Fire services companies, in general, are a real concern. Our fire services company of well over 5 years standing was recently sold to a larger company. Even though compliance certificates had been issued every year, the final act of our original fire company (before the sale went through and probably to minimize risk in the event of a due diligence exposure) was to inform our new Strata Committee that a critical fire service component of our building did not comply with the appropriate legislation.
They did this one week before the certificate was due to be sent to Council, and the subsequent ‘fix’ has been quoted at more than $100K. The current Committee suspect there was a ‘convenient’ relationship between the original fire company and the past Strata Committee. Engineers on the new Committee confirm the issue is real and that our current system does not comply, and probably never has (in a 20 year old building).
Committees have to be vigilant, ‘Rolls Royce’ solutions are one thing, but complete failure to perform the basic tasks required by law are another, and Owners need to be on the look out for collusion between vested interests to ignore major risks to the detriment of all owners.
I have no idea what the Owners Corporation legal standing is in this instance.