ON THIS PAGE

• 01. Where this sits in the reform programme
• 02. Whose obligation this actually is
• 03. What AS 1851-2012 requires, and where it stops
• 04. Why this is harder than swapping contractors
• 05. The practitioner who has to sign
• 06. The annual cycle
• 07. Five failures we see repeatedly
• 08. Penalties, stated properly
• 09. Strata buildings specifically
• 10. What to do before your next statement
• 11. What lands in February 2027
• 12. FAQ

Where this sits in the reform programme

This is not a new rule dropped on the sector. It is stage three of four, and it was deferred once already.

Whose obligation this actually is

Get this right and everything else follows. Get it wrong and you will under manage a risk that sits squarely with you.

Section 81A imposes the duty on the owner of the building, and on no one else. There is no parallel statutory duty on the servicing contractor under that section. Building Commission NSW confirms that a person does not need to be an Accredited Practitioner (Fire Safety) to carry out AS 1851-2012 work; contractors must hold the appropriate licences and qualifications for the work they do, but their obligation to work to AS 1851-2012 arises from their contract with you and from their licence conditions.

You will read elsewhere that the obligation applies equally to the practitioners doing the maintenance. It does not. The consequence of believing it does is that you assume the risk is shared, and relax. It is not shared. If the servicing is not done to the standard, or the records do not evidence that it was, the person exposed is the owner.

The response is not to worry about it. It is to engage contractors on terms that expressly require AS 1851-2012 compliance and the delivery to you of the records section 81A(2) requires you to hold.

What AS 1851-2012 requires, and where it stops

AS 1851-2012 is the Australian Standard for routine service of fire protection systems and equipment. It is not new. Many well managed buildings have followed it for years. What changed is that it moved from optional to prescribed, and section 81A(3) adopts it as in force from time to time, so a future revision applies without any further change to the Regulation.

For each type of system the standard sets out four things: how often it must be serviced, what the service must involve, what the pass and fail criteria are, and what must be recorded. Routine service runs at monthly, quarterly, six monthly and annual intervals, with five yearly, ten yearly, twenty five yearly and thirty yearly activities for some systems. Those long interval items are the ones that catch buildings out, because nobody in the current management chain was there when the clock started.

Two limits that matter

A performance solution prevails, activity by activity. Where a performance solution approved for building work addresses a maintenance activity, that performance solution governs, not the standard’s default. Note the granularity: the test is applied to each maintenance activity, not to a whole system or a whole building. One building can be partly on a performance solution and partly on AS 1851-2012. This is one reason the fire safety schedule matters so much. It records the standard each measure was designed and installed to.

The standard only applies where it addresses the activity. AS 1851-2012 does not cover everything on a typical schedule. Emergency and exit lighting is the clearest example: it sits under AS/NZS 2293, not AS 1851-2012. Where an activity is not addressed by the standard and not addressed by a performance solution, section 81A does not bite on it at all, and the schedule standard continues to govern. Treat this reform as “AS 1851 where it applies”, not “AS 1851 for everything”.

Why this is harder than swapping contractors

The baseline data problem

AS 1851-2012 is built on the assumption that you know what you have and what has been done to it. Many buildings do not. Measures have been added, replaced and modified across two decades and three contractors, and the asset register, where one exists, was inherited rather than verified. Servicing to a standard you cannot map to your assets produces records that do not prove anything.

The baseline data problem

A five yearly or ten yearly activity is only meaningful if you can say when it was last done. Where the records do not exist, the honest position is that the interval starts now, and that is a cost that lands in a single year rather than being spread.

Long interval services have a start date

A five yearly or ten yearly activity is only meaningful if you can say when it was last done. Where the records do not exist, the honest position is that the interval starts now, and that is a cost that lands in a single year rather than being spread.

Records are the deliverable

This is the part most owners underestimate. Section 81A(2) requires the records AS 1851-2012 requires to be kept on the premises for at least seven years and made available to the Commissioner of Fire and Rescue NSW or the council on request. That is a standalone obligation with its own penalty. A contractor who services correctly but hands you nothing has left you non compliant.

Buildings with no schedule at all

Older buildings, particularly pre 1997, may have no fire safety schedule. Section 81 deals with this: the measure must be maintained to a standard no less than that to which it was originally designed and implemented, and the owner can ask the council for a schedule of the measures that were originally installed, which the council must provide as soon as practicable. If that describes your building, that request is the first step, not the servicing contract.

The practitioner who has to sign

The annual fire safety statement is issued by or on behalf of the building owner. It must deal with each essential fire safety measure in the building, and it declares two things.

First, that each measure has been assessed by an accredited practitioner (fire safety) and found capable of performing to at least the standard required by the current fire safety schedule or, for measures not on the schedule, the standard to which they were originally designed and implemented. Second, that the building was inspected and found in a condition that did not disclose grounds for prosecution under the fire safety offence provisions, which cover exit systems and paths of travel.

You choose the practitioner. The practitioner’s accreditation is what is on the line. Where the servicing records do not evidence AS 1851-2012 compliance, a practitioner acting properly cannot make that declaration. That is the mechanism by which this reform reaches you: not through an inspection at your gate, but through a professional who will not sign.

The annual cycle

Five failures we see repeatedly

1. The schedule no longer describes the building

Measures have been added, removed, upgraded or modified over the years without the fire safety schedule being amended. The statement must deal with each measure in the building against the standard in the current schedule. When those two documents disagree, the practitioner has nothing coherent to certify against.

2. The maintenance contract predates the obligation

Contracts written before the reform commonly specify servicing “in accordance with manufacturer’s recommendations” or an agreed schedule. That language no longer describes the legal requirement. It also gives the contractor no obligation to produce AS 1851-2012 records, which is the part you actually need to hold for seven years.

3. The logbook has gaps

Missed monthly checks. A quarterly service performed late. Records held by a contractor who has since been replaced and never handed over. Each gap is minor. Collectively they are the difference between a defensible service history and an assertion.

4. Exit paths are obstructed on the day

The inspection covers exits and paths of travel. Storage in a fire stair. A wedged fire door. A bike locked against an exit. A car park path blocked by a skip. Among the most common findings, the most avoidable, and the ones most directly connected to whether people get out. The obligation is continuous, not annual.

5. Nobody diarised the date

The due date runs from the previous statement, not from the calendar year, so it drifts. In strata schemes where managing agents change, the date is frequently lost. By the time a council reminder arrives, and not every council sends one, the three month assessment window may already be too tight to arrange.

Penalties, stated properly

Failing to lodge an annual fire safety statement is an offence. Failing to display it is a separate offence. Councils enforce through fire safety orders, penalty infringement notices and, for persistent non compliance, prosecution in the Local Court.

The maxima on the face of the Regulation, expressed in penalty units:

At the current penalty unit value of $110, 600 units is $66,000, 300 units is $33,000 and 150 units is $16,500. The unit value can change, which is why the Regulation uses units and so do we.

Penalty notice amounts are a separate matter. They are set by individual councils under their own published policies and are not uniform across NSW. Several councils operate an escalating weekly scale for an overdue statement. You will find confident statewide figures circulating. The only reliable figure is the one in your own council’s current schedule.

A more useful frame

The fine is rarely the thing that hurts. The exposures that actually bite are the insurance position if a loss occurs in a building whose measures were not maintained to the prescribed standard, disclosure on sale or refinance, personal exposure for strata committee members, and the scrutiny that service records attract after an incident. A statement is a piece of paper. The record behind it is the asset.

Strata buildings specifically

In a strata scheme the owners corporation is the building owner. The obligation to maintain essential fire safety measures, to have them serviced to the prescribed standard, to hold the records and to lodge the statement all sit with it. A strata manager typically coordinates the process. That arrangement does not transfer the legal responsibility.

The practical problem is access. Several essential fire safety measures are physically located within, or at the boundary of, individual lots: smoke alarms, the fire doors serving unit entries, and sprinkler heads. Whether any given item is lot property or common property depends on the strata plan and the by-laws, and in most schemes fire doors and sprinkler heads remain common property despite their location. What matters practically is that the owners corporation cannot discharge its obligations without getting into lots.

Section 122 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 gives an owners corporation power to enter a lot to carry out work it is required to carry out, on notice. Where a lot owner refuses, an application to NCAT is available. That is a slow path, which is why access should be organised well before the assessment window rather than during it.

Older strata buildings

The most exposed buildings are established schemes with long service histories under multiple contractors and no consolidated asset register. If your building is more than fifteen years old and has changed fire contractors more than once, assume the baseline data needs verifying rather than assuming it is sound. Some older buildings will also face upgrade requirements where measures no longer meet contemporary standards, which is a separate question from maintenance and a considerably larger one.

What to do before your next statement

1. Find your due date. Twelve months from the last statement or the final fire safety certificate, whichever is more recent. Not the calendar year.
2. Get the current fire safety schedule from council. If there isn’t one, ask the council for a schedule of the measures originally installed.
3. Reconcile the schedule against the building. Walk it. This is the step that determines whether the rest of the process has anything to certify against.
4. Review the maintenance contract. It should require servicing in accordance with AS 1851-2012 where the standard addresses the activity, or the approved performance solution where one does, and it should require the records to be delivered to you.
5. Audit the records. Confirm you hold the service history, on site, and that it goes back seven years or as far as the building allows.
6. Book the practitioner early. The assessment must fall within the three months before the statement is issued, which is a narrower window than most owners plan for.
7. Clear the exit paths before the inspector arrives, and keep them clear afterwards.

Steps one to three and step seven cost nothing and are not our work. Do them yourself. They will tell you whether you have a problem.

What lands in February 2027

From 13 February 2027, or 18 months after a new accreditation scheme is approved, whichever occurs first, building owners must use an accredited person to certify newly installed fire safety measures before issuing a fire safety certificate, and must include information about that person in the certificate.

The reason this stage was deferred is that a new accreditation scheme has to be developed for the function. Until it commences, owners continue to ensure a properly qualified person carries out the assessments before the owner issues the fire safety certificate for new building work.

And then the Building Act 2026

The Building (Approvals and Practitioners) Act 2026 passed both Houses on 4 August 2026 and received assent on 14 August 2026. Almost all of it, including this change, awaits proclamation and is not in force. Under it, fire safety certificates will be issued by the approval authority rather than the building owner.

That is a meaningful shift in accountability. Today the owner signs on the strength of a practitioner’s assessment, which puts the signature with the party least equipped to interrogate it. Moving the issue to a registered, insured party facing substantially increased penalties puts it where the technical judgement is.

It does not change the owner’s ongoing obligations. Annual fire safety statements, maintenance of essential fire safety measures, the records rule and the AS 1851-2012 requirement all remain squarely with the building owner.

Key takeaways

• The duty is the owner’s. Section 81A binds the owner of the building. Contractors’ obligations to work to the standard come from their contract and their licence, not from the Regulation.
• 13 February 2026 is the date, for class 1b and class 2 to 9 buildings, and it was deferred once from 2025.
• AS 1851-2012 applies where it addresses the activity. A performance solution prevails activity by activity, and some measures, including emergency and exit lighting, sit under other standards entirely.
• Records are a standalone obligation. Seven years, on site, available to the Fire Commissioner or the council on request.
• There is no extension. Councils have enforcement discretion, not power to move the date.
• The schedule is the reference point. Where it no longer describes the building, the practitioner has nothing to certify against.
• February 2027 brings an accredited person requirement for certifying newly installed measures, against a scheme still being built.

Frequently asked questions

Primary sources and further reading

1. NSW Legislation, Environmental Planning and Assessment (Development Certification and Fire Safety) Regulation 2021, sections 81, 81A, 88, 89 and 92
2. Building Commission NSW, reforms to building fire safety regulation
3. Building Commission NSW, building fire safety requirements under AS 1851-2012, and responsibilities of building owners
4. Building Commission NSW, licensing requirements for building professionals under AS 1851-2012
5. Fire and Rescue NSW, building fire safety and statement lodgement
6. Strata Schemes Management Act 2015, section 122

Related insights: Why your occupation certificate is late · Construction certificates are being replaced: the Building Act 2026 · When your reports don’t talk to each other, neither does your approval

This article is general information about NSW building fire safety regulation prepared by registered certifiers. It is not legal advice and does not take account of the circumstances of any particular building.

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