It is the responsibility of the owner of every building to make sure that they not only maintain essential fire safety measures and safe egress from their buildings but upgrade buildings when necessary to protect occupants. Read more about Annual Fire Safety Statements.
There are three ways fire safety upgrades, in general, occur:
- voluntary upgrades
- conditions of development consents
- fire orders
Voluntary upgrading is where the building owner approaches Council with a plan to upgrade the building and negotiates the terms of appropriate orders or lodges a development application and construction certificate application to effect a planned upgrade. This process is actively encouraged and with proper planning is the most economic option.
If the upgrade is identified under a development application Council may impose development consent conditions which require the Construction Certificate to detail specific works to upgrade the building even where no such works were proposed by the development application. See clause 93 & 94 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2000.
Fire orders are issued by Council or the NSW Fire Brigades when the level of fire safety within the building is brought to their attention through the a development application, a change of building use or when a complaint is received. The building will initially be inspected by Council's Fire Safety Officer, a Council Building Surveyor or a NSW Fire Brigades. See section 121B (Order 6) of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979.
Seek expert advice
Council does not carry out fire safety audits as Council is the regulatory authority. It is therefore important that building owners seeking expert advice to assist in undertaking a fire safety audit of their building under AS 4655-2005 Fire safety audits.
The assessment report is required to compare the level of fire safety in the building against the current requirements of the Building Code of Australia. Where deficiencies in fire safety are found the report must provide recommendations indicating the method of achieving an acceptable level of fire protection within the building.
Building design and the level of risk posed to occupants will be different in each case and accordingly the upgrade requirements, fire safety priorities and associated upgrade expenses will vary.
In many cases it is not practical to achieve strict compliance with current requirements of the Building Code of Australia. Assessment using the Performance Clauses of the Building Code of Australia may provide a means of determining that an acceptable level of fire safety can be provided. In these circumstances it is recommended that upgrade assessments are conducted by a qualified building surveyor and possibly a fire engineer.
Once the assessment report is provided to Council the recommendations of the report are considered and may be referred to the NSW Fire Brigades for comment. Where the recommendations of the report are found to be acceptable, Council will then serve a Fire Order or agree that the appropriate process is a development application and construction certificate application where major works are required.
The process will vary depending upon the scale of the upgrading required.
Contact our Fire Safety Officer
Should you have any questions please contact Mr Michael Alexander, Council's Senior Building Surveyor and Fire Safety Officer on 9330-6222 or by email hccmail@hurstville.nsw.gov.au.
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