Fire safety rules
All owners are required to maintain their fire safety systems.
In most cases, your strata building will also need a fire safety statement each year. This verifies that fire safety measures have been assessed and are working, such as fire sprinklers.
The strata manager or strata committee organises the fire safety statement. The owners corporation delegates this to them.
Fire safety systems must be inspected and tested in line with AS 1851-2012
From 13 February 2026, your apartment building must have certain fire safety systems inspected, tested and serviced regularly in line with the Australian Standard AS 1851. If your building has a ‘performance solution’ in place it may need to comply with a different standard, however this is not common. You should seek advice from your fire safety practitioner if you’re unsure.
Your strata committee should ask the strata manager coordinating these tasks (or your fire safety practitioner): ‘Are you carrying out maintenance activities in accordance with AS 1851?’.
If the standard is not followed, building owners and the owners corporation (which includes all owners of property in the building) can be held responsible and be fined.
Key things for the strata committee to consider:
Make sure the person who completes the test leaves a physical logbook on site after inspections (electronic records are not enough).
You do not need to upgrade your fire systems unless ordered by your local council, so just maintain what is already there.
After inspecting and testing activities are carried out, subsequent work may be required to ensure the fire safety system is compliant. This work may require someone who holds a specialist licence (such as an electrical or plumbing licence). For more information, you can visit the licensing requirements for building professionals under AS 1851-2012 page.
You don’t need to be a fire expert, but you do need to make sure the right people are doing the work. If you’re unsure, contact your local council or visit the Building Commission NSW website.
There are also other key fire safety requirements, which apply to most strata schemes. The following information will help you with how to comply and clarifies which schemes are exempt from certain requirements.
Information provided by NSW Fair Trading. Link to the article can also be found here: https://www.nsw.gov.au/housing-and-construction/strata/serving-on-a-committee/safety#toc-fire-safety-rules