fire safety & AFSS

Dire warning for Aussies in apartments

2024-05-06T19:01:29+10:00

Australians who’ve tried to escape colossal house prices by living in an apartment face another looming disaster. Amid challenging circumstances for prospective home buyers, purchasing an apartment or a unit has been a viable means of escaping the rental crisis for many, but it has also proven to be a strategy that comes with potential downsides of its own, such as: Building defects Rising cost of repairs Rising cost of insurance [...]

Dire warning for Aussies in apartments2024-05-06T19:01:29+10:00

OCN attends ‘Round Table’ consultation on NSW fire safety regulation reform

2024-01-11T10:31:20+11:00

Roundtable consultation on fire safety regulation reform 12 Dec 2023 - Better Regulation Division, NSW Department of Customer Service OCN represented owners' views at the December 2023 first stage of consultation on fire safety reforms,  covering the design of fire safety systems. The roundtable canvassed several survey questions.  Several questions were posed where OCN felt the owners' point of view would be of value.  Many technical questions were left to the [...]

OCN attends ‘Round Table’ consultation on NSW fire safety regulation reform2024-01-11T10:31:20+11:00

Owners Corporation Network Getting on Top of e-bike Fire Risk with Expert Webinar

2023-12-05T13:28:41+11:00

4 DECEMBER 2023 Sunday's e-bicycle battery fire in an apartment is the most recent of several this year. OCN, which represents and supports apartment owners and residents, has been researching best practice in protecting its members from this developing risk. “We have engaged with experts including EV Firesafe, an Australian company funded by the Department of Defence, the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA), the Electric Vehicle Council and taken advice from [...]

Owners Corporation Network Getting on Top of e-bike Fire Risk with Expert Webinar2023-12-05T13:28:41+11:00

NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Batteries

2023-12-05T10:17:05+11:00

24 NOVEMBER 2023 The perception that Electric vehicles create a significant new risk from a fire safety standpoint has some history and has been widely covered in the media. The ACCC undertook an investigation recently into Lithium-Ion battery safety, which OCN supports: https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/Lithium-ion%20Batteries%20report_3_0.pdf There are several perspectives to this issue worth exploring, which have a bearing on the nature of the risks, and the appropriate responses from government. OCN’s response is [...]

NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Batteries2023-12-05T10:17:05+11:00

Hundreds of buildings with cladding deemed low priority despite possible ‘unacceptable fire risk’

2022-04-20T11:13:40+10:00

The state government taskforce into dangerous flammable cladding has deemed more than 500 buildings a low priority, despite their facades potentially posing unacceptable fire risks. NSW Auditor-General Margaret Crawford made the finding in a review of reforms targeting unsafe cladding since the material supercharged London’s deadly Grenfell Tower fire tragedy in 2017. Crawford said identification of buildings in the immediate aftermath was hampered by a lack of building records, but found [...]

Hundreds of buildings with cladding deemed low priority despite possible ‘unacceptable fire risk’2022-04-20T11:13:40+10:00

Sydney Apartment Investors Fear Debt Trap As Levies Skyrocket

2022-02-08T15:07:11+11:00

Investors from retirees to single mothers on low incomes fear losing their properties after their strata levies jumped from under $2000 per quarter to more than $10,000 for building repairs they had no say in approving. Bright and Duggan told the Herald it was appointed to do work that the owners’ corporation had “failed to undertake over many years with the highest priority of ensuring the building can be safely occupied”. Executive director [...]

Sydney Apartment Investors Fear Debt Trap As Levies Skyrocket2022-02-08T15:07:11+11:00

St Kilda apartment building evacuated over combustible cladding fears

2021-05-12T15:44:58+10:00

10 May 2021 A bayside apartment building in Melbourne has been evacuated over safety fears due to combustible cladding. The Port Phillip Council municipal building surveyor has ordered residents of a St Kilda apartment building with combustible cladding concerns and other fire safety matters to leave within two weeks, Mayor Louise Crawford said in a statement. Jack Paynter News.com.au > Read full article here

St Kilda apartment building evacuated over combustible cladding fears2021-05-12T15:44:58+10:00

London, U.K. high-rise blaze raises new concerns about cladding

2021-05-12T15:50:14+10:00

7 May 2021 LONDON -- Fire broke out Friday in a London, U.K., apartment tower which has cladding similar to that used on another housing block in the city where 72 people died in a 2017 blaze. London Fire Brigade said about 125 firefighters tackled a fire that spread to three floors of a 19-storey building in the city's Docklands. The fire brigade said "firefighters wearing breathing apparatus have carried out [...]

London, U.K. high-rise blaze raises new concerns about cladding2021-05-12T15:50:14+10:00

NSW to Start Removing Flammable Cladding This Year

2021-02-26T08:52:01+11:00

15 FEBRUARY 2021 Construction on the first projects to start under a three-year program to remove combustible cladding from 225 high-risk apartment complexes in NSW will kick off around the middle of the year, the government in that state says. In an announcement last week, NSW Minister for Better Regulation Kevin Anderson unveiled details of the state’s cladding rectification scheme which was announced in last October’s budget. Labelled Project Remediate, the [...]

NSW to Start Removing Flammable Cladding This Year2021-02-26T08:52:01+11:00

Interest-free loans part of $1b program to fix NSW’s cladding crisis

2020-11-17T12:11:30+11:00

17 NOVEMBER 2020 Apartment owners forced to replace flammable cladding on high-risk buildings across NSW will be able to access interest-free loans as part of a $1 billion government program over the next three years aimed at helping to resolve the crisis. The program, which will be unveiled in the state budget on Tuesday, includes $139 million to establish and offer technical support to owners for the remediation of at-risk buildings. [...]

Interest-free loans part of $1b program to fix NSW’s cladding crisis2020-11-17T12:11:30+11:00
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