Bannermans Fire Safety Guidelines – Step 5

Posted 20 May 2024

Category: Aluminium Cladding, eBooks

Under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment (Identification of Buildings with Combustible Cladding) Regulation 2018 (NSW), from 22 October 2018, owners of certain buildings with external combustible cladding are required to register their building with the NSW Government via the NSW Cladding Registration portal.

It is important that the owners corporation obtains advice on whether the scheme’s building falls within this requirement. The registration portal can be accessed at:
https://www.claddingregistration.nsw.gov.au/

It is hoped that this central register will help Fire and Rescue NSW plan and respond in the event of a fire and assist Councils to decide whether any assessment or rectification actions are necessary.

Other checks and audits that the owners corporation should consider include:

1. At least one thorough fire safety inspections of the common property fire measures to be carried by an A1 or C10 qualified fire engineer. In our experience annual fire statements are not adequate to determine whether fire measures are missing or whether alternate solutions are suitable due to the method of briefing, lack of qualifications and budget provided annual fire safety statements. Such a fire engineer will need to be briefed with all the relevant development application materials. In 100% of the defect matters where we have advised client to do this, there have been significant non-compliant fire measure not picked up during the AFSS.
2. By-law audits every six months to ensure that all residents are complying with the by-laws restricting smoking, barbequing and naked flames;
3. Home escape plan reviews every six months for residents to ensure they have plans developed, are aware of firefighting equipment and how to use them and are familiar with exit points and where they lead to.

This is an extract from our Bannermans Aluminium Cladding Fire Safety Guidelines.

To access more guidelines on Aluminium Cladding fill in the below form to download our Bannermans Aluminium Cladding Fire Safety Guidelines for free.