Do not leave this
You cannot find a compliance schedule
You have bought or inherited a building and there is no compliance schedule, or nobody can find it.
What to do
- 01
Ask your council for a copy
Compliance schedules are held on the property file. If one was ever issued for the building, the council has it. This is usually a same-week answer and it settles the question.
- 02
If one exists, check what it actually lists
Schedules inherited from a previous owner are often out of date, and sometimes list systems the building no longer has — or should never have carried.
- 03
If none was ever issued, establish whether one is required
A building that is not a single household unit needs a compliance schedule if it contains any specified system. Most commercial buildings do.
- 04
Apply to the territorial authority
Where a building needs a schedule and has never had one, the owner applies to the council for it.
- 05
Get the systems surveyed
An application needs to describe the systems actually installed, their performance standards and the procedures each requires. That means somebody walking the building.
Establish which situation you are in
There are only two, and they need different things.
The schedule exists and you do not have it. Common, and easily fixed. Councils hold compliance schedules on the property file. Ask, and you will usually have an answer within the week.
No schedule was ever issued. Less common, but it happens — particularly with older buildings, buildings that changed use without the paperwork following, and buildings that have passed through several owners. This one takes longer and there is an offence attached to leaving it, so it is worth starting.
When a building needs one
Under section 100, a building that is not used wholly as a single household unit requires a compliance schedule if it contains one or more specified systems. In practice that captures most commercial buildings — an alarm system alone is enough.
If you are unsure what counts, the full list is here.
What it costs to leave it
Section 101 makes it an offence for an owner not to obtain a required compliance schedule:
$20,000, and for a continuing offence a further $2,000 for every day or part of a day it continues.
The daily component is the part worth noticing. This is not a problem that stays the same size while you decide what to do about it.
If you have just bought the building
You have inherited the obligation along with the building, and the anniversary date came with it. Buying does not reset the clock — the date belongs to the compliance schedule, not to the ownership.
If the schedule is missing, it is also worth checking what else did not transfer: the annual reports, which the owner must keep for two years under section 110, and the service history for each system. A vendor who could not produce a warrant may not have produced much else either.
What we can do
Survey the building, establish which specified systems are actually present, document their performance standards and the procedures each needs, and put the application together. If the building turns out to have systems on an old schedule that it no longer has — or that should not have been listed — we will tell you, because you have been paying to certify them.