29 July 2019
Despite incidents around the world sounding alarm bells over the last decade, the NSW Government has finally implemented reforms on flammable cladding following London’s Grenfell Tower disaster in 2017. Here’s what strata managers need to know about how to minimise their risk.
By LEISHA DE ABOITIZ and RACHAEL BASS
It’s the stuff of nightmares.
In June 2017, as the world watched on in horror, London’s Grenfell Tower was devoured in flames. What started as a small fire in one of the building’s 120 apartments, quickly leapt from floor to floor before engulfing the entire 24-storey building at terrifying speed.
Grenfell Tower isn’t the first building to suffer the effects of substandard cladding and it won’t be the last. Cladding has been blamed for serious high-rise fires over the last 10 years in the US, France, the Middle East and Asia.
Closer to home, Melbourne’s Docklands Lacrosse apartment fire in November 2014 saw a small fire starting on a lower-level balcony quickly race its way up 13 floors in less than 10 minutes in part because of combustible cladding on the outside of the building. Had the weather been different, had the sprinkler system not performed to capacity, Lacrosse could all too easily have been Grenfell.
These incidents kicked authorities into action and cladding reforms have now been implemented across Australia.
Legislative reform is state based and in New South Wales new laws and product bans have been introduced to mitigate risk associated with combustible cladding. In addition, an inter-agency Fire Safety and External Wall Cladding Taskforce was established.
Reform has been targeted primarily at buildings considered to be “high-risk” based on use (for example, residential buildings or buildings used for public gatherings) and construction type (for example, multi-storey towers).
While the new cladding laws do not expressly impose any specific obligations on strata managers, you need to familiarise yourself with the new laws so you can:
Effective from 15 August 2018, the Commissioner for NSW Fair Trading prohibited the use of certain types of aluminium composite panels (ACP) in certain classes of buildings. This ACP ban prohibits aluminium composite panels with a core comprised of more than 30 per cent polyethylene in any external cladding, external wall, external insulation, façade or rendered finish.
The ACP ban applies to apartment buildings, commercial office buildings and shops (amongst other buildings) and is retrospective; it applies even if the ACP was installed before the ACP ban came into force. Certain authorities have the power to issue a rectification order for affected buildings if occupants of the building are, or will likely be, at risk of death or serious injury from the use of the ACP. The order can require the owner to eliminate the safety risk by remediating the building.
The Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2018 (NSW) has been amended to introduce a requirement for building owners to register certain classes of buildings using an online NSW Government portal. It’s anticipated that most strata managers will be dealing with Class 2 buildings, which are typically multi-unit residential apartment buildings.
If a building (or part of it) is in an affected class and is two or more storeys high and it has external combustible cladding, then it must be registered on the portal. Penalties may apply if a building that’s required to be registered is not registered.
The definition for “external combustible cladding” in the Regulations is very broad. In short, any kind of external cladding will most likely require investigation and potentially registration. In this respect it’s worth noting that some external cladding can have the appearance of a rendered finish and so may not always be easily identifiable.
The deadline to register buildings occupied before 22 October 2018 was 22 February 2019. New buildings must be registered within four months after the building is first occupied.
Strata managers can register apartment buildings on behalf of their Owners’ Corporations. A separate online form must be completed for each building the strata manager is registering. The online registration system has a number of features to reduce the burden for strata managers, including the ability to register all buildings using one log in account, save draft forms for different buildings and finalise forms at different times, as well as to send registration details to the relevant owners’ corporation.
You can find the online portal and relevant FAQs at claddingregistration.nsw.gov.au
LEISHA DE ABOITIZ is a Partner and RACHAEL BASS is a Lawyer at Massons.
Disclaimer: This article is intended to provide commentary and general information. It should not be relied upon as legal advice. Formal legal advice should be sought having regard to any particular facts or circumstances.
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