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[UberOwner]

Fire safety inspections – we have to have them in NSW.  Our SM has done a bulk deal with an organisation that provides an annual service.  I have long-suspected that the in-built conflict-of-interest in these arrangements is costing us money.  It seems that every year the inspectors find something wrong and then quote a very high price to fix it.  On the one occasion we declined their quote and had the work done by another provider, the fire inspection company came back in to re-test and said the work was sub-standard and they would not sign off our building.

So this year, they claimed that one of our smoke detectors was “not functioning as intended” and had to be replaced, and they quoted $500 to replace the smoke detector and also instal a device that makes all the smoke detectors work in parallel.

We have a licensed electrician doing work in the building already so we asked him to quote on replacing the smoke detector, which he will do for about half the price quoted by the fire inspection company (fair enough – he’s already there and there’s no callout fee, plus he doesn’t see the additional device is necessary).  But in the process, he and some other owners tested the defective smoke detector using the “test” button, and it seems to be working.

So I have emailed the compliance team at the SM and asked for more information about why the fire inspection company says it’s defective, and all they have said is it “doesn’t work as intended.”  I’ve asked for additional information about what tests they carried out and the expected and actual results.  We’ve provided a video of us testing it and the alarm sounding as you’d expect from a functing smoke detector.

My question is – if this becomes a stand-off, where do we stand?  And how can we protect ourselves from this conflict of interest with the fire inspection company? I suspect they see strata work as a gravy train.

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[kaindub]

AStrata work is a gravy train.

The fire inspector has a monopoly on your property. You need him to sign off the AFSS.

Even if you get someone else to do the repair, the fire inspector has to retest, for which he will charge you.
If you feeel you are not getting the best deal, go out to tender for your fire inspections.
And the issue of findingnew defects each year is not uncommon. If the committee does not monitor and question these defects you will always be paying . Unfortunately the fire regulations are complex, so find a fire inspector you can trust.

[Quirky]

The strata manager is the agent for the Owners Corporation, taking action on the instructions of your strata committee. Are you and your fellow owners concerned about fire safety on your committee? If so, instruct your strata manager to obtain 3 quotes from 3 independent fire safety companies (or find some yourselves), and then pick a better one for next time. If not, add a motion for the next strata committee meeting to do this, or add that motion to the agenda of the next general meeting for all owners to decide about.

If your strata manager is from a “vertically integrated” strata management company – ie, the strata management company, the fire safety company, the contractors, etc, all have a financial connection (owned by the one entity), then this will be resisted. Perhaps look at changing strata managers then, to an independent company, if freedom of choice is important to the owners…

[UberOwner]

We are very lucky that our strata management company seems to be above-board.  Yes they get commissions from insurance companies but they pass those back to us.  But it doesn’t seem to have occurred to them that the Fire Safety company they have engaged to deliver this bulk deal has an inbuilt conflict-of-interest.  And the “compliance” team at the strata company seems to be a box-ticking function, not considering governance and other strategic issues.

I wonder what would happen if they went to tender for a Fire Safety company to do the checks-only with no follow-up work.  No takers I expect.

[Author]

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