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Essential safety measures in Australia: a state-by-state guide for building owners and managers

What essential safety measures are, who is responsible for them in each state and territory, what the annual statement involves, what it really costs to stay compliant, and how to manage it across a multi-state portfolio.

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What are essential safety measures?

Essential safety measures are the systems and features in a building that protect people if there's a fire or emergency. They help people get out safely, warn them in time and stop a fire spreading.

Different states use different names: essential safety measures, essential fire safety measures, essential safety provisions or prescribed fire safety installations. The idea is the same everywhere. These measures have to keep working for the whole life of the building, not just on the day it was signed off.

Common essential safety measures include:

  • Fire integrity: fire-rated walls and floors, fire and smoke doors, fire shutters, sealed service penetrations
  • Ways out: paths of travel, exits, fire-isolated stairs, exit and direction signs
  • Emergency lighting
  • Firefighting equipment: hydrants and boosters, hose reels, sprinklers, portable extinguishers
  • Detection and warning: smoke and heat detectors, alarms, occupant warning and emergency intercom systems
  • Smoke control: stair pressurisation, smoke exhaust, car park ventilation
  • Lifts and power: emergency lifts, lift fire service controls, standby power
  • Water systems such as cooling towers, which are treated as safety measures in some states

The measures that apply to your building are listed on its fire safety schedule, occupancy permit or maintenance determination. That list is the starting point for everything else.

What they mean for owners and managers

Three things hold true in every state.

They must be maintained, not just installed. A sprinkler system that passed inspection ten years ago proves nothing today. Each measure must be serviced on a schedule, by someone qualified, and kept performing to the standard it was installed to.

Someone specific is legally responsible. Usually it's the owner. In some places it's the occupier. Engaging a contractor doesn't transfer the responsibility.

You must be able to prove it. Every state expects records: service reports, defects found and repairs made. Most also expect a formal annual statement.

State by state: who's responsible and what's required

StateWhat it's calledWho's responsibleAnnual statement
NSWAnnual Fire Safety Statement (AFSS)OwnerYes. Copies go to council and Fire and Rescue NSW, and it's displayed in the building
VICAnnual Essential Safety Measures ReportOwner (occupier keeps exits clear)Yes. Kept at the building, ready to produce on request
QLDOccupier statementOccupierYes. A copy goes to the Commissioner within 10 business days
SAForm 3, essential safety provisionsOwnerYes, for most larger buildings. Lodged with council each year
WASafety measures in existing buildingsOwnerNo statewide annual statement
TASSchedule of maintenance"Responsible owner"No annual statement. Maintenance follows an approved schedule
ACTFire appliance maintenanceOccupierNo annual statement
NTFire safety in prescribed buildingsOwnerNo annual statement

New South Wales

NSW has the most demanding regime. Each year the owner must provide an Annual Fire Safety Statement, after an accredited practitioner (fire safety) has assessed every measure on the building's schedule. A copy goes to the council and to the Commissioner of Fire and Rescue NSW, and the statement is displayed in the building. The owner can be an individual, a company or an owners corporation, and the maintenance duty can't be handed to an agent.

What changed in 2026: from 13 February 2026, essential fire safety measures in class 1b and class 2–9 buildings, which covers almost all commercial and residential buildings, must be maintained to the national fire protection maintenance standard, AS 1851-2012. Before this, contracts could follow other routines. Now there's one yardstick, and the owner is responsible for meeting it.

What's next: from 13 February 2027, or earlier if an accreditation scheme is approved, newly installed fire safety measures must be certified by accredited persons.

Victoria

Under the Building Regulations 2018, the owner must maintain every essential safety measure and prepare an Annual Essential Safety Measures Report on the approved form. It's due within the 28 days before each anniversary of the occupancy permit or maintenance determination that required the measures. The report isn't lodged. It has to be produced at the building within 24 hours if the municipal building surveyor or fire brigade asks. So do maintenance records, schedules and the past ten years of reports. Occupiers must keep exits and paths of travel clear. The listed offences carry penalties of 20 penalty units each.

Queensland

In Queensland the obligation sits with the occupier. Under the Building Fire Safety Regulation 2008, the occupier must have prescribed fire safety installations maintained by an appropriately qualified person, keep maintenance records and prepare an occupier statement. The statement is kept with the maintenance records for two years, and a copy goes to the Queensland Fire Department within 10 business days. Failing to prepare the statement carries up to 20 penalty units. Failing to maintain installations carries up to 30.

South Australia

South Australian owners lodge a Form 3 maintenance certificate for essential safety provisions with council each year. Under the Unley Council's guidance it's due within 60 business days of the calendar year ending, and it applies to:

  • all class 2 buildings
  • class 3–9b buildings over three storeys or 500 m²
  • class 9a and 9c buildings of any size
  • buildings with a performance solution or a fire safety defect notice

Western Australia

WA has no statewide annual statement. But under the Building Regulations 2012, the owner of an existing class 2–9 building must keep the listed safety measures performing to the standard they were built to. The maximum fine is $5,000. WA's building regulator describes AS 1851-2012 as good practice rather than mandatory.

Tasmania

Tasmania doesn't use an annual statement. Instead, each building has a schedule of maintenance approved by a building surveyor. The "responsible owner" must follow it, review it and keep records for ten years, with a copy on site. The responsible owner can be the owner, a contractually responsible occupier or the body corporate. Penalties under the Building Act 2016 run to 500 penalty units for a company. A 2026 consultation on prescribed maintenance may bring changes.

Australian Capital Territory

In the ACT, the occupier commits an offence under the Emergencies Act 2004 if fire appliances aren't kept to a proper maintenance standard. Records must be available to ACT Fire & Rescue within 48 hours.

Northern Territory

In the NT, owners of prescribed buildings must keep alarms, exit and emergency lighting and firefighting equipment maintained to the relevant standards, and keep exits clear. Prescribed buildings include healthcare, childcare, education, entertainment and assembly buildings. The maximum penalty is 100 penalty units.

Why it's harder and more expensive than it looks

On paper, the obligation is simple: maintain the measures and prove it. In practice, staying compliant costs far more than the servicing itself.

Working out what applies takes expertise. The fire safety schedule says what is in the building. Turning that into a maintenance programme means knowing what each measure needs, how often and by whom. That knowledge usually sits with a consultant or one experienced FM.

Multi-state portfolios multiply the work. A portfolio across NSW, Victoria and Queensland runs three different regimes. They have different forms, different deadlines, different responsible parties and different places the paperwork has to go.

Contracts drift from requirements. Service frequencies get agreed at tender time and are rarely checked against what the building needs. You pay for checks that aren't required, and miss ones that are.

The evidence is scattered. Service reports arrive by email, certificates live in contractors' portals and defect lists sit in spreadsheets. Assembling a year's records for the annual statement, or producing them within 24 hours in Victoria, can take days.

Annual statement time is a scramble. In NSW, an accredited practitioner has to assess every measure in a short window before the statement is due. Any measure not serviced on time, or any defect not fixed, delays the statement and adds cost.

The penalties are personal and real. Fines apply in every state. And every Australian jurisdiction has now legislated an industrial manslaughter offence, so failing to maintain life-safety systems is not a paperwork risk.

A practical checklist for your portfolio

  1. Get the schedule for every building. That means the fire safety schedule, occupancy permit or maintenance determination. If you can't find it, start there.
  2. Match every measure to a job. For each measure, name the maintenance that covers it, who does it and how often. Anything without a line next to it is a gap.
  3. Check frequencies against the requirement, not the contract. Maintenance only counts if it happens at least as often as the measure needs.
  4. Keep evidence with the building. File every service report, certificate and defect record against the property and the measure it relates to.
  5. Close defects, don't just log them. Each finding should become a job with an owner and a due date.
  6. Diarise each statement deadline, and work back from it so servicing and repairs are done in time.
  7. Know who's responsible in each state, especially where you're the tenant. In Queensland and the ACT, the occupier carries the duty.

How Accessly helps

Accessly's compliance register starts from the requirements, so you don't have to build them yourself. Add a property and its assets, and Accessly sets up the obligations that apply, with the frequency each one needs. It matches each obligation to the maintenance that covers it, and shows a gap wherever nothing does.

When contractors complete their work and upload their reports, that becomes the evidence. For NSW, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia, Accessly pre-fills the annual statement from the register, ready for the right person to sign.

See AFSS / ESS Compliance → · Read: Australian Standards and building compliance →

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Requirements depend on each building's approvals. Check your building's fire safety schedule or occupancy permit, and confirm with your building surveyor or fire safety practitioner.

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