"We thought we were compliant. Turns out the certificate was three years out of date."

This is a conversation I have with committee chairs more often than you'd expect. Good people, doing their best to look after their building, who genuinely believed everything was in order — until someone actually checked.

Fire safety compliance isn't glamorous. It doesn't make for exciting AGM presentations. But it's one of the few areas where getting it wrong can have catastrophic consequences — for residents, for the building, and for the committee members who were supposed to be overseeing it.

So let's talk about what compliance actually means, where the gaps typically hide, and what your building manager should be doing about it.

What AFSS Actually Means (And Why It Matters)

Every building in NSW with essential fire safety measures is required to have an Annual Fire Safety Statement. That's the AFSS. It's not a suggestion, not a nice-to-have, not something you can defer until the budget looks healthier.

The AFSS is a formal declaration that all the essential fire safety measures in your building have been assessed by a competent fire safety practitioner and are performing to the required standard. It has to be completed annually, displayed in the building, and copies sent to both the local council and Fire and Rescue NSW.

Miss the deadline? That's an offence under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation. Penalties apply. But more importantly, if there's a fire and your AFSS is overdue or inaccurate, you've got a serious problem.

Insurance becomes complicated. Liability becomes personal. And "we didn't realise it had lapsed" isn't a defence that holds up well in court.

The AFSS deadline is typically the anniversary of your building's original fire safety certificate. If you don't know when that is, that's your first red flag.

The Hidden Gaps in Most Buildings

Here's the thing about fire safety compliance: most buildings think they're covered because they've got a contract with a fire safety company. The invoice gets paid, someone comes out once a year, the certificate arrives. Job done.

Except it's rarely that simple. These are the gaps I see over and over again:

Smoke Detectors Past Their Use-By Date

Most people don't realise smoke detectors have a lifespan. In NSW, they must be replaced every 10 years — it's not optional. The manufacturing date is printed on the unit. If your building has detectors approaching or past that 10-year mark, they need to be replaced regardless of whether they "still work." A detector that's past its use-by date isn't compliant, and "it still beeps when I press the button" doesn't cut it.

Fire Doors That Haven't Been Properly Inspected

Fire doors are engineered safety systems, not just heavy doors. They have specific hardware requirements, gap tolerances, and certification standards. Many buildings have fire doors that have been modified, damaged, or fitted with non-compliant hardware over the years. A door that doesn't close properly, has the wrong seals, or has been propped open with a wedge isn't doing its job. Fire doors should be inspected annually by someone who actually knows what they're looking at.

Hydrant and Extinguisher Servicing Gaps

Fire extinguishers need six-monthly inspections. Hydrant systems need annual testing. But here's what often gets missed: there's a difference between "service sticker applied" and "system actually tested to standard." Hydrant flow testing requires specific equipment and expertise. A cursory visual check and a new sticker isn't compliance — it's paperwork.

Emergency Lighting and Exit Signs

Emergency lighting has to work when the power fails. That means battery backup systems that are regularly tested under load — not just a quick flash to confirm the bulb works. Exit signs need to be visible, illuminated, and correctly positioned. In older buildings especially, changes to layouts and tenancies over the years can leave exit signage that no longer reflects the actual egress paths.

Documentation Failures

Even when all the physical systems are compliant, many buildings fall down on documentation. Where's the fire safety schedule? Is it accurate and up to date? Do you have maintenance records for every essential fire safety measure? Can you produce them if council or your insurer asks? A compliant building with poor records is still a liability.

What Your Building Manager Should Be Doing

Fire safety compliance isn't a once-a-year activity. It's an ongoing responsibility that requires coordination between multiple contractors, regular inspections, and proactive tracking of deadlines and defects.

Here's what that looks like when it's done properly:

Monthly: Visual inspections of fire doors, exit paths, extinguisher locations. Checking that nothing's been propped open, blocked, or damaged. Identifying issues before they become compliance failures.

Quarterly: Review of upcoming contractor visits and deadlines. Coordination with fire safety practitioners for scheduled maintenance. Following up on any defects identified in previous inspections.

Annually: Full AFSS process management — coordinating assessments, collecting certificates, ensuring the statement is completed accurately and lodged on time. Updating the fire safety schedule if there have been any changes to the building.

Ongoing: Maintaining a centralised register of all fire safety documentation. Tracking defects to resolution. Reporting to the committee on compliance status — not just at AGM time, but whenever there's something they need to know.

The building manager's role is coordination and oversight. They're not the fire safety practitioner — but they should be the one ensuring the practitioners do their job, defects get fixed, and nothing falls through the cracks.

Questions to Ask Right Now

If you're on a strata committee and you're not 100% confident about your building's fire safety compliance, here are the questions to ask:

"When is our AFSS due, and is this year's on track?" Your building manager should know this immediately.

"How old are our smoke detectors?" If no one knows, that's a problem.

"When were the fire doors last inspected by a qualified practitioner?" Not "when did someone walk past them" — when were they properly assessed?

"Can I see the documentation for all our fire safety maintenance?" If it takes more than a day to produce, your records aren't in order.

"What's currently on the defect list?" Every building has something. The question is whether it's being tracked and addressed.

Compliance Is Protection

Fire safety compliance isn't about bureaucracy or box-ticking. It's about making sure that if the worst happens, your building — and the people in it — are protected.

It's also about protecting yourself as a committee member. When everything's documented, maintained, and compliant, you can sleep at night knowing you've done your job. When it's not, you're carrying risk you probably didn't sign up for.

The gap between "we think we're compliant" and "we know we're compliant" is where problems hide. Close that gap, and you close your exposure.

Not sure where your building stands on fire safety?

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