› Flat Chat Strata Forum › Common Property › CP and the Strata Committee › Fire safety audit › Current Page
I’d like to correct the comment by Winston, about the Fire Safety Inspection only applying to buildings older that around 1988. It is correct that strata buildings more recent that 1988 must all provide a Fire Safety Statement to the local council and the Fire brigade. But older buildings may also be required to provide this. The local council can issue an Order for this requirement to apply to older buildings. If this happens, then the same provisions apply to older as to the newer buildings. The section of the law that governs this is when the council serves the owners with an “Order No. 6 pursuant to the table in Section 121B of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979”. This is settled law, and you would be wasting your money trying to overturn this provision. – Sorry Winston, you are in the wrong about this.
Unofficially, (according to our building’s fire consultant), because of the recent deaths of some people from fires in high rise strata apartment blocks, the government is pressuring councils to bring all apartment buildings up to scratch with their fire safety.
Our building, built in the early 1970’s, was notified similarly in 2014. So far, we have had the fire safety audit done, and the Order is due to be made final soon (early 2017), so the council is being reasonable in negotiating the terms of the order. Our building also had a major fire in one unit, in 2013, so we suspect that is also a factor.