A fire safety statement is a declaration from the building owner that the fire safety measures that apply to a building have been checked and continue to perform to the relevant standard. This helps demonstrate that building owners are maintaining fire safety measures in accordance with section 81 of the Regulation. The Regulation requires the annual fire safety statement to be issued by or on behalf of the owner of an affected building.  The building owner is declaring that an fire safety accredited practitioner has assessed each fire safety measure that applies to the building and confirmed that the measure meets the required standard of performance. The assessment by the accredited practitioner would necessarily involve conducting an inspection of the fire safety measure/s whilst physically attending the property. For annual fire safety statements, the building owner is also declaring that an accredited fire safety practitioner has inspected the building’s fire exit systems for compliance with the Regulation. The person making the declaration is not certifying the performance of the fire safety measures. So they are not expected to have the specialist technical expertise to verify that they meet the relevant minimum standard of performance.  That is the role of the accredited fire safety practitioner.  

The Regulation requires that the fire safety statement be issued by or on behalf of the owner. The owner must sign the declaration in section 8 of the form for annual fire safety statements and section 9 for supplementary fire safety statements.  A building owner could be an individual, a company or an owners’ corporation. Where a person acting as an agent issues the statement on behalf of the owners, they need to have appropriate prior authority from the owners to do so. An agent may include a strata manager, executive committee of an owners’ corporation, an authorised employee of the company that owns the property, the executor of a deceased estate or another person appointed to manage the affairs of the building owner.  In the case of a building with multiple owners, one owner may issue the statement. However, each of the other owners must authorise the owner who issues the statement to act as their agent.  An accredited fire safety practitioner must not make the declaration where they have assessed a fire safety measure or inspected the building’s exit system (for an annual fire safety statement). This includes any employer/employee or direct associate of the accredited practitioner who undertook the assessment or inspection. This is consistent with the fire safety statement process in the Regulation, which recognises the different and separate roles and responsibilities for building owners and accredited fire safety practitioners. It also ensures building owners (who are ultimately responsible) remain directly engaged in the fire safety statement process.  

An accredited fire safety practitioner is a person who is accredited under a government-approved industry accreditation scheme as an ‘accredited practitioner (fire safety)’.  A building owner must select an accredited fire safety practitioner from a government register. The practitioner must hold relevant accreditation from a government-approved scheme to assess the specific fire safety measure or inspect the fire exit systems serving the building.  Where the Commissioner for Fair Trading is satisfied there is no person accredited to assess a specific fire safety measure, the commissioner may authorise the building owner to determine and document that the person selected to assess the measure is competent. credited fire safety practitioner