How the NSW Fire Safety Regulation reform affects you

Written by Trevor Burrows, AESC NSW Project and Fire Safety Manager

As risk and compliance practitioners, we at AESC have seen many changes to the way we address, service, and meet maintenance and legislative requirements within our built environments over the decades. These changes, as always, are aligned with our primary responsibility to the building occupant and their safety.  

This month, updated New South Wales (NSW) Fire Safety Regulations reformation start to come into effect–aiming to reduce life safety risks, damage to property, and the incidence and cost of fire safety defects. 

Over an estimated two-year period, the reform will see increased involvement of Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW), independent audits of fire safety measures, standardised documentation, and mandated maintenance procedures of fire safety measures.  

The new regulation has been handed down after a lengthy consultation process. It implements several recommendations from a report commissioned by the Office of the Building Commissioner (Improving fire safety in new and existing buildings) delivered in 2021. The report highlighted three areas of focus:  

• Provide building owners and industry practitioners with clear information on how to manage and maintain fire safety systems by producing a template building manual. 
• Outline the roles, experience, and qualifications of fire safety practitioners throughout the building lifecycle (design, construct, maintain) to increase awareness and provide an evidence base to inform reform discussions. 
• Identify ways to enhance the trustworthiness of Fire Safety Schedules, Fire Safety Certificates and Annual Fire Safety Statements given their critical role in ensuring that fire safety systems are appropriately installed and maintained. 

From these recommended areas of focus, the new reforms have been introduced to fire safety regulations to improve compliance with requirements for the design, certification, and maintenance of fire safety measures in buildings. As part of the process, AESC took part in an industry-wide consultation throughout last year, including ongoing representation in an industry reference group.  

While many of the action points appear in the short term to sit with contractors and external bodies, it is important for property owners, managers, and facilitators to understand what steps must be taken, as the information about this legislation comes to light, to minimise the impact to your property moving forward.  

From AESC’s exposure to this reform, we anticipate the updated NSW Fire Safety Regulations could influence property owners and managers in the following areas:   

• Pre-occupant checks: creating an independent ‘checker’ role to assess if installed fire safety measures meet regulation. This added step will introduce increased time and costs to projects by engaging a third-party to witness fire safety systems. 
• Authority engagement: increasing involvement from FRNSW to review fire safety design proposals, with a specific focus on proposed Fire Engineering in a building. Depending on the level of engagement from FRNSW, additional costs may be incurred.   
• Standardised procedures: Improving documentation, simplifying amendments, and mandating procedures for maintenance. This will include refining definitions and procedures: for example, what fire safety measures are covered in the AS 1851, so all practitioners are aligned regarding the ‘standard’.   

As these changes are reviewed and refined, we anticipate a level of education required within our industry to get up to speed. With potential increased costs for building owners—as well as changes to standard procedures to achieve a more encompassing Fire Safety Regulation in our state—we are dedicated to supporting the industry through this time of change.  

As an organisation, we are actively engaged with the Industry Reference Group, convened by the Fire Protection Association of Australia (FPAA), to provide advice and feedback to various state government departments. Our involvement in this group ensures all information we receive on this reform will be up to date and directly from the FPAA and NSW Government.  

This puts us in the best possible place to better understand these proposed changes and seek further advice from our industry contacts when there are perceived “grey areas”—which can be the case as more information comes to light!   

We acknowledge that as this regulation comes into effect and the sector adjusts, there will be a period of refinement. Already, amendments to the original reform have been made to clarify actions in this current stage of implementation.  

This is something we anticipate will regularly occur throughout this staged process to assist industry and property owners with these changes.  

As more information becomes available, we will work together to ensure you are meeting all necessary compliance measures.  

If you have any questions or concerns about how the new NSW Fire Safety Regulations affect you or your property, don’t hesitate to drop me a line or contact the NSW AESC team on [email protected].