Queensland’s Occupier’s Statement: annual fire safety compliance explained for contractors

Every state has its annual fire safety sign-off. NSW has the Annual Fire Safety Statement. Victoria has the Annual Essential Safety Measures Report. Queensland has the Occupier’s Statement, and it works differently from both. It’s prepared by the occupier rather than the owner, it runs from the date of occupation rather than an approval anniversary, and it goes to the Queensland Fire Department rather than to council.

For contractors, Queensland is also the state where the regulation speaks to you directly. The Building Fire Safety Regulation 2008 requires the person maintaining an installation to do it in compliance with the Queensland Development Code, to issue critical defect notices within 24 hours, and to record their licence number on every record of maintenance. This guide explains the statement, the maintenance rules behind it, and what your Queensland clients need from you.

The legal framework in one place

Who prepares the statement

• The occupier: MP 6.1 defines the occupier as the person in actual occupation or, if there’s no such person, the owner. Business Queensland puts it plainly: if there is no occupier, the building owner must sign.
• In multi-tenancy buildings, Business Queensland says tenants are usually responsible for their own tenancy and the building manager for the common areas.
• For strata buildings, the body corporate determines who is authorised to sign on its behalf.

MP 6.1 applies to Class 1b and Class 2 to 9 buildings, including existing buildings. It doesn’t apply to Class 1a houses, the Class 10 buildings associated with them, or mine buildings.

When it’s due

This is where Queensland differs most. Under MP 6.1, the occupier completes an occupier statement:

• within one year of taking up occupation; and
• then yearly, within one year of the date of the last occupier statement.

A copy must be given to the Commissioner of the Queensland Fire Department within 10 business days after the statement is due, and the occupier keeps a copy with the record of maintenance for two years. Each of those three obligations (prepare, keep and lodge) carries a maximum penalty of 20 penalty units.

Because the timing runs from occupation, two tenancies in the same building can have different due dates. Know each client’s date, and plan their annual work to finish before it.

What the statement declares

MP 6.1 Schedule 2 sets out a sample form reflecting the mandatory content. It lists each prescribed fire safety installation, its nominated standard or maintenance requirement, whether a critical defect notice was issued during the period and the date it was rectified, and ends with a signed declaration that the listed installations “have been maintained during the period covered by this statement in accordance with this Part”.

• Copies of critical defect notices issued during the period, and proof of rectification, must be attached.
• The Schedule 2 form is a sample. Queensland Fire Department says a modified form (with a company logo or heading, for example) is acceptable as long as it contains all the relevant information.
• The statement can be emailed to occupier.statements@fire.qld.gov.au or sent to the regional Queensland Fire Department office.

Read that declaration again from the contractor’s side. The occupier is certifying that every installation was maintained in accordance with MP 6.1 for the whole period, on the strength of your records.

The maintenance rules behind the statement

What must be maintained

A prescribed fire safety installation is, broadly, any installation that was at any time required to be maintained for the building by or under any Act (including as a condition of an approval) and hasn’t been authorised to stop being maintained. If it was ever required, assume it still is.

The maintenance standard

MP 6.1’s acceptable solution sets the standards:

• AS 1851:2012 for prescribed fire safety installations other than passive fire safety installations, fire blankets and emergency lighting.
• MP 6.1 Schedule 1 for passive fire safety installations.
• AS/NZS 2293.2:1995 for emergency lighting.
• Where an alternative solution specifies maintenance criteria that are inconsistent, those criteria prevail.

MP 6.1 also requires installations to perform no less than they were originally required to, and defines the “relevant standard” as the Australian Standard that applied on the day the building development application was approved. It’s the reference used for records and for the commissioning and maintenance of water-based systems.

Intervals

The occupier must ensure each installation is inspected and tested at intervals complying with MP 6.1. For fire doors, smoke doors, solid core doors and fire shutters, Queensland Fire Department notes Schedule 1 sets six-monthly inspections in Class 5, 6, 9a and 9c buildings and yearly inspections in other classes.

Repairs within one month

Here Queensland is stricter than most. Repairs or corrective action shown in the record of maintenance must be carried out no later than one month after the maintenance, unless the occupier has a reasonable excuse (the regulation’s examples include remoteness and delays in getting parts). Maximum penalty: 30 penalty units. For contractors, that means defects need quoting fast; a quote that sits for three weeks leaves your client one week to approve and complete the work.

Critical defects in Queensland

The Building Fire Safety Regulation defines a critical defect as one likely to make the installation inoperable and likely to significantly affect the safety of occupants in a fire. Its own examples: an inoperable alarm system or hydrant pump is a critical defect; one out of several extinguishers not working is not.

• The person who carried out the maintenance must give the occupier a critical defect notice, in the approved form, within 24 hours after carrying out the maintenance. Maximum penalty: 30 penalty units.
• The notice sits alongside AS 1851’s own reporting rules, including telling the responsible entity before leaving site.
• Copies of critical defect notices, and proof of rectification, are attached to the next occupier statement.

The records contractors must produce

The record of maintenance

The regulation sets out what a record of maintenance must contain:

• A description of the installation.
• The name and licence number of the person who carried out, or supervised, the maintenance.
• The date the work was done, and a brief description of it.
• A statement that the maintenance complied with MP 6.1.
• The results: whether the installation is in proper working order, and details of any repairs needed and made.
• The signed certification of the person who did the work.
• Any critical defect notice.

Licence numbers on records are easy to miss if your reports weren’t designed for Queensland. Check your templates.

Where records live

• The record of maintenance is one of the occupier’s “prescribed documents”, kept for at least two years, with a copy in the building and another in a secure place at other premises.
• Prescribed documents pass to a new occupier within one month.
• Queensland Fire Department says documents must be produced on request of an authorised fire officer.

Water-based systems

For water-based installations, MP 6.1 uses Form 71 for commissioning and Form 72 for periodic testing and maintenance. The contractor gives a copy to the owner (commissioning) or occupier (maintenance) within 10 business days, and keeps its own record of the form for at least five years.

Licensing: who can do the work

• The occupier must ensure maintenance is carried out by an appropriately qualified person. Broadly, that’s someone holding a licence of a class stated in the QBCC Regulation 2018 or, for water-based installations, certain plumbing licences. Maximum penalty: 30 penalty units.
• Under the QBCC Act, an individual must not personally carry out or supervise fire protection work (which includes maintenance of fire protection equipment) without a fire protection occupational licence or another licence that allows it. Businesses need a contractor’s licence.
• Queensland’s framework, in place since 1 May 2021, groups fire protection licences into five streams: passive, special hazard, water-based, portable and electrical.
• Examples: a passive inspect-and-test class; water-based install-and-maintain classes covering sprinklers, hydrants and hose reels; a portables class that includes some inspect-and-test tasks on unpumped hose reels and hydrants; and an electrical inspect-and-test class for emergency lighting.
• QBCC notes the “certify” classes don’t include inspect-and-test work.

Other occupier obligations contractors should know

• Evacuation routes: nothing may be placed within 2 m of a final exit outside a building, or on an evacuation route where it would unduly hinder escape.
• Fire and evacuation plan: in writing, including the evacuation diagram and how the building’s firefighting equipment and alarms operate (details clients often ask their contractor for). It must be reviewed at intervals of not more than a year, and changed within a month of a change in circumstances.
• Evacuation signs and diagrams: conspicuous, correctly oriented and securely fixed, for buildings with a total floor area of 300 m² or more.
• Instructions: general evacuation instructions at least yearly and within two days of a new worker starting; first-response instructions at least every two years and within a month of starting.
• Evacuation practice at intervals of not more than a year.
• A fire safety adviser in high occupancy buildings.
• Budget accommodation buildings carry their own fire safety management plan obligations.

A year with a Queensland client

Put together, the rules give a Queensland maintenance contract a natural rhythm:

1. At the start of the contract, confirm who the occupier is, their occupier statement date, and whether a body corporate or tenant signs for each area.
2. Service each installation at its MP 6.1 interval, recording the technician’s name and licence number and a statement of compliance with MP 6.1 on every record.
3. When a critical defect is found, tell the site, issue the critical defect notice within 24 hours, and quote the fix straight away.
4. Track every repair against the one-month rule, and record the reason if parts or access delay it.
5. For water-based systems, complete Form 72 and give the occupier a copy within 10 business days.
6. A month or two before the statement is due, send the occupier a summary: each installation, its standard, critical defect notices issued and the dates they were rectified.
7. After the statement is lodged, note the new due date (one year from this statement) and plan the next cycle.

When a building changes hands

Occupiers change more often than owners. When they do, the prescribed documents, including the record of maintenance, must pass to the new occupier within one month, and the new occupier’s first statement is due within a year of taking up occupation. A change of tenant is a good moment to confirm who your client now is, and to make sure the records have followed the building.

Queensland, NSW and Victoria side by side

Penalties at a glance

Queensland penalties are expressed in penalty units; from 1 July 2026 a penalty unit is $172.70.

A contractor’s checklist for Queensland clients

1. Know each client’s occupier statement date, and whether they’re the occupier, a tenant or a body corporate.
2. Schedule each installation at its MP 6.1 interval, and finish the annual work before the statement is due.
3. Put the technician’s name and licence number on every record of maintenance, with a statement of compliance with MP 6.1.
4. Issue critical defect notices in the approved form within 24 hours, and keep a copy.
5. Quote defects quickly, because the occupier has one month to complete repairs.
6. Complete Form 72 for water-based maintenance, give the occupier a copy within 10 business days, and keep yours for five years.
7. Before the statement is due, send the client a summary: each installation, its standard, the critical defect notices issued and the dates they were rectified.

Frequently asked questions

Does the Occupier’s Statement go to council?

No. A copy goes to the Commissioner of the Queensland Fire Department within 10 business days after it’s due.

When is it due?

Within one year of taking up occupation, then yearly within one year of the last statement.

Who signs it in a strata building?

The body corporate determines who is authorised to sign on its behalf, for the common areas. Tenants are usually responsible for their own tenancies.

Can the contractor sign it?

It’s the occupier’s declaration. The contractor’s role is to provide the maintenance records and critical defect paperwork that support it.

Is AS 1851 used in Queensland?

Yes, for most installations. MP 6.1 applies AS 1851:2012 to prescribed fire safety installations other than passive installations, fire blankets and emergency lighting, which have their own requirements.

What if a repair can’t be done within a month?

The occupier needs a reasonable excuse. The regulation gives remoteness and parts delays as examples. Record the reason and the plan.

How long do records need to be kept?

The occupier keeps the record of maintenance and each occupier statement for at least two years. For water-based systems, the contractor keeps its own record of the MP 6.1 form for at least five years.

Is a critical defect notice the same as reporting under AS 1851?

They overlap but aren’t identical. The Queensland notice is a regulatory requirement, in the approved form, within 24 hours after the maintenance. It sits alongside AS 1851’s own requirement to tell the responsible entity before leaving site.

Sources and further reading

• Building Fire Safety Regulation 2008 (Qld)
• Fire Services Act 1990 (Qld)
• Fire safety installations in buildings, Business Queensland
• Fire Safety Management Tool advisory notes, Queensland Fire Department
• Fire protection licences, Queensland Building and Construction Commission
• New fire protection licence framework, Queensland Building and Construction Commission
• Queensland Building and Construction Commission Regulation 2018