Most building owners find out how AFSS lodgement works the hard way. The statement gets issued, everyone assumes someone else is sending it in, and three months later council sends a letter asking where it is.
Here is how it actually works, who is responsible for what, and the two things people get wrong most often
Who is actually responsible for lodging the AFSS
The owner. Not your fire protection contractor, and not the accredited practitioner who did the assessment.
The Environmental Planning and Assessment (Development Certification and Fire Safety) Regulation 2021 puts the duty on the building owner. A statement is issued by or on behalf of the owner, and the owner signs the declaration in section 8 of the form.
An agent can do it for you. A strata manager or managing agent can issue the statement if they have proper written authority from the owners. But the underlying maintenance duty under section 81 stays with the owner. An agent cannot be made responsible for that part.
Here is the bit almost nobody knows. The accredited practitioner who assessed your fire safety measures must not make the owner's declaration. If the same person inspected the measures and signed the owner's section, the statement is not compliant. Two different roles, two different signatures.
We get asked to "just sign the whole thing" fairly often. We cannot, and neither can anyone else doing the assessment.
Where the statement has to go
Two places. Both of them, every year.
Your local council
The Commissioner of Fire and Rescue NSW
Sending it to one and not the other is the single most common lodgement failure we see. Council is the one that chases you, so owners remember council. Fire and Rescue NSW does not send reminders, so that copy quietly never gets sent.
You also have to display a copy in the building, which is covered further down.
There is no fixed lodgement deadline in days
This one gets misreported constantly. You will find blogs telling you that you have 7 days, or 14 days, or 30 days to lodge.
What the Regulation actually says is two separate things:
The statement must be issued each year. That is the annual cycle, measured from your previous statement.
Once issued, the copy must go to Fire and Rescue NSW as soon as practicable after its issue (section 89).
"As soon as practicable" is not a number. In practice it means do it immediately. Do not treat the absence of a stated deadline as breathing room, because the annual issuing requirement is hard and council enforcement works off your due date, not off when you got around to posting it.
Lodging with Fire and Rescue NSW
This part is straightforward and free.
Fire and Rescue NSW takes AFSS lodgement through an online submission form on their website. Go to fire.nsw.gov.au, find "Lodge a fire safety statement" under building fire safety, and complete the Annual Fire Safety Statement submission form.
There is no charge for the FRNSW service.
If you get stuck, their fire safety team can be reached by email at firesafety@fire.nsw.gov.au.
Keep the confirmation. If there is ever a question about whether you lodged, that confirmation is your evidence.
Lodging with your council
This is where it varies, and where we cannot give you one answer that covers everyone.
Every council runs its own process. Some have an online portal. Some take email. Some still want a hard copy. Some require your current Fire Safety Schedule submitted alongside the statement, some do not.
Check your own council's website for their fire safety statement lodgement page before you send anything. Sending it the wrong way usually means it sits unprocessed and you find out when the overdue notice arrives.
If you are in Western Sydney, we cover the process for each council on our area pages: Parramatta, Blacktown, Liverpool, Penrith, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland and Fairfield.
On council fees: some councils charge a lodgement fee and some do not. Where there is a fee, the council sets it and invoices the owner directly. It is not something your fire protection provider collects or controls, and it is not part of our inspection price.
Where the NSW Planning Portal fits, and where it does not
This causes a lot of confusion, so be clear on it.
The NSW Planning Portal is where the approved form lives. It is not where you lodge your AFSS.
The Planning Portal and the Department's fire safety certification page are where you download the current approved form. Lodgement itself goes to your council and to Fire and Rescue NSW, through their own channels.
If someone tells you to "lodge it on the Planning Portal," they are confusing the AFSS with other fire safety documents that do go through the Portal.
Use the approved form, and do not change it
The statement has to be in the approved form. Version 4 has been required for statements since 1 September 2022.
You cannot modify it. That includes adding or altering letterheads and logos. A provider who puts their branding on the form may be putting your statement in breach of the Regulation.
If a quote comes back with a nicely branded "our own AFSS template," that is a red flag worth asking about.
You have to display it in the building too
Lodging is not the end of it.
The owner must ensure that a copy of the current Annual Fire Safety Statement and the current Fire Safety Schedule are prominently displayed in the building.
Both documents. Current versions. Somewhere people can actually see them, which in practice means the main entry, the lobby, or the fire indicator panel area.
This is the easiest thing in the entire process to get caught on, because an inspector can see it in ten seconds without opening a file.
What we see go wrong
A childcare centre in Smithfield had the whole thing in order. Inspection done, statement issued, lodged with council. The only thing missing was the copy on the wall at the front door.
Council were on site for something else entirely. Nothing to do with fire safety. On the way out, someone noticed the statement was not displayed, and the operator was fined.
Nothing about that building was unsafe. The measures were maintained, the statement was valid, the lodgement was done. They were fined for the one step everybody treats as an afterthought.
That is the thing about the display requirement. It is the only part of this process an inspector can check without asking you for anything. They do not need to pull your lodgement record, call council's files team, or request a single document. They just look at the wall on the way past.
Put it up the day it is issued.
Getting it lodged on time
The process is not complicated. It is just easy to drop, because it sits between the inspection finishing and nobody specifically owning the next step.
What works:
Know your due date and work backwards. Book the inspection six to eight weeks out, not the week it is due.
Clear defects before the statement is issued, not after.
Send both copies the day the statement is issued. Council and Fire and Rescue NSW, same day.
Put the statement and the schedule up in the building straight away.
File the confirmations somewhere you will find them in twelve months.
We issue a draft statement within 48 hours of defects being cleared and give every client a step by step lodgement guide for their specific council, because the gap between "inspection done" and "statement lodged" is where most people come unstuck.
If your statement is due, or you are not sure when it is due, call us on 1300 347 372 or start the AFSS process here.
Disclaimer: This article is intended for general informational purposes only. It does not constitute legal advice. Building owners, strata committees, and property managers should seek independent professional advice regarding their specific compliance obligations under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2021, AS 1851-2012, the National Construction Code, and any applicable Australian Standards. Requirements will vary depending on building class, the specifics of the Fire Safety Schedule, and the age and condition of installed passive fire measures.