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Topic
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Our strata of 40 units (in a 5-story building) has just been issued with
Council's intention to issue a Fire Safety Order. The building is only about 20 years old – built in 1990 as hotel/motel converted to Strata in 2002. When the building was approved for occupancy by the council it was obviously deemed to meet of the fire safety regulations/legislation. Also we’ve consistently had an annual fire safety inspection & certificate completed by an independent contractor. The list of items on the order is quite extensive but the major works include:- Installing fire dampers/collars in wall/ceiling penetration
areas (e.g. servicing ducts) - Installing an automatic fire detection & alarm system throughout the building with a fire indicator panel to be managed by the occupants of the building (the majority of occupants are tenants and currently there are only smoke alarms in each unit)
- Installing sprinklers, fire windows/shutters or thermal alarms on/near bathroom windows
Has anyone ever had any experience/success with challenging aspects of a council order such as this? I am very conscious of the need to provide a safe living environment (especially re. multiple dwellings) but is some of this going overboard? Council appears to be working their way through inspecting every Strata and applying fire safety standards retrospectively?
Tamara
- Installing fire dampers/collars in wall/ceiling penetration
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Replies
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Hi Tamara There are two broad responses to Fire Safety Orders.
Firstly, you can look to appeal it’s issue in the Land & Environment Court (eg was a notice of intention to issue of fire safety order served beforehand, etc). Generally this is not a terribly productive way forward.Secondly, you can engage an expert to negotiate the scope of work under the fire safety order. It may be that not all the work in the scope of work is required to be completed.Let me know if you have any questions.RegardsChris KerinPartner – Building Defects
———————————-TEYS Lawyers
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Pyrmont NSW 2009At our block we ended up with smoke or heat detectors on some outdoor walkways, these were highly prone to false alarms (literally bugs etc in the system) and tenants typically simply turned the whole system off. Complaints to Ku-ring-gai council resulted in refusal plus a perfunctory and defensive explanation on why we needed detectors in an essentially fire proof environment.
Some time later the electricians who had installed the system removed the detectors in response to the false alarms. They said that they had never thought they were a requirement but simply came as a package with the alarms which were required.
Ku-ring-gai council are apparently infamous for their ineptitude dressed up as “by the book” diligence but probably not unique. If you can afford someone to shake their tree (nicely, at least at first) this is probably the best approach.
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