Essential safety measures in Victoria: the annual report and the records

Which buildings, exactly

Division 1 of Part 15 applies to three things, and only these:

• a Class 1b, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9 building;
• a Class 4 part of a building;
• a place of public entertainment.

Smoke alarms are left out where they are fitted inside a sole-occupancy unit of a Class 1b or 2 building, or inside a Class 4 part of a building. Class 1a and Class 10 are not on the list.

Within those classes, the annual report is owed where an essential safety measure is required by an occupancy permit or a maintenance determination, or, for a building or place constructed before 1 July 1994, by the Act, the Regulations or an earlier corresponding Act or regulations.

What counts as an essential safety measure

Regulation 214 gives four ways in. A measure counts if it is:

• a safety measure in column 2 of the table in a Part of Schedule 8, where the Act or the Regulations require it for the building or place;
• any other item required for people’s safety in a fire that the relevant building surveyor has designated as an essential safety measure;
• an item that was an essential safety measure under regulation 1202 of the Building Interim Regulations 2017 before they were revoked;
• any other measure, whether equipment, a form of construction or a safety strategy, required for the safety of people using the building or place by or under the Act, or an earlier corresponding Act, before 1 July 1994.

The date that sets the calendar

The anniversary date is the earlier of two dates: the issue of the first occupancy permit, or amendment to one, that required an essential safety measure for the building or place; and the making of the first maintenance determination that required one. The report is prepared in the 28 days leading up to each anniversary of that date, and the maximum penalty for missing it is 20 penalty units.

An illustration: a first occupancy permit requiring a measure, issued on 10 March 2015, puts the report in the 28 days before 10 March each year.

Older buildings have a fixed date. For a building or place constructed before 1 July 1994 whose measures were required by the Act, the Regulations or an earlier corresponding Act or regulations, the report is due within the 28 days before 13 June 2018 and each anniversary of that date: the 28 days before 13 June, every year. That rule does not reach a measure already covered by the anniversary-date report.

What the report must say

Regulation 224 sets out the whole of it. The annual report must:

1. be in the form the Authority has approved;
2. be signed by the owner of the building or place;
3. give the address of the building or place;
4. give the details of any inspection report about one of its essential safety measures that was made under section 227E of the Act;
5. where it applies, say that the owner is following AS 1851-2012 for a measure under regulation 196 or 217, in place of the inspection, testing and maintenance set in the occupancy permit or maintenance determination;
6. say that the owner “has taken all reasonable steps” to make sure each measure is operating and has been kept in a state that lets it fulfil its purpose, and has been inspected, tested and maintained as the Act and the Regulations require.

Keeping each measure working

The owner must make sure each essential safety measure required for the building or place, by or under the Act or an earlier corresponding Act, is maintained so that it can fulfil its purpose, with a maximum penalty of 20 penalty units. The owner commits no offence where the measure is subject to a maintenance determination, or where the building or place is under an occupancy permit with a condition that the occupier maintain the measure and the owner occupies the building or place, as version 031 words it.

Where a building permit with no occupancy permit, or an emergency or building order, requires a measure, the relevant building surveyor makes a maintenance determination naming its performance level and its inspection, testing and maintenance; for a building no occupancy permit applies to, the owner must meet it.

Where a determination names AS 1851-2005, or an equivalent standard published before 5 September 2005, complying with AS 1851-2012 counts, and an owner who takes that path must stay with the 2012 standard for that measure. The standard’s own intervals are not reproduced here. A measure must also stay in its approved location, except while it is being inspected, tested or maintained.

Records, within 24 hours

Within 24 hours after the municipal building surveyor or the chief officer asks, the owner must have these available for inspection at the building or place, with a maximum penalty of 20 penalty units:

• the annual reports prepared in the last 10 years before the request;
• all maintenance schedules for its essential safety measures;
• all maintenance determinations that require a measure there;
• the records of every inspection, test and piece of maintenance, repairs included.

When the relevant building surveyor has to prepare or update a maintenance schedule, which lists every measure and its maintenance requirements in date order, the owner hands over those documents within 7 days of being asked.

One line for the occupier

The occupier’s one duty here covers Class 1b, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 buildings and places of public entertainment: keeping the required exits, the paths to them and the paths from them to a road “readily accessible, functional and clear of obstructions”.