If you service buildings on both sides of the Murray, you work under two very different compliance regimes. NSW has the Annual Fire Safety Statement, assessed by an accredited practitioner and lodged with council. Victoria has Essential Safety Measures (ESMs) and an Annual Essential Safety Measures Report, the AESMR, which the owner prepares, signs and keeps, and must be able to produce on very short notice.
The obligations sit with the building owner, but almost everything they rely on comes from the fire contractor: service records, defect notices, the names of the people who did the work. Get your records right and a Victorian client’s AESMR comes together easily. Get them wrong and the owner is signing a declaration they can’t back up.
This guide explains where a building’s ESM obligations come from, the owner’s core duties under Part 15 of the Building Regulations 2018, when the AESMR is due, what the prescribed form contains, the documents that must be produced within 24 hours, how AS 1851-2012 fits in, and what a Victorian client needs from you each year.
What counts as an essential safety measure
Part 15 of Victoria’s Building Regulations 2018 deals with the maintenance of buildings. Division 1 covers essential safety measures, which the Regulations define by reference to the items listed in Schedule 8; Division 2 deals separately with exits and paths of travel to exits.
In practice that includes the fire protection you service every day, and more:
- Fire sprinkler systems and fire hydrant systems.
- Fire detection and alarm systems, and building occupant warning systems.
- Smoke hazard management systems.
- Emergency lighting and exit signs.
- Fire doors, fire windows and other passive fire measures.
Which ESMs a particular building has, and how each must be maintained, is set out in that building’s own documents, not in a generic list.
Where a building’s ESM obligations come from
- Occupancy permit: for a building that received one, it lists the essential safety measures, the performance each must meet, and the type and frequency of inspection, testing and maintenance. Maintaining them as specified is a condition of the permit.
- Maintenance determination: issued by the relevant building surveyor where essential safety measures are required for a building but aren’t covered by an occupancy permit. Like a permit, it specifies the measures and how they must be maintained, and complying with it is a condition the owner must meet.
- Maintenance schedules: documents recording the essential safety measures in the building and the maintenance each requires. The owner must be able to produce every one of them on request.
Some older buildings have neither an occupancy permit nor a maintenance determination. They aren’t exempt. The Regulations still require an AESMR, on a fixed annual date, as explained below.
The owner’s core duties
The prescribed AESMR form spells out the duties the owner is signing up to. In plain terms:
- Maintain every essential safety measure “in a state which enables the essential safety measure to fulfil its purpose” (regulation 226).
- Don’t remove an essential safety measure from its approved location, except to inspect, test or maintain it (regulation 227).
- Comply with the conditions of the occupancy permit or maintenance determination, which include maintaining each measure as it specifies.
- Prepare an Annual Essential Safety Measures Report on time (regulation 223).
- Keep the report and the supporting documents, and produce them within 24 hours of a request (see below).
An owner can have an agent prepare and sign the report, but under sections 240 and 248(1) of the Building Act 1993 the agent must have the owner’s written authority, and the form asks an agent to state the owner’s full name.
When the AESMR is due
Regulation 223 requires the report to be prepared within 28 days before each anniversary of the date the first occupancy permit or maintenance determination was issued for the building.
Unlike the NSW Annual Fire Safety Statement, the AESMR isn’t lodged anywhere. It’s kept by the owner, available for inspection, which is exactly why it gets neglected until somebody asks for it.
What the AESMR contains
The report is made on the form prescribed under regulations 223 and 224. Working through it section by section:
- Building details: the name and address of the building, part of the building or place; its use; its classification under the National Construction Code, as shown on the occupancy permit; and the date or number of the occupancy permit or maintenance determination the report relates to.
- Part A, details of inspections: this includes an optional table where the owner records that an essential safety measure required to be maintained to AS 1851-2005 (or an equivalent standard published before 5 September 2005) is instead being maintained to AS 1851-2012.
- Maintenance personnel details: the name of each person who carried out maintenance on the essential safety measures in the preceding 12 months, their company, and which ESMs they inspected, tested or maintained.
- Part B, inspection reports: details of any inspection made under section 227E of the Building Act 1993 by the chief officer of the fire brigade or the municipal building surveyor, including who conducted it, any safety issues or non-compliances raised, and what the owner did in response, with dates. “N/A” if there were none.
- Part C, statement by owner: confirming the owner has taken all reasonable steps to ensure each essential safety measure is operating and has been maintained in a state that enables it to fulfil its purpose, and has been inspected, tested and maintained in accordance with the Building Act 1993 and the Building Regulations 2018.
- Signature: by the owner, or by an agent with written authority.
Look at the maintenance personnel section again. Every year, an owner writes down your name and your company as the people who maintained their building’s safety measures. That’s a good reason to make sure your records say exactly what you did.
The documents an owner must produce within 24 hours
The notes to the prescribed form set out the documents the owner must make available for inspection within 24 hours after a request by the municipal building surveyor or the chief officer:
- Every annual essential safety measures report prepared in the 10 years before the request.
- All maintenance schedules for the essential safety measures in the building.
- All maintenance determinations requiring an essential safety measure to be provided.
- The records of all inspections, testing and maintenance (including repairs) of any essential safety measure.
The maximum penalty for failing to comply is 20 penalty units. Section 227E of the Building Act 1993 separately gives the chief officer and the municipal building surveyor power to inspect essential safety measures, and the inspection reports that result go straight into Part B of the next AESMR.
AS 1851-2012 and the specified maintenance standard
Many Victorian occupancy permits and determinations specify maintenance to AS 1851-2005, or an earlier equivalent. Regulations 196 and 217 allow the owner to maintain those measures to AS 1851-2012 instead, and Part A of the AESMR is where they record that choice.
- Once an owner substitutes AS 1851-2012 for a measure, they must keep maintaining it to AS 1851-2012.
- The form advises owners to seek advice before substituting where the earlier standard, or a unique maintenance methodology, forms part of a performance solution for a fire performance requirement.
- For you, it means knowing, and recording, which standard each measure in each Victorian building is serviced to. Two buildings on the same street can differ.
Working back from the due date
The AESMR has a fixed 28-day window each year. Everything the owner needs in order to sign it has to exist before that window opens, so the contractor’s year needs planning around it.
- Find out each Victorian building’s AESMR date (the anniversary of its first occupancy permit or maintenance determination, or 13 June) and put it in your schedule.
- Line up the heavier annual activities so they’re complete, and their reports issued, a month or two before the window opens.
- Chase outstanding defects well ahead of the date. An owner can’t comfortably confirm that each measure is operating and fulfilling its purpose with a critical defect still open.
- Send the owner an annual summary for the building before the window: each ESM, the activities carried out in the last 12 months, any open defects, and the name of everyone who worked on it.
- Keep the supporting records ready to hand over. If the owner is asked for them, you’ll probably be asked too.
Victoria and NSW side by side
| Victoria | NSW | |
|---|---|---|
| Annual instrument | Annual Essential Safety Measures Report, prepared and kept by the owner | Annual Fire Safety Statement, lodged with council and Fire and Rescue NSW |
| Who signs off | The owner, or an agent with written authority, relying on maintenance records | The owner, with each measure assessed by an accredited practitioner (fire safety) |
| Timing | Within 28 days before the anniversary of the first occupancy permit or maintenance determination, or before 13 June | Annually, for each building with essential fire safety measures |
| Maintenance standard | As specified in the permit or determination; AS 1851-2012 may be substituted for measures specified to AS 1851-2005 or earlier | AS 1851-2012 mandatory for Class 1b and Class 2 to 9 buildings from 13 February 2026 |
| Producing records | Within 24 hours of a request, including 10 years of reports | Kept on site for at least seven years and available for inspection |
Taking on a Victorian building
Before the first service, ask the owner or their agent for:
- Every occupancy permit and maintenance determination for the building. There may be more than one where the building has been altered over the years.
- The maintenance schedules for its essential safety measures.
- The last few years of AESMRs, including any section 227E inspection reports recorded in Part B.
- The previous contractor’s service records, logbooks and open defect list.
- Any record of the owner choosing to maintain measures to AS 1851-2012 instead of an earlier edition.
- Details of any performance solution affecting the fire safety measures, and how it has to be maintained.
Then compare what the documents say with what’s actually in the building, and in your scope. The measures that get missed are rarely the sprinklers or the detection system. They’re the ones nobody thinks of as “fire”: fire and smoke doors, fire-rated penetrations, exit signs. If a measure is on the permit and not in anyone’s contract, the owner has a gap they’re about to sign off on.
Common gaps in Victorian ESM records
- A measure listed on the occupancy permit that isn’t in any contractor’s scope.
- Records of routine servicing but nothing on repairs, even though repair records are among the documents that must be produced.
- Service reports that don’t say which technician did the work, leaving the maintenance personnel section to guesswork.
- No record of which maintenance standard each measure is serviced to.
- An AESMR prepared outside the 28-day window, or not prepared at all for a building without an occupancy permit.
- Section 227E inspection findings with no record of what the owner did about them.
What a Victorian client needs from you each year
- Service records for every essential safety measure, organised the way the building’s maintenance schedule lists them.
- Clear evidence of which standard each measure is serviced to.
- Defect notices and rectification records, so the owner can show what was found and what was done (including repairs, which the Regulations specifically call out).
- The names of each technician who worked on the building and what they did, ready for the maintenance personnel section.
- An annual summary that maps each ESM to the inspections, tests and maintenance performed in the last 12 months, delivered ahead of the report due date.
Frequently asked questions
Is the AESMR lodged with council?
No. The owner prepares it and keeps it, and must produce it, with the supporting records, within 24 hours of a request from the municipal building surveyor or the chief officer of the fire brigade.
Can the fire contractor sign the AESMR?
Only as the owner’s agent, with the owner’s written authority. The statement in Part C is the owner’s declaration; many owners have their property manager or an ESM consultant prepare it.
What if the building has no occupancy permit?
If there’s no occupancy permit or maintenance determination, the AESMR is due within 28 days before 13 June each year.
Do we have to service to AS 1851-2012 in Victoria?
You service to the standard the building’s permit or determination specifies. Where that is AS 1851-2005 or an earlier equivalent, the owner may choose AS 1851-2012 instead, and must then stay with it.
How far back do records need to go?
The owner must be able to produce every AESMR from the previous 10 years, plus all maintenance schedules, determinations and inspection, testing and maintenance records.
Is an ESM the same as an EFSM?
They’re the Victorian and NSW names for similar ideas. Victoria calls them essential safety measures, set by the occupancy permit or maintenance determination; NSW calls them essential fire safety measures, listed on the building’s fire safety schedule. The obligations around them differ, as the comparison above shows.
What happens if an inspection finds a problem?
The owner records the inspection in Part B of the next AESMR: who conducted it, any safety issues or non-compliances raised, and what was done in response, with dates. As the contractor you’ll usually be doing the rectification, so keep the evidence of what you did and when.
Sources and further reading
- Essential safety measures, Building and Plumbing Commission Victoria
- Building Regulations 2018 (Vic), Victorian Legislation