Audits & Certification
Passive fire audits and certification — including work we did not install.
Overview
Most passive fire certification problems are not installation problems. They are evidence problems. The work may be perfectly sound, but the test reports are missing, the asset register was never made, or nobody recorded which system went where. A building surveyor cannot sign off on work nobody can describe.
Fire Rated Systems audits existing passive fire installations and certifies what can be certified. FRS is an FPAS Recognised Business with FPA Australia, and certifies on the strength of its own inspection, records and test evidence.
How an audit works
We inspect the installation properly — visually, on site, item by item. We then review the test reports, the system information and any certification that already exists. Where that evidence supports the work as installed, we certify it. An audit on its own is a report rather than a certificate — certification follows where the evidence carries it.
Where no evidence exists — which is a common reason people call — we build the asset register first. What is installed, where it is, what system it appears to be, and what would be needed to support it. From that register we can tell you what certifies as it stands, what needs rectification before it can, and what has to be referred somewhere else.
Against what standard
Against what the building was approved to, which on an existing building is not the same as the current NCC.
In Western Australia the National Construction Code applies through the Building Regulations 2012, made under the Building Act 2011. For an existing building those regulations refer to the relevant building standards — defined as the edition of the Building Code named in the certificate of design compliance for the most recent building permit for that part of the building, or, where there is no permit history, what applied when it was last licensed or built.
For new construction it is the edition the permit application was assessed against. Either way it is a matter of record, and it is the first thing an audit establishes, because a certificate that does not name the standard it was measured against is not much use to the person relying on it.
Where the approval history cannot be found, we say so in the report. We do not substitute the current edition and produce a defect list against a standard the building was never required to meet.
General information about the regulatory framework, not legal advice.
What the certificate carries
A Certificate of Compliance from FRS names the systems used, the locations they were installed in, and the test evidence behind each one. It is issued off a site inspection and a real asset record, which is what makes it useful to whoever has to rely on it.
Where a condition needs a performance solution or an engineering judgement, we identify it and put it in front of the right person rather than absorbing it into a certificate. You get told about it before it is covered up, which is the point at which it is still cheap to deal with.
Who asks for this
- A builder has inherited passive fire work from a subcontractor who has left the job — Audit, asset register, then certification of what stands and a rectification scope for what does not.
- A building surveyor will not sign off because the evidence is incomplete — Audit against what the surveyor needs, then certification of the compliant portion.
- An engineer wants an independent view of an installation — Audit and report. Certification where the evidence supports it.
- An owner has bought a building and does not know what they have — Baseline survey first — see Passive Fire Inspection & Baseline Surveys — then certification where possible.
Why it matters
We certify our own work, and other people's.
A Certificate of Compliance on every job FRS installs. Independent inspection and certification of installations carried out by others, where the evidence supports it. An FPAS Recognised Business with FPA Australia.
Drawings, photos or a defect report in front of you?
Send what you already have. We will tell you what else is needed before the work can be reviewed, priced or booked for site inspection.