What AS 1851 actually asks of you
The standard describes routine servicing and maintenance for fire protection systems and equipment: sprinklers, hydrants and hose reels, detection and alarm systems, extinguishers, fire doors, smoke control and more. Emergency lighting and exit signs sit under AS/NZS 2293.2. For each system it sets routines at intervals from monthly through to many years apart, a record of each routine, and a process for defects found along the way. Records must be kept on site at the building for at least seven years and made available for inspection.
The point that trips estates up is that AS 1851 is a routine standard, not an annual one. The annual fire safety statement is a separate yearly declaration. The work behind it happens all year.
The three answers an auditor or an insurer will ask for
- What is the routine for each fire safety measure in this building? A good answer is a schedule per measure at the standard's intervals, tied to the building's fire safety schedule. A weak answer is a single line that says "fire, annual".
- Where is the evidence for each routine? A record per visit with the date, the technician, the result and any defect found. A folder of PDFs named by month is not a record per routine, it is a filing system that someone has to reconstruct.
- What happened to the defects? A loop from the finding, to the fix, to the retest, with dates and names. This is where annual statements are often weakest, because the defect went to a contractor's inbox and the retest was never recorded.
If those three answers exist in one place, preparing for the annual statement is a report, not a project.
Who does what
The owner holds the obligation. An accredited practitioner (fire safety) assesses each measure for the annual fire safety statement. Contractors perform the routines. The facilities team is the one place where all of that has to join up, which is why the system matters more than the standard.
Contractors should carry their own compliance: current insurance, the right licence for the system they service, an induction for the site. Expired paperwork should stop the routine being assigned, not generate a reminder someone ignores.
The common failure modes
- Routines scheduled in a spreadsheet that does not know the building changed. A new tenancy fit out added a fire door and nobody added the routine.
- Evidence held by the contractor. When the contract changes, the history leaves with them.
- Defects raised and never retested, so the statement is signed against an open finding.
- Multi state portfolios running the NSW model in Victoria or Queensland, where the reporting instruments differ.
What a working system looks like
The regime raises the inspections itself, per measure, per building, at the standard's intervals. Each visit produces a record with the technician's name and time. Defects raise their own follow up job with a retest step. Contractor compliance gates the assignment. The annual evidence pack compiles from the records that already exist, per measure, ready for the accredited practitioner.
That is how FMIQ Nexus runs AS 1851, and it is why the annual statement is the calm part of the year rather than the scramble.
A short readiness check
- Every fire safety measure in the building's schedule has a routine in the system at the right interval.
- Every routine in the last twelve months has a record with a name, a date and a result.
- Every defect in the last twelve months has a fix and a retest recorded.
- Every contractor who performed a routine had current insurance and the right licence on the day.
- The annual statement can be produced from the system without rebuilding anything.
Five ticks and you are ready. Fewer, and the gap is usually the defect loop.