Compliance
Compliance simply means that your Passive Fire Protection System must be certified and that it complies with the operating standards for each of the specified systems that make up the overall Passive Fire Protection System.
The maze of Regulations and Compliance requirements can make it very difficult to know exactly what has to be done to ensure you meet your legal obligations and ensure you keep buildings protected and people safe.
It can mean you end up with a small army of Experts and Service Providers to keep it all on track. The costs and time involved in maintaining Passive Fire Protection Compliance can be high if you don’t keep it simple by using a single Service Provider.
Following installation, the Local Building Authority (usually a local Council) issues a Compliance Schedule which lists all the specified systems in the building that must be maintained and how frequently, according to the relevant standards.
However building systems can deteriorate over time either through modification or failure to operate for any reason. Similar to a vehicle Warrant of Fitness, a Building Warrant of Fitness (BWOF) makes sure that systems are tested and maintained at regular intervals. This is to ensure that the Passive Fire Protection Systems will operate correctly should a fire situation arise.
A Building Warrant of Fitness is required where a Compliance Schedule has been issued for a building.
In general each of the Specified Systems from SS1 to SS15 will have a specific Compliance Schedule.
A BWOF verifies that the inspection, maintenance and reporting procedures for all the specified systems within a building have been carried out in accordance with the Compliance Schedule for the previous 12 months.
Section 108 of the Building Act requires that a BWOF must:
- Be supplied on each anniversary of the issue of the Compliance Schedule
- State the location of the Compliance Schedule and associated Compliance Schedule Reports
- State that the inspection, maintenance, and reporting procedures have been fully complied with during the previous 12 months
- Have attached to it, all Form 12A certificates issued by IQPs (Independent Qualified Person) for the specified systems
- Have attached to it, any recommendations from an IQP (Independent Qualified Person) to amend the Compliance Schedule.