Building owners are required to submit an Annual Fire Safety Statement or also known as AFSS certifications to their local council. An OH&S or insurance certificates could also be needed for the AFSS certifications.

Essential fire safety procedures for your home or tenancy are laid forth in the AFSS certifications. As long as you have an AFSS certifications, you can be certain that your fire safety procedures have been inspected by a Competent Fire Safety Practitioner to ensure that they are in compliance.

Under the NSW Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulations Act 2000, AFSS is a mandatory requirement. AS1851 and AS2293.2 standards are used to enforce this by the NSW Fire Brigade and local municipalities. All Fire Services and Technical Solutions need annual certification. AFSS certifications will be awarded only after a comprehensive examination and testing of your facility.

What is the Fire Safety Schedule?

Building owners and managers are required by law to submit an Annual Fire Protection Statement (AFSS). This kind of document includes a complete summary of all relevant fire safety measures (AFSS). Fire safety systems and equipment will be included in an FSS, together with any Building Codes, Australian Standards, or other standards that they must meet.

These are referred to as the bare minimal requirements for a job. The AFSS certifications require each year that the fire safety precautions be evaluated and declared capable of complying to a minimum level of performance.

When Is the Fire Safety Schedule Created?

When a building is under construction or development, an AFSS certification is created. Annual Fire Safety Statements are then filed to the Local Council and a duplicate is given to Fire & Rescue NSW annually for their reference.

What Things Should I Do if I Don’t Have a Fire Safety Schedule?

Requesting a copy of your building’s fire safety schedule may be done by contacting the fire safety officer at your local authority. If your council has a record of your building’s fire safety schedule, it’s likely that the correctness of the FSS is your responsibility and not that of the council. The council may be able to conduct a site inspection and produce an FSS for your building if they do not already have one in place.

What is the process behind AFSS certification?

New South Wales building owners are required by the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation to have a suitably certified person assess the building each year and provide an official statement stating that the safety measures are operating as intended.

Each year, AFSS certifications is issued to the local council, NSW Fire & Rescue, and the NSW Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation (Division 7) to ensure that all safety measures are working as intended. This remark about Division 7 is frequently overlooked or included without proper safeguards to guarantee that there is no cause for prosecution. Fire safety notifications, fire exits, fire exit doors, and courses of movement to fire exits are all covered in depth in Division 7.

AFSS signatures are sometimes based on assertions obtained from service providers. They typically verify that systems have been maintained to a standard, but don’t guarantee that they will perform according to design. If the Division 7 elements have not been inspected, the property owners may be completing the AFS incorrectly or without doing their due diligence.

When the AFSS is due, building owners might benefit from compliance emergency planning. Using Compliance Emergency Planning, a thorough review of the Fire Safety Schedule’s critical safety procedures may be carried out.

Additionally, a building owner’s liability might be affected by a failure to follow these AFSS certifications criteria. If you don’t get your fire safety equipment examined annually and don’t file an Annual Fire Safety Statement, your fire insurance may be voided.