What Annual Fire Safety Statement Records Should New South Wales Strata Committees Keep in 2026?

This guide concerns New South Wales, Australia building fire-safety records. It relies on current New South Wales Planning guidance, Fire and Rescue NSW lodgement guidance, and the current Environmental Planning and Assessment (Development Certification and Fire Safety) Regulation 2021. It does not create a nationwide Australian rule, and it does not describe the separate fire-safety frameworks in Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory, or the Northern Territory.

The Direct Answer: What Annual Fire Safety Statement Records Should New South Wales Strata Committees Keep?

New South Wales Planning says a fire safety statement is issued by or on behalf of the owner of an existing building. An annual statement covers the essential fire safety measures that apply to the building; it records that an accredited practitioner (fire safety) assessed the measures and inspected the building’s exit systems. A supplementary statement concerns critical measures at the intervals in the applicable fire safety schedule.

Those are the facts. The practical implication for a strata committee is to maintain a source file that connects each measure and required standard to the assessment, issue, lodgement, and any defect follow-up. Meeting minutes alone do not show that a measure was assessed. A contractor invoice alone does not show what was in the current schedule or statement.

Start With the Building’s Fire Safety Schedule

New South Wales Planning says a fire safety schedule identifies the measures in a building and their minimum performance standards. The current Regulation requires a fire safety statement to be accompanied by the building’s fire safety schedule.

Create a controlled copy of the current schedule before compiling the annual file. Then reconcile it with the building identifier, the statement period, the practitioner’s scope, and any later schedule or building-work change.

This is a record architecture, not a certification or legal conclusion. The building owner should obtain the relevant advice from an accredited practitioner (fire safety), the strata manager, and New South Wales professional advisers for the actual building and schedule.

Annual, Supplementary, and Construction Records Are Different

New South Wales Planning distinguishes two statements for existing buildings:

• an annual fire safety statement covers all essential fire safety measures that apply to the building
• a supplementary fire safety statement covers critical fire safety measures at the more frequent interval in the fire safety schedule.

Planning separately describes a fire safety certificate for completed new building work. It is not the annual statement for an existing building. File each document under its actual purpose and date, rather than using “fire certificate” as a catch-all label.

The Statement-to-Resolution Evidence Chain

For a New South Wales strata committee, Proppi’s useful chain is:

1. Schedule — retain the current fire safety schedule and a record of where it came from.
2. Scope and appointment — retain the practitioner engagement, building access arrangements, and the actual measures or areas assessed.
3. Assessment — retain dated assessment and inspection material, including material needed to understand any qualification, defect, or follow-up action.
4. Statement — keep the final annual or supplementary statement issued for the building, with its schedule.
5. Lodgement and display — retain delivery or submission proof and evidence of the required building display process.
6. Decision and funding — link owners corporation minutes, approvals, budgets, special levies, or management instructions to the actual safety issue.
7. Remediation and closure — preserve work scopes, contractor records, completion evidence, later assessment, and every unresolved risk or next action.

The chain makes one important separation: an owners corporation decision can authorise work, but it does not replace the assessment; an assessment can identify a problem, but it does not prove the work was funded or completed.

Lodgement, Display, and Version Control

Fire and Rescue NSW says that, for a building with a fire safety schedule, the building owner must provide the Commissioner of Fire and Rescue NSW a copy of the fire safety statement and current schedule. It also says the owner must ensure the current statement and schedule are prominently displayed in the building. Planning’s statement instructions say the completed statement is submitted to the relevant local council as well as Fire and Rescue NSW.

Keep a separate administrative record for:

• statement version, issue date, and statement type
• the schedule attached to that version
• council submission or acknowledgement
• Fire and Rescue NSW submission or acknowledgement
• display location, date, and replacement history
• correspondence that explains a rejected, corrected, or reissued submission.

Confirm current local-council channels before lodging. A portal receipt proves a submission was made; it does not prove that the building’s technical records were accurate or complete.

How a Strata Committee Should Read Defects and Repairs

The New South Wales fire safety statements FAQ explains that the building owner is responsible for maintaining each measure to the applicable minimum standard, while the accredited practitioner assesses the measure. The New South Wales Government’s fire safety practitioner guidance also explains the accredited-practitioner role and points to the standard statement templates.

When a file shows a defect, retain the factual sequence:

1. measure and affected location
2. source and date of the observation
3. assessment, risk, or limitation recorded by the qualified person
4. interim action, if any
5. scope, approval, funding, and contractor engagement
6. work performed and completion material
7. later verification or next required action.

Do not infer that the individual owner of a strata lot is legally responsible for a common-property measure merely because they hold a copy of the statement. Ownership, agency, management, access, and cost responsibility depend on the building and strata arrangements.

Use the Statement Alongside Other New South Wales Strata Records

An annual fire safety statement is one building-compliance record, not a full strata due-diligence file. A buyer or committee should read it with the separate contract, plans, insurance, maintenance, defect, funding, and owners corporation records described in the New South Wales strata-record guide.

Likewise, do not apply this building-level process as though it were the residential-tenancy smoke alarm rule. For a rented New South Wales lot, see the separate New South Wales smoke-alarm record guide. That guide concerns a different state tenancy framework.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• assuming every individual strata lot has its own identical annual statement obligation
• filing an annual statement without the current fire safety schedule
• treating a fire safety certificate for new work as an annual statement for an existing building
• retaining a repair invoice without the defect, scope, approval, or completion context
• relying on meeting minutes instead of keeping practitioner assessment and inspection records
• assuming lodgement proof establishes technical compliance
• treating this New South Wales building-safety process as an Australia-wide tenancy rule.

The Short Version

1. Confirm whether the New South Wales building has a fire safety schedule and who acts for the building owner.
2. Keep the current schedule with the annual or supplementary statement it supports.
3. Retain qualified assessment, inspection, lodgement, display, defect, repair, and decision records together.
4. Separate annual statements, supplementary statements, and new-building-work certificates by purpose.
5. Read the fire-safety file alongside the scheme’s wider New South Wales strata records and professional advice.

Last reviewed: 29 August 2026. This article reflects New South Wales Planning, Fire and Rescue NSW, the current Regulation source, and New South Wales Government practitioner guidance checked on that date. Fire safety schedules, building ownership, assessment scope, lodgement channels, and strata responsibilities are building-specific; obtain advice from qualified New South Wales professionals before acting. This article is general information, not legal or fire-safety certification advice.