Sydney’s 2026 Fire Safety Shift: What AS 1851 Means for Building Owners
If you own or manage a building in Sydney, you can probably feel it coming. Not a siren, not a headline, more like that quiet pressure that builds when compliance rules change and everyone’s waiting to see who blinks first.
From 13 February 2026, NSW will require many buildings (Class 1b and Class 2–9) to have essential fire safety measures inspected and tested in accordance with AS 1851-2012.
That single line sounds tidy. In real life, it touches budgets, contractor availability, paperwork rhythms, and the awkward question nobody loves asking: Are we actually doing enough, or have we been getting by on “near enough”?
And yes, if you’re already looking at Sydney fire inspection and testing services or comparing providers for fire inspections and auditing, you’re already ahead of the wave. The trick now is getting ahead without overreacting.
The “mandatory” part might sound intense
Here’s a mild contradiction for you: this change can feel like a headache, yet it can also make life easier.
Why? Because ambiguity is exhausting. For years, lots of owners have done the right thing but still wondered if it was “right enough”. Different interpretations. Different routines. Different levels of documentation. The 2026 shift pushes the industry toward one common reference point for routine service, and that can reduce the back-and-forth when you’re dealing with councils, strata, insurers, facility managers, and tenants who want certainty.
The NSW Building Commission is clear about the timing and the direction: from 13 February 2026, essential measures in applicable buildings must be inspected and tested to AS 1851.
Why Sydney building owners are talking about this more
Sydney has a particular mix that makes this topic land harder. High-density residential towers. Busy mixed-use precincts. Older terraces converted into offices. Restaurants wedged into heritage spaces. Warehouses that suddenly become “last-mile” logistics hubs. The city’s built form changes fast, and so do occupancy patterns.
That matters because fire safety isn’t only about equipment. It’s about how people move through a space when things go wrong, and whether the systems that guide them will work as intended.
The NSW Planning Portal’s fire safety certification guidance reinforces that annual statements must cover the essential measures that apply to a building. It also notes the role of an accredited practitioner in confirming exit system compliance for annual statements.
Which leads to the next question that owners ask, usually right after they ask “Is this going to cost me more?”
What changes are happening to fire safety standards in plain terms
If your building falls into the classes covered by the NSW change, the expectation is that essential fire safety measures are inspected and tested in line with AS 1851-2012 from 13 February 2026.
That means owners and managers in Sydney will feel a few knock-on effects.
One is the service conversation will get more specific. Less “we’ll do a general check” and more “we’re servicing these measures to these clauses, on these intervals, and here’s the record set”.
Another is that contractor capacity may tighten. Sydney already has busy cycles, especially around the end of the financial year and the pre-Christmas rush when projects try to finish. Add a compliance deadline into that, and you can imagine the phone calls in late 2025.
A third is that your Fire Safety Schedule becomes even more central. It’s the document that tells you what essential measures apply to your building, which then drives what must be inspected, tested, and recorded.
And yes, councils still care about lodgement. The City of Sydney, for example, sets out how owners can lodge their annual fire safety statement with Council and Fire and Rescue NSW.
Getting accredited fire technicians to do the work
Owners hear words like “accredited practitioner” and assume every technician needs the same credential for every task. NSW is more nuanced than that.
The Planning Portal notes that annual statements verify that an accredited practitioner has confirmed exit systems comply with the Regulation.
At the same time, routine servicing and testing has traditionally involved fire service technicians working under industry standards and relevant competency frameworks, even where accreditation status differs by role and document. The important thing for owners is not getting lost in labels. It’s making sure the people inspecting and testing your essential measures are competent, that the scope matches your Fire Safety Schedule, and that the records are defensible.
If you’ve ever compared quotes and thought, “Why is this one twice the price?” it’s often not greed. Its scope. One contractor may be pricing a true AS 1851-style service approach, and another may be pricing a lighter visit that leaves you exposed later. That’s where good questions beat cheap prices.
How to prepare for these changes?
Honestly, the goal here is boring competence. Quiet, documented, repeatable.
Start by pulling your current Fire Safety Schedule and your last set of statements, then look for gaps. Are the measures clearly listed? Are the test records consistent? Do the dates line up cleanly with the statement issue date and the 3-month rule?
Then have a straightforward conversation with your provider. Ask how they’ll service in line with AS 1851 from February 2026, and what will change in their reporting. If they use tools like SimPRO, ServiceM8, or a digital compliance platform that timestamps results and photos, that can help. Not because tech is trendy, but because it reduces lost paperwork and “we’ll send that later” moments. (We’ve all heard that one.)
If you manage multiple sites, align your servicing cycles so they don’t all hit at once. And if you’re in strata, give your committee a heads-up early; committees move slowly, and nothing drags like a decision that needs three quotes, a meeting, and a vote.
Most of all, keep the goal in view: the equipment must work, and the evidence must exist. That’s it. No heroics.
