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Wollongong City Council
Resident Visitor Business

Fire Safety Certificates and Statements

The building owner or their representative must regularly provide paperwork to both Council and NSW Fire and Rescue to confirm they’re meeting fire safety standards.

These documents must also be prominently displayed in the building.

The paperwork below must be signed by the owner or their representative, and the Accredited Practitioner (Fire Safety).

You must complete your fire safety certificate or statement using the format and compulsory wording from the Environmental Planning and Assessment (Development Certification and Fire Safety) Regulation 2021. Council may reject statements or certificates that are not completely correctly.

Registration fees for fire safety statements and certificates can be found in the Fees section of this page.

A Fire Safety Certificate must be submitted by the building owner for:

  • a new building, before it is used
  • changed use of a building, before the building is used, or
  • fire safety upgrade works required by Council.

Use the form below to submit a Fire Safety Certificate, and return it to Council and NSW Fire and Rescue with a copy of the Fire Safety Schedule.

Fire Safety Certificate form DOCX, 165.53 KB

After the Fire Safety Certificate has been issued, you will need to submit an Annual Fire Safety Statement every 12 months.

This annual statement must be submitted within 12 months of the date of issue of the Fire Safety Certificate or the previously given annual fire safety statement.

The Annual Fire Safety Statement form must be completed and returned to Council and NSW Fire and Rescue with a copy of the Fire Safety Schedule.

The NSW Government has published an updated standard template form which must be used when issuing fire safety statements from Thursday 1 September 2022.

The form has been amended following the commencement of the Government approved Fire Protection Accreditation Scheme for Accredited Practitioners (Fire Safety) under section 59 of the Building and Development Certifiers Act 2018.

You can download a copy of the form below,

Fire Safety Statement form

You can also download a copy of the form from the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment’s website

This statement only applies to critical fire safety measures. These are measures that are important enough to need inspection more often than once a year.

The fire safety schedule will list any measures that are considered critical, and how often they need to be inspected.

Use the link below to download the form for annual / supplementary Fire Safety Statements.

Fire Safety Statement form

It is an offence not to provide an Annual Fire Safety Statement by the due date.  Heavy and continuing weekly penalty notices apply.

1 week late: $1000
2 weeks late: $2000
3 weeks late: $3000
4+ weeks late: $4000

These penalties can also apply if your statement or certificate is not prepared in line with the state regulation.

Failure to submit an Annual Fire Safety Statement could also lead to legal proceedings in the Land and Environment Court, with penalties up to $110,000.

Council may consider requests for small extensions of time to lodge fire safety statements in cases where there is a legitimate unanticipated event which prevents you from meeting the due date.

This is called a Request to Stay Penalty Notice(s).

If you want to apply for a Stay of Penalty Notice(s), you must:

  • Make your application well ahead of the due date - ideally as soon as possible, and at least three weeks before the due date.
  • Make sure all sections of the application form below are completed, and all the requested documents are attached.
  • Include enough evidence to show that a legitimate unanticipated event has occurred.

Incomplete or late applications, or those without valid reasons, will be refused and you may face enforcement action.

If you have a history of making late submissions, we are unlikely to support your application.

Reasons not accepted

We will not support requests for Stay of Penalty Notice(s) due to the following reasons:

  • You forgot to organise an inspection, or left it too late.
  • Changes to strata or property manager.
  • Change of fire safety service provider (APFS).
  • You had a dispute with your APFS, strata or property manager, tenant, developer or builder.
  • You didn't have power or water connected to the property as it was unoccupied. Vacant buildings must still submit annual fire safety statements.
  • You're waiting on quotes for work or repairs.
  • You need to organise additional repair work.
  • You haven't been able to contact your APFS (if this happens, you may need to consider changing your APFS).

Because you have 12 months between due dates, we expect you to plan ahead and allow enough time to deal with any of these types of issues.

Remember, your reason for requesting an extension must be both legitimate and unexpected, and you will need to show proof of this.

Application form

Use the form below to request a Stay of Penalty Notice(s).

We will invoice you for the approved fee (shown below) which must be paid before your application for an extension is assessed.

Annual Fire Safety Statement - Request to Stay Penalty Notice(s)  PDF, 193.84 KB

Fees for Annual Fire Safety - Request to Stay Penalty Notice(s)

Showing 1 - 2 of 2 items
Parent HierachyArea Fee NameFee Name GSTGST Current Fee (incl. GST)Current Fee (incl. GST)
Parent HierachyDevelopment Assessment | Fire Safety Fee NameAnnual Fire Safety Statement - Request to Stay Penalty Infringement Notice (AFSS Overdue) GSTY Current Fee$600.00
Parent HierachyDevelopment Assessment | Fire Safety Fee NameAnnual Fire Safety Statement - Request to stay penalty infringement notice GSTN Current Fee$406.00
Showing 1 - 9 of 9 items
Parent HierachyArea Fee NameFee Name GSTGST Current Fee (incl. GST)Current Fee (incl. GST)
Parent HierachyDevelopment Assessment | Fire Safety Fee NameAnnual Fire Safety Statement - Request to Stay Penalty Infringement Notice (AFSS Overdue) GSTY Current Fee$600.00
Parent HierachyDevelopment Assessment | Fire Safety Fee NameRegistration of Final Fire Safety Certificate Submitted with Occupation Certificate (New Building) GSTY Current Fee$122.00
Parent HierachyDevelopment Assessment | Fire Safety Fee NameRenewal administration service fee for first licence - S608 of LGA GSTY Current Fee$121.00
Parent HierachyDevelopment Assessment | Fire Safety Fee NameRenewal administration service fee for second and subsequent licences associated with the same property - S608 of LGA GSTY Fee Description50% of above fee
Parent HierachyDevelopment Assessment | Fire Safety Fee NameBoarding House & Fire Safety Non-compliance Inspections - first inspection GSTY Current Fee$320.00
Parent HierachyDevelopment Assessment | Fire Safety Fee NameBoarding House & Fire Safety - Follow-up Inspections GSTY Current Fee$238.00
Parent HierachyDevelopment Assessment | Fire Safety Fee NameAnnual Fire Safety Statement - Request to stay penalty infringement notice GSTN Current Fee$406.00
Parent HierachyDevelopment Assessment | Fire Safety Fee NameCompliance Cost Notice - In respect of any costs or expenses relating to the preparation or serving of the notice of intention to give an order pursuant to the EP&A Act 1979 issued under Schedule 5 Development Control Orders - Part 2 Fire Safety Orders and a Building Product Rectification Order pursuant to the Building Products (Safety) Act 2017 GSTN Current Fee$750.00
Parent HierachyDevelopment Assessment | Fire Safety Fee NameCompliance Cost Notice - In respect of any costs or expenses relating to an investigation that leads to the giving of an order pursuant to the EP&A Act 1979 issued under Schedule 5 Development Control Orders - Part 2 Fire Safety Orders and a Building Product Rectification Order pursuant to the Building Products (Safety) Act 2017 GSTN Fee Description
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