Once a year, the owner of almost every building in NSW other than a house has to sign a statement saying the building’s fire safety measures have been checked and still work. It’s called the annual fire safety statement, usually shortened to AFSS. This guide explains what it is, who does what, and how to get through it without a late fine.
What the statement is
An annual fire safety statement is a declaration by the building’s owner. It says two things: that each of the building’s essential fire safety measures has been assessed by an accredited practitioner and found capable of performing to its required standard, and that the building’s fire exits have been inspected and found clear.
Fire safety measures are the equipment and construction that protect people if there’s a fire — extinguishers, hydrants, sprinklers, alarms, emergency lighting, exit signs, and fire doors. The essential ones are those listed in the building’s fire safety schedule: the document issued with the building’s approval that names each measure and the standard it has to meet.
The rules sit in the Environmental Planning and Assessment (Development Certification and Fire Safety) Regulation 2021. The statement itself is a standard NSW Government form. It isn’t a certificate from your fire company, even though their work is what makes it possible.
Does your building need one?
If your building has essential fire safety measures, yes — houses, sheds and temporary structures are the only buildings outside the rules. In practice that means most buildings approved from mid-1993 onwards, plus older buildings that have since been altered, changed use, or been given a fire safety order. An older building with no schedule can still have measures that apply; the council can give you a list of them. Apartment blocks, offices, shops, warehouses, schools and car parks are all in. If you aren’t sure, your council holds the records.
Who does what
| Who | What they do |
|---|---|
| The owner | Issues the statement and signs the declaration. Stays responsible for keeping every measure maintained. That responsibility can’t be handed to an agent |
| An agent | Can sign on the owner’s behalf, with the owner’s authority. A strata manager or an owners corporation’s strata committee often does this |
| An accredited practitioner (fire safety) | Assesses each measure and inspects the exits, then records their accreditation number and signs. Must not be the person who signs the owner’s declaration |
| Council and Fire and Rescue NSW | Each receives a copy of the finished statement |
An accredited practitioner (fire safety) — you’ll see it shortened to APFS — is someone accredited under a scheme the NSW Government has approved. In NSW that’s the Fire Protection Accreditation Scheme (FPAS), run by Fire Protection Association Australia. Their public register shows who holds accreditation and which measures it covers. Check it covers the measures they’re assessing.
The practitioner who assessed a measure can’t also make the owner’s declaration, and neither can their employer, employee or a close associate. The rule keeps the owner, who is ultimately responsible, directly involved.
Step by step
- Find your fire safety schedule and your due date. The statement must go out with the current schedule attached. The next statement is due to your council 12 months after the last one was given to it, or 12 months after a fire safety certificate if one has been issued since. Your council has the date. If the schedule is lost or wrong, your council or a certifier can now replace or correct it.
- Book the assessment early. Every measure has to be assessed, and the exits inspected, within the three months before the date the statement is signed. Leave it to the last fortnight and there’s no time to fix anything.
- The assessment. The practitioner checks each measure against the standard in the schedule and inspects the fire exits, the doors on them, the paths to them, and the fire safety notices.
- Fix what’s found. A measure that fails can’t be declared until it’s repaired and passes. This is where the time goes: a repair may need parts, and a replacement fire door has to be made to order.
- Complete the form. Use the NSW Government’s standard form, currently version 4, unaltered — no letterhead, no sections added or taken out. Each practitioner is listed with their accreditation number and signs, or provides a separate signed record of their assessment.
- Sign and date it. The owner or their agent signs the declaration.
- Lodge it. Send a copy to your council and to Fire and Rescue NSW, which takes statements through an online form at no charge. Councils set their own lodgement method, and some charge an administration fee.
- Display it. Put a copy, with the current fire safety schedule, somewhere prominent in the building as soon as practicable.
Supplementary statements
Some measures are marked on the schedule as critical fire safety measures. They need checking more often than once a year, at the intervals the schedule sets, and each check is covered by a supplementary fire safety statement. The assessment for a supplementary statement must fall within one month before it’s signed. Your schedule tells you whether your building has any.
Timing, and what late costs
The three-month window is the part people get wrong. It means the assessment can’t be done too early, and repairs have to fit between the assessment and the due date.
Late statements cost money. Every week a statement is overdue counts as a separate offence, and the on-the-spot fine grows each week: $1,000 for the first week, $2,000 for the second, $3,000 for the third, then $4,000 for every week after that. Four weeks late can add up to $10,000. Not displaying the statement in the building carries its own fine, and a prosecution in court can cost far more. Starting early is cheaper than any of it.
What changed in 2026
Since 13 February 2026, essential fire safety measures in almost every building other than a house must be maintained to AS 1851-2012, the Australian Standard for routine servicing of fire protection systems and equipment. Before then, many older buildings were maintained to whatever standard applied when they were built.
The annual statement and routine servicing are separate things. Servicing happens through the year and keeps the measures working. The statement is the once-a-year check that they are. The one exception to AS 1851-2012 is a measure whose maintenance is set by an approved performance solution — an engineered alternative to the standard design — in which case that governs. The records AS 1851-2012 calls for must now be kept on site for at least seven years and shown to council or Fire and Rescue NSW if they ask. If your maintenance contract doesn’t yet say AS 1851-2012, it’s worth asking why.
Where fire doors fit in
Fire doors appear on almost every fire safety schedule, and doors on fire exits are part of the exit inspection too. So a door problem can hold up a statement in two places.
A fire door is rated as a tested system — the leaf, frame, hardware, seals and the way it was installed, tested together. Its fire resistance level, or FRL, is the rating on its tag, such as -/60/30: minutes of structural adequacy, integrity and insulation. Change one part of the system and the test result can no longer be relied on.
The problems that most often stop a door passing are simple ones:
- a door wedged or held open when it’s meant to close
- a closer that no longer closes and latches the door on its own
- seals that are damaged, painted over or missing
- gaps around the door that are too wide
- a missing or unreadable tag
- hardware swapped for something that fits the hole but isn’t part of the tested system
- holes cut through the door or frame
Most are a repair, not a new door. Found early, they’re fixed well inside the window.
Fire doors are also checked through the year, not only for the statement. Under AS 1851-2012, fire doors are inspected every six months. The front doors of individual apartments or tenancies — sole-occupancy units, or SOUs — can have that extended to once every 12 months.
Getting your fire doors ready, stage by stage
Here’s how to keep your fire doors from holding up your annual certification.
- Through the year: keep up the six-monthly inspections. Fire doors are inspected under AS 1851-2012 every six months, or every 12 months for apartment front doors. Fix defects as they’re found. A building that does this reaches statement time with few surprises.
- About four months out: check the last report. Look at the most recent inspection report for any door defects still open. Get them quoted and booked now, so they’re fixed before the three-month window starts.
- In the window: the assessment. The accredited practitioner assesses the doors along with every other measure, and inspects the doors on the exits. Anything that fails has to be fixed before it can be declared.
- If a door fails: repair or replace quickly. Most door failures are a repair, often done in a single visit. A door that needs replacing is made to order, which usually takes about two weeks, so it pays to find out early.
- Afterwards: keep the paperwork. File the repair records, any new door certificates and the updated door schedule with the building’s AS 1851 records, where they’ll support next year’s statement.
We work on the doors at each of these stages: inspections, repairs, hardware and replacement doors, with the records to match.