Whenever regulations change, in any industry, it can be difficult to track changes to ensure you stay compliant. Yet when it comes to fire safety regulations, your organisation is probably unwilling to dedicate the time to poring over new regulations.

Thankfully, Armour Fire have your back! We've done the hard yards to summarise the new changes, for both the client and the contractor, so it's easy for you to stay compliant. It's also worth noting that not every change kicks in immediately - most have, but some are still 18 months away from being enforceable.

Let's dive in!

Adjusting Fire Safety Schedules

Fire safety schedules are official documents that outline all types of fire safety assets on-site, which must be adhered to by the building owner and tenant. These can now be re-issued upon request, only if the current schedule contains minor errors. This error is limited to the wrong address, typographical errors, approved safety measures that were omitted, or to replace a lost/destroyed schedule. Previously, the process was convoluted and unfit to address minor issues, so this change should speed up the process when rectifying minor problems.

This, however, will not allow developers the chance to perform illegal works, or to remove fire safety measures from the schedule to cut costs.

Consultation with FRNSW for New Builds

All building work, that contains a solution to a fire safety requirement, must be signed off by Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW). The building types that are exempt from this regulation include Building Class 1a (single houses, townhouse or other small single dwelling), 1b (boarding house, guest house or hostel, with a floor space of less than 300m2, that typically houses less than 12 people at a time), and 10 (non-habitable structures, such as a garage, shed, bushfire shelter or carport, among others). Previously, only buildings that met a certain range of limited criteria required consultation with FRNSW to determine fire safety suitability, whereas now, every building that falls outside the aforementioned exclusion criteria, must be signed off by FRNSW.

For more information on building class types, check out this National Construction Code Fact Sheet.

FRNSW have time frames within which they can respond to proposals and requests. If comments are made by FRNSW, they must be taken into account and actions muct be undertaken to rectify issues. Construction work can then begin once remedial actions are approved by FRNSW, or FRNSW fails to make comments within the time frame. Fair Trading breaks down the specific requirements, which can be found on page 3 of the fact sheet, attached here.

A new, mandatory template for fire safety schdules

This one is only brief, but it states that new fire safety schedules will be mandated to follow the same template, state-wide. Existing buildings do not need to use it, nor do you need to go out of your way to get a new schedule made - you won't get in trouble for having an older one. If you do have to make an amendment to your schedule though, minor or major, you will be issued with the new template.

Fire safety servicing requirements (from 13 August 2025)

For any building that requires routine maintenance of fire safety measures, servicing requirements are shifting slightly in mid-2025. Previously, building owners were required to maintain all fire safety assets to at least the standard specified in the fire safety schedule, and in some pre-1997 buildings, only to the standard relevant at the time it was installed - which was pretty lax.

From August 2025, all fire safety measures in building classes 1b to 9 must be maintained to the most recent fire safety standard, regardless of the era during which the measure was installed. At this moment in time, AS 1851-2012 is the most current Australian Standard that dictates maintenance schedules. The only exemption is for measures not included in AS 1851, however, the vast majority are covered, so exemptions will be extremely rare.

Additionally, documentation of maintenance must be kept on-site and be readily available to Councils and FRNSW. Again, this previously was not mandated, and we typically only saw this in schools and emergency service buildings. However, legislation is changing to ensure all buildings that require routine maintenance on their fire safety measures keep records on-site. The aforementioned bodies will have powers to inspect said records and can issue fines for non-compliance, so it's worth getting organised early. Keeping records in clearly marked and well-organised folders is our recommended system, with backups kept online in systems like Dropbox or OneDrive.

Using Accredited Assessors for fire safety maintenance (from 13 February 2023)

While this isn't a change that will affect fire servicing requirements on your end, it is still worth knowing so you can cover yourself when the changes kick in.

As it currently stands, a 'properly qualified person' can complete routine fire maintenance, as long as they are deemed so by the owner. This is typically someone who has received informal, on-the-job training by an accredited practitioner; they know their stuff, but probably don't have an accreditation to show for it. However, legislation is changing to ensure all fire technicians will need to be accredited, even to perform straighforward routine maintenance. The stumbling block is that the pathway is not currently available - since COVID, becoming accredited has been difficult to access.

The NSW Government is in the process of drawing up those plans, and once they are announced, all fire safety technicians will need to be accredited by 13 February 2025, or 18 months from the date an accreditation authority is approved (whichever comes first).

So that's the gist of it. The majority of the changes are already in place as of November 2023, but as written above, some will not take effect until 2025. It is important to wrap your head around to ensure you stay compliant, and so you aren't caught out when the changes apply. If you have any questions about anything discussed above, feel free to contact us, and we can help you understand the changes. Otherwise, have a read of the Fair Trading Fact Sheet to get the information from the source for more detail.