NSW: Do townhouses have the same fire safety requirements as apartment buildings?

Question: Do townhouses need to meet the same fire safety standards as apartment buildings?

I’m looking at purchasing a townhouse which is under a strata scheme. The building was built in 1994. 

Do townhouses need to meet the same fire safety standards as apartment buildings with regards to fire safety doors, fire hydrants etc.? 

Would a building built in 1994 generally meet the fire safety standards? I know older buildings tend to have issues.

Answer: Townhouses are a different classification to an apartment buildings

Every multi-occupancy building post-1988 should require an annual fire safety statement. Every residential occupancy should have a working smoke alarm.

Townhouses are a different classification to an apartment; require fire safety systems, but generally require less than an apartment building.

It is impossible to state whether a townhouse generally meets the fire safety standards without having inspected it, but further to the above, the fire safety systems are generally fewer than the equivalent apartment building & therefore there is less to go wrong. That said, due to the lesser requirements, there is lesser chance the systems in a townhouse have been maintained.

To summarise – how long is a piece of string?

This post appears in the August 2021 edition of The NSW Strata Magazine.