Fire safety maintenance in Queensland, and the occupier statement

The occupier, at all times

The maximum penalty climbs with the harm done: 2,000 penalty units or 3 years imprisonment if the failure causes multiple deaths; 1,000 penalty units or 2 years if it causes death or grievous bodily harm; 750 penalty units or 1 year if it causes bodily harm; 500 penalty units or 6 months if it causes substantial property loss; and otherwise 100 penalty units. It is also an executive liability provision.

A prescribed fire safety installation is one that any Act at any time required to be maintained for the building, and that no Act has since allowed to stop being maintained. Two defences are set out in section 146M(2).

MP 6.1 takes the occupier to be the person actually occupying the building or, where nobody is, the owner. Business Queensland puts it the same way round: “If a building is occupied by a tenant, the tenant must ensure that fire safety installations are maintained”; an owner who occupies does so; and where there is no occupier, the owner signs the statement. With several tenancies, it says each occupier usually looks after its own tenancy and the building manager the common areas and the installations outside the building on its property.

Four duties, one chain

1. A licensed person does the work

   The occupier must make sure maintenance is carried out by an appropriately qualified person: someone holding a licence named in the Regulation’s dictionary, from the Plumbing and Drainage Regulation 2019 or schedule 3 of the Queensland Building and Construction Commission Regulation 2018 (only the second for installations that are not water-based), whose scope covers maintaining that type of installation. Maximum penalty, 30 penalty units. MP 6.1’s example: a plumber licensed for hydrants or sprinklers cannot work on air handling systems without the relevant QBCC licence as well.

2. Inspected and tested on MP 6.1’s intervals

   Each installation is inspected and tested “at intervals in compliance with QDC, part MP6.1”. Maximum penalty, 30 penalty units.

3. Repairs within a month

   Where the record of maintenance shows a repair or corrective action is needed, it is done no later than 1 month after the maintenance, unless the occupier has a reasonable excuse. The Regulation’s examples are a remote building no qualified person could reach, and work held up by its complexity or by a wait for parts. Maximum penalty, 30 penalty units.

4. A record of maintenance

   For each installation the record states: what it is; the name and licence number of the appropriately qualified person who did the work, or under whose personal supervision it was done; the date; a brief description of the work; that it complied with MP 6.1; and the results, including whether the installation was in proper working order, any repair or corrective action needed, and the details and date of any repair made. It also carries a statement signed by whoever did the work certifying those matters, and any critical defect notice given for the installation. Maximum penalty, 20 penalty units.

Where the intervals live

MP 6.1’s acceptable solution A1 sends maintenance of most installations to AS 1851:2012: everything except passive fire safety installations, fire blankets and emergency lighting. Emergency lighting follows AS/NZS 2293.2:1995, and the passive installations listed in MP 6.1’s own Schedule 1 follow that schedule. Where an installation is required as part of an alternative solution whose maintenance criteria are inconsistent with these, it follows the alternative solution, but only to the extent of the inconsistency. The intervals in AS 1851 are not reproduced here.

Schedule 1 sets test frequencies for passive installations. For hinged and pivoted fire-resistant doors, for example, it says 6 monthly in class 5, 6, 9a or 9c buildings and yearly in other classes. The code can be met by its acceptable solutions, by an alternative solution, or by a mix of the two.

MP 6.1 covers the maintenance of fire safety installations required for every building except a class 1a building, a class 10 building associated with one, and a building treated as part of a mine.

The occupier statement

Section 55A(1) has the occupier prepare a statement about the maintenance of each prescribed fire safety installation “at intervals in compliance with QDC, part MP6.1”. MP 6.1’s acceptable solution A2(b) supplies the interval: the first statement within one year of taking up occupation, then yearly, within one year of the date of the last one. So it is yearly under MP 6.1’s acceptable solution, counted from the occupier’s own dates rather than a fixed day.

A copy is kept, with the record of maintenance, for 2 years from the day the statement is prepared, and within 10 business days after the occupier is required to prepare it, a copy goes to the commissioner. Each carries a maximum of 20 penalty units. Business Queensland names the Commissioner of the Queensland Fire Department as the recipient, and says its officers can audit and issue on-the-spot fines to occupiers who don’t comply.

MP 6.1’s sample form lists 21 kinds of installation, among them air handling systems, emergency lighting, exit signs, fire doorsets, fire hydrants and sprinklers; rows for installations a building does not have can be deleted, and copies of critical defect notices with proof of rectification are attached.

The occupier of a budget accommodation building, or of a building used for a residential service, that needs a fire safety management plan keeps the record of maintenance and the occupier statements with that plan.