Last updated: 14 July 2026
TL;DR — Every residential strata building in NSW has been legally required to have compliant window safety devices since 13 March 2018 — that is section 118 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015, and the duty sits with the owners corporation. Compliance means every qualifying window restricted to a 125mm opening or protected by a robust screen, with hardware that resists 250 newtons. Haven Compliance runs the full cycle for strata schemes across Sydney: audit, installation, certification and the records that prove it. Call +61 2 8000 0287.
New: this service is available as part of Haven’s Annual Re-Certification Program — scheduled yearly re-testing, in-visit maintenance, register upkeep and certificate renewal at fixed pricing.
Section 118 requires the owners corporation to ensure complying window safety devices on every qualifying window in the building: openable windows where the internal floor sits two metres or more above the outside ground and the opening starts below 1.7 metres. The device must limit the opening to 125mm or less — or be a robust screen — and withstand 250 newtons of force, per the AS 5203:2016 test method.
The obligation covers lot windows and common property alike, and it is continuous: a building is not ” compliant since 2018″, it is compliant only while every device works. Our plain-English guide to the NSW window safety laws covers the legal detail.
Most non-compliant schemes don’t know they are. The tell-tale signs: No window safety inspection record in the scheme’s files — or a report older than a couple of years. Windows replaced or units renovated since the last inspection, with no re-check afterwards.
Devices present but never force-tested — hardware that looks right but has never been proven against 250N. Flyscreens assumed to be safety devices — they are not. No unit-by-unit register the committee could produce if asked tomorrow.
If any of those describe your scheme, the honest status is unknown — and unknown, in a duty this serious, should be treated as non-compliant until verified.
Haven’s program takes a scheme from unknown to certified in four moves. A building-wide audit tests every openable window and produces a pass/fail register. Remediation installs compliant REMSAFE hardware wherever devices are missing or failed — quoted fixed, per window, before any work.
Certification documents the compliant state, and the compliance reporting pack gives the scheme its section 180 records: photographic report, register and completion evidence, retained for 7 years. From there, an annual reinspection and maintenance cycle keeps the building compliant instead of episodically compliant — devices loosen, corrode and disappear during renovations, and the yearly check catches it early.
The statutory fine is capped at $550 for the owners corporation — trivial. The real ledger reads differently: a child fall from an unprotected window, a committee explaining an empty file, an insurance conversation complicated by an unremedied statutory breach, and the reputational damage to a building where the worst happened avoidably.
Our breakdown of the real cost of non-compliance walks through each item. Against that, whole-building compliance is one of the cheapest statutory duties a scheme carries.
Because we do the whole job, not a slice of it. One provider audits, installs, certifies and maintains — so there is no gap between the inspector who finds the failure and the installer who fixes it, and no dispute about whose hardware passes.
Committees get fixed pricing, reports written for owners rather than engineers, and a register their strata manager can actually maintain. If you are comparing providers, our guide to choosing a window safety inspector lists the ten questions worth asking anyone — including us.
Compliance work in strata succeeds or fails on logistics, so the program is built around them. Scheduling runs through the strata manager’s normal entry-notice process; units are sequenced so residents know their window (of time, not just glass); and unoccupied units are handled by key register or escorted access.
The audit is minutes per unit, installation not much longer, and residents keep full use of their windows — restricted where the law requires, adult-openable where the design allows. Communication is half the job.
Every program includes a resident notice template explaining, in two paragraphs, that this is a child-safety requirement under NSW strata law, what will happen and when. Buildings that send it get near-complete first-visit access; buildings that send a bare entry notice get callbacks.
We have templates for both the notice and the committee circular, refined across the Sydney buildings we service.
Three questions come up in almost every committee meeting, so here are the answers in advance. ” Can we just do the failed windows?” — you can only know which windows fail by testing all of them; the audit is the filter that makes the remediation minimal.
” Can it wait until next year’s budget?” — the duty is already in force, and the interim exposure sits with the scheme; most committees fund the audit from administrative funds now and levy for remediation if needed. ” What if owners refuse access?” — the entry process under the Act covers compliance access, and in practice a clear notice reduces refusals to a handful, which we reschedule rather than escalate.
A one-page committee brief covering all three, with the fixed quote attached, is included with every proposal — designed to be resolved in a single meeting.
No — only qualifying windows: openable, with the internal floor 2m+ above outside ground and the opening starting below 1.7m above the floor. An audit identifies exactly which windows in your building are caught.
The section 118 duty belongs to the owners corporation across the whole building. Lot owners may fit additional compliant devices to their own lot with notice to the owners corporation, but the underlying obligation is the scheme’s.
The audit itself is usually a single day. Most buildings are then fully compliant within 1–2 weeks of the committee approving the remediation quote, and because we can often combine the audit and installation, that timeline is as short as the scheme’s decision-making allows.
Inspection reports, the unit-by-unit device register, remediation invoices and certification — retained for 7 years under section 180 of the Act. These records are the scheme’s proof that it met its duty.
Only if nothing has changed and nothing has worn out, which is rare. Renovations remove devices and hardware degrades; the duty is continuous. A building last verified years ago should be re-audited.
Want your scheme provably compliant — audit to certificate, one provider, fixed pricing? Haven Compliance runs strata window lock compliance programs across Sydney. Call +61 2 8000 0287 or email admin@havencompliance.com.au.
