Frequently Asked Questions on Form 15A

This is completely new to me. What should I do?
Who is a 'properly qualified person' as mentioned on Form 15A?
The timing of your request for Form 15A does not match with my maintenance cycle
My lease agreements require the tenants to assume full responsibility on maintenance. Can I get them to submit Form 15A?
What are the penalties for not submitting my form?
My contractors sent me some form of inspection certificates or invoices that are not the same as your Form 15A. Will you accept them?
My contractor has signed an equivalent Form 15A. Can they or will they send it back to you directly?
How is a Supplementary Fire Safety Statement different from an Annual Fire Safety Statement?
What is the difference between Form 15A and Form 15?
As an owner of one unit, how do we manage the Form 15A for strata-titled properties?
What is the difference between Standard of Performance and Maintenance Standard of an essential fire safety measure?

1. This is completely new to me. What should I do?

Most property owners have regular servicing of their essential fire safety measures but may be unaware of their responsibility to submit Form 15A on an annual basis. The concept is not new. In the past it was called:

Part 59 Certificate of Maintenance under the Local Government Act, 1919
Form 7 Certificate of Maintenance under the Local Government Act, 1993

If you have a contract with a fire services contractor or fire safety consultant for the periodic assessment, inspection and testing of the essential fire safety measures as shown on the List of Essential Fire Safety Measures and the necessary assessment has been completed within three months, then you can simply sign, date and send back Form 15A straight away. If the assessment was more than three months old please contact us to defer its submission to the next period. Council will change its database to reflect the agreed anniversary date.

It is not the intention of the Form 15A to request extra assessment within the maintenance cycle. If the assessment does not cover all items on the List, we would expect you to complete the remaining items in order to submit a full Form 15A. Alternatively, you may submit one and follow with an additional one in the extended period. Please contact us to make this arrangement.

If the measures have not been checked for more than a year then you must engage a properly qualified person to complete the assessment prior to the submission of Form 15A. Please let Council know if you need an extension of time.

2. Who is a 'properly qualified person' as mentioned on Form 15A?

This is not defined on the Regulation. Council takes the view that such a person can be a fire safety consultant or a fire services contractor with whom you have an assessment contract. Quite often different measures may be assessed by different people e.g. your fire services contractor may only look after your fire hose reels, fire hydrants and fire extinguishers whereas your qualified electrician may test your smoke alarms, exit signs and emergency lighting. A fire safety consultant may act as a project co-ordinator who oversees the work of both of these.

3. The timing of your request for Form 15A does not match with my maintenance cycle

Contact Council immediately to defer the submission to the next assessment period. We may change the anniversary date for subsequent years.

4. My lease agreements require the tenants to assume full responsibility on maintenance. Can I get them to submit Form 15A?

No. The Regulation clearly states that it is the owner's responsibility to submit the form. As part of your lease agreements we expect you to check your tenant's service records and take your own lease enforcement action when necessary. Remember that you will be the one penalised for failure to submit Form 15A.

5. What are the penalties for not submitting my form?

Council can issue infringement notices under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2000 on the following offences:

Failure to submit Annual Fire Safety Statement within 1 week - $500
Failure to submit Annual Fire Safety Statement within 2 weeks - $1000
Failure to submit Annual Fire Safety Statement within 3 weeks - $1500
Failure to submit Annual Fire Safety Statement within 4 weeks - $2000 (and $2000 per week thereafter)
Failure to display Annual Fire Safety Statement - $100
Failure to maintain essential fire safety measure - $1500

The Regulation states that Form 15A must cover all essential fire safety measures installed in the building. If Form 15A is submitted but does not cover all items installed, it may still attract at least the $500 penalty.

6. My contractors sent me some form of inspection certificates or invoices that are not the same as your Form 15A. Will you accept them?

An invoice is not a certificate unless it specifically states in effect that work has been satisfactorily completed to some acceptable standards of performance. Inspection certificates that are not equivalent to Form 15A are not substitutes for the form as they will not contain the statement prescribed by the Regulation. Please do not send them directly to Council without a covering Form 15A. They are the certification you need to satisfy yourself that the measures have been properly assessed so that you can complete the Form 15A comfortably. This is what you should do:

In page 2 of the Form 15A under the heading "Essential Fire or Other Safety Measures Installed", you will see two checkboxes:

The first one reads "The list of Fire or Other Safety Measures provided by Council is applicable to the premises and is attached herewith (other attachments, if any, are optional)". If you agree with the List provided and the measures have been properly assessed, tick this box and you may or may not need to attach anything.

The second one reads "I/We attach a separate list of fire or other safety measure that are applicable to the premises". If you do not fully agree with our List, tick this box and attach all inspection certificates. We expect the inspection certificates to state the appropriate standards of performance, not their maintenance standards.

7. My contractor has signed an equivalent Form 15A. Can they or will they send it back to you directly?

The Form 15A should only be signed by the owner or the agent. If your contractor has your delegated authority to act as your agent then we will accept it. In some cases, we may refer the form back to the owner or the agent to countersign.

8. How is a Supplementary Fire Safety Statement different from an Annual Fire Safety Statement?

A Supplementary Fire Safety Statement is for critical fire safety measures only. They are those measures that are important enough to warrant certification on a more frequent basis e.g. six-monthly. They are normally nominated in a Fire Safety Schedule that has been attached to a Development Consent, Construction Certificate or Fire Safety Order. In most cases, you will find that section of Form 15A crossed out.

9. What is the difference between Form 15A and Form 15?

Form 15A is not to be confused with Form 15. Form 15 is called the Interim/Final Fire Safety Certificate. This is generally used for the certification of newly installed or altered fire safety measures. Form 15A deals with the annual assessment of existing measures.

Form15 Fire Safety Certificate 07 - 39 KB

10. As an owner of one unit, how do we manage the Form 15A for strata-titled properties?

A strata-titled property is complicated by the co-existence of unit ownership and common property ownership:

You may have stand alone essential fire safety measures installed within your unit e.g. exit signs, emergency lighting, fire extinguishers, smoke alarm system, etc. Their assessment presents no problem to you.

You may have measures that are components of a system e.g. fire hose reels, internal fire hydrants, sprinklers, mechanical ventilation, etc. There is little value in maintaining these items in your unit when you do not know whether the entire system is working. The Body Corporate should be responsible for the assessment of the system and its components.

The common property may have external fire hose reel/hydrant system, perimeter emergency vehicular access, fire stairs, etc that are to be assessed by the Body Corporate.

Council will send the reminder letter to the Body Corporate through the Strata Manager requesting them to co-ordinate the assessment work in the units and common property as a whole. Only one Form 15A needs to be submitted by the Strata Manager. Please consider the cost savings in sharing the cost of having a single "properly qualified person" to assess all the measures. In case of failure to submit the Form 15A we may have to penalise the Body Corporate as well as each unit owner.

11. What is the difference between Standard of Performance and Maintenance Standard of an essential fire safety measure?

The Annual Fire Safety Statement and List of Essential Fire Safety Measures requires certification of the measures in accordance with their Standards of Performance applicable at the time when the measures were installed or implemented. They are the standards to be used for assessing the level of compliance of the measures and be brought into compliance if necessary. For example, existing illuminated exit signs should comply with AS2293 Part 1 (their Standard of Performance). The existing exit signs may no longer be adequate or visible due to the addition of partitions, racks, etc. Then additional exit signs/directional exit signs may need to be installed to bring them into compliance. On the contrary, its Maintenance Standard AS2293 Part 2 only considers the condition of repair of a particular exit sign and does not consider compliance criteria like adequacy, visibility, luminance, etc.