the scheme was in breach of a statutory fire safety obligation — so a lapse doesn't just risk a fine, it can turn a fire into an uninsured loss. Fire safety compliance and strata insurance are two halves of the same protection; a gap in one undermines the other.

None of this is meant to frighten a small committee out of self-managing — plenty of schemes handle fire safety perfectly well. The point is narrower: this is the obligation where "we'll get to it" is genuinely dangerous, and the one to fund and diarise first, not last.

Per-state specifics: where the rules and names differ

The national pattern — maintain the measures, get them certified annually by a competent person, lodge and display the statement — is consistent. What differs is the name of the document, who can sign it, the lodgement details, and the regulator you answer to. Always confirm the current requirements against your state's legislation and your building's own fire safety schedule.

For other states and territories the principle holds — maintain the measures, service them to the applicable Australian Standard, and certify/record it — but the specific document and regulator differ. Check your jurisdiction's building and fire legislation and your building's approval documents.

A note on cladding

If your building was constructed or re-clad in the era of combustible aluminium composite panels (broadly the 2000s–2010s), fire safety overlaps with the cladding question, which several states now regulate separately — with registers, assessments, and in some cases mandated remediation. It's too big to fold into the annual statement and is being covered on its own. If you have any reason to think your building carries combustible cladding, don't wait — raise it as its own item, because it changes both the fire risk and the insurance position materially.

Common mistakes

1. Not knowing the building has a fire safety schedule at all

You can't maintain a list of measures you've never seen. The single most common failure in a newly self-managed scheme is that nobody has located the fire safety schedule / ESM list, so the annual inspection is scoped by guesswork or skipped. Find the document first; everything else follows from it.

2. Treating the annual statement as a formality a committee member can sign

The certification has to come from a competent, qualified person, and a statement signed by anyone else is not just invalid — it's a false record that increases the committee's exposure. Engage an accredited practitioner and keep their reports.

3. Wedging fire doors open

It seems harmless and it's everywhere — a fire door propped open for airflow or convenience. It defeats the compartmentation the whole building relies on, it's a straight breach, and it's the first thing an inspector notices. Doors that are a nuisance to keep shut need a compliant hold-open device tied to the alarm, not a wedge.

4. Leaving no lead time before the lodgement date

Booking the inspection the week the statement is due means a single failed measure blows the deadline, because it has to be repaired before anyone can certify. Set the reminder weeks out so there's time to inspect, fix, and lodge.

5. Blocking the path of travel

Bikes, prams, storage, and pot plants in the corridor or stairwell are a fire safety breach, not just clutter — the exit path has to stay clear. It's a by-law and a safety issue at once, and it's on the committee to keep it enforced.

Frequently asked questions

Who is responsible for fire safety in a strata building — the owners or the committee?

The owners corporation is responsible for the fire safety measures on the common property — stairwell fire doors, corridor alarms and lighting, hydrants, the shared detection system — and the committee acts for it. Smoke alarms inside a lot are usually the owner's or resident's responsibility, but the scheme still has to ensure the building as a whole is compliant. When in doubt, assume the shared systems are the committee's job.

Do we really need a qualified person, or can a committee member sign the statement?

You need a qualified, competent person. Every state that requires annual certification requires it to come from someone with the relevant accreditation or competence, and a statement signed by an unqualified committee member is invalid and can expose the committee further. Engage an accredited fire safety practitioner or fire-protection contractor.

What happens if we miss the annual statement or a measure fails?

Depending on the state, missing the lodgement can be an offence with penalties (sometimes accruing daily), the owners corporation can be prosecuted for a defective measure, individual committee members can be personally exposed, and the insurer may decline or reduce a claim arising from the breach. It's the compliance lapse with the widest fallout, which is why it's the one to fund first.

How often do fire safety measures need to be inspected?

The overall certification is typically annual, but individual measures have their own servicing intervals under the relevant Australian Standards — some six-monthly, some annual, a few more frequent. Your fire-protection contractor sets the schedule per measure; the annual statement sits on top of that ongoing servicing, it doesn't replace it.

Our building is small and low-rise — do these rules still apply?

Usually yes, though the list is shorter. A small walk-up still has exit paths, extinguishers, and often fire doors and emergency lighting to maintain and certify. The obligations scale with the building's approved measures, not with the number of lots — check your building's own schedule rather than assuming a small scheme is exempt.

What's a fire safety schedule and where do we find it?

It's the document listing every essential fire safety measure your building was approved with and the standard each must perform to (the exact name varies by state — fire safety schedule, ESM schedule, occupancy permit). Look in the scheme's records, the original building approval, or ask the council or a fire-protection contractor to help identify it. It's the master list your whole annual cycle is scoped against.

Quick checklist

• [ ] The building's fire safety schedule / ESM list is located and in the scheme's records
• [ ] Every listed measure has a maintenance and servicing schedule at its required interval
• [ ] An accredited fire safety practitioner / contractor is engaged for inspection and certification
• [ ] The annual statement or report is diarised with a reminder set weeks ahead of the due date
• [ ] Failed measures are repaired before certification, with the repairs recorded
• [ ] The statement is lodged and/or displayed as your state requires, and a copy kept
• [ ] Fire doors self-close and latch — no wedges — and exit paths are kept clear
• [ ] Fire safety status is reported to owners and reflected in the insurance position
• [ ] Any question over combustible cladding is raised as its own item, not folded into the statement

Related resources

• Your Annual Strata Compliance Calendar: What's Due, and When
• Strata Insurance Explained: What Your Scheme Must Cover, and What It Doesn't
• Common Property vs Lot Property: Who's Responsible for What?

This guide is general information for self-managed strata schemes in Australia. It is not legal advice. Fire safety and building-compliance obligations — the essential measures required, certification and lodgement rules, servicing intervals, and the qualifications needed to sign off — are set by state legislation, the relevant Australian Standards, and your building's own approval documents, and they change over time. Always check the fire safety and building legislation that applies to your scheme, work from your building's own fire safety schedule, and engage a qualified fire safety practitioner.