My take on the DBP and the sleeper issue Fire Compliance!
- For existing strata buildings — particularly older, smaller schemes — the consequences of DBP are significant and likely largely unintended, however that does not ease the pain!
- The Act operates alongside the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979.
The threshold question is whether works require development consent. If they do, DBP obligations may follow.
Owners corporations have rarely had to interact with planning law or planners — this is unfamiliar territory for both volunteer committees and strata managers.
In practice, confusion is rife. Roofers are advising that routine roof repair works are automatically subject to DBP requirements, when in many cases the first and critical question is whether planning consent is required at all. The result is paralysis and delayed maintenance. - Many 1960s–1980s buildings must have major structural elements renewed if they are to last another 40–50 years — balconies, concrete, roofing, waterproofing and services. This is essential renewal to preserve housing stock.
- If renewal is delayed due to compliance cost and uncertainty, buildings risk sliding into “fire sale” territory — and we are already seeing this dynamic emerge in the context of fire compliance on well-located sites, where financial distress creates acquisition opportunities.
- Most strata schemes were never funded for today’s construction pricing let alone the added costs of DBP compliance and implementing new fire standards in older buildings once major works trigger planning and DA approvals.
Capital works funds are insufficient. Special levies are now common — and often substantial & I cannot see this changing. - For many residents in older walk-ups, typically the affordable end of the market, the financial burden is overwhelming. Compliance intended to make buildings safer is, in practice, forcing owners to sell. Usually the more vulnerable & elderly – the irony is inescapable.
- The objective was stronger buildings. But a one-size-fits-all regulatory approach is not working. Without a proportionate, risk-based framework for existing strata schemes, compliance costs risk destabilising the very communities the legislation seeks to protect.