What does a BWoF actually require of your security systems?
If your building has a compliance schedule, some of your security systems are probably on it. Access controlled doors, doors that close or release when the fire alarm sounds, and security systems that give an evacuation warning are all specified systems under the Building Act 2004. Each one has to be inspected and maintained to the procedures in your compliance schedule, certified each year by an independent qualified person (IQP) on a Form 12A, and covered by the building warrant of fitness (BWoF) you sign and supply to your council every 12 months.
Most owners know the BWoF exists. Fewer know which of their security systems sit inside it. And the faults we find on site are rarely exotic: exit doors blocked by stock or furniture, emergency door release buttons that are hard to reach, and release buttons that no longer work because of their age. Each one is a security fault and a life-safety fault at the same time.
Which security systems sit inside your BWoF
Specified systems are the systems that keep people safe in a building, and the Building Act requires them to be inspected and maintained for the life of the building. Your council lists the ones in your building on its compliance schedule. The security systems most often on that list are:
- Access controlled doors. A door on an escape route that your access control system locks has to unlock when people need to get out. Councils list these under specified system 3, usually as SS 3/2.
- Interfaced fire or smoke doors and windows. Doors held open or closed by a system that responds to the fire alarm, often through the access control or alarm panel. Usually listed as SS 3/3.
- Security systems that give an evacuation warning. Where a security system also warns people to leave in a fire or other emergency, it falls under specified system 2.
- Final exit doors. The doors at the end of an escape route, including their locks and hardware, sit under specified system 15.
If your access control or alarm has been added to or changed since the compliance schedule was issued, check that the schedule was updated to match. A door that has gone onto access control but is missing from the schedule is a gap the next inspection, or the next incident, will find. On the sites we assess, we estimate that 10 to 20% of upgraded security systems have had no compliance update to go with the change.
What the compliance schedule asks of each system
For every specified system, the compliance schedule sets out the inspection, maintenance and reporting procedures it needs, and how often. Most systems need at least an annual inspection by an IQP. Some need checks every 6 months or every quarter, and simpler, more frequent checks are often left to the building owner.
An IQP is a person or firm your council has approved to inspect particular specified systems. Independent means they have no financial interest in the building. Your council keeps a register of IQPs and the systems each one can inspect.
Each year the IQP issues a Form 12A for each system, certifying that every procedure in the compliance schedule was carried out over the previous 12 months. You then sign the BWoF, supply it to your council with the Form 12As attached, and display it where people using the building can see it.
You also need to keep the records: inspection, maintenance and repair reports for at least 2 years, kept with the compliance schedule and available when the council or Fire and Emergency New Zealand asks for them.
What happens if a system is found not to comply
Every procedure in the compliance schedule for the past 12 months has to be done before the IQP can sign the Form 12A, and the Building Act allows no exemptions. One missed inspection on one door can hold up the warrant for the whole building.
From there, the consequences step up:
- Your council can issue a notice to fix. Not complying with one carries a fine of up to $200,000, plus up to $20,000 for every day it continues.
- Not supplying or displaying a BWoF carries instant fines of $250 to $1,000, and a maximum fine of $20,000.
- Your insurance cover may be compromised if the building does not have a current BWoF.
- In the worst case, a building can be treated as dangerous if, in a fire, injury or death is likely. The council can then restrict who enters it, and while that notice is in place nobody may use or occupy the building (Building Act 2004, sections 121, 124 and 128).
That last point is the one most buyers do not know. A fire door that does not release when the alarm sounds is a security fault and a compliance fault at the same time.
Six checks before your next BWoF
- Find your compliance schedule and list every security system on it: access controlled doors, interfaced fire or smoke doors, evacuation warnings and final exits.
- For each one, find the inspection frequency and who carries it out. Write down who holds the calendar.
- Ask for the inspection and maintenance records for the last 12 months, and check that every scheduled inspection happened.
- Check that the fire release on every access controlled door on an escape route has been tested, and that the test was recorded.
- If any door, controller or panel has been added or changed since the schedule was issued, ask your council or IQP whether the schedule needs updating.
- If you manage more than one building, repeat this for each one. Every building has its own compliance schedule and its own BWoF date.
How Blue Eagle handles it
On the systems we maintain, Blue Eagle carries out the inspections and an IQP-registered partner certifies them. The calendar is ours to track, so the Form 12As are ready when your BWoF falls due. At Carterton District Council and Medifab, the inspections run on a 6-monthly cycle, and at Carterton the access control is linked to the fire system, so doors release automatically when the alarm activates.