TL;DR — Haven Compliance provides window safety inspections in Paddington — a suburb defined by its terraces, where the long Victorian rows of Glenmore Road, Hargrave Street and Jersey Road have been progressively converted to strata title and brought within section 118 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015. Heritage double-hung sashes take compliant hardware that respects the joinery; the inter-war and post-war blocks toward Woollahra and Centennial Park take the standard treatment. Every qualifying window is tested to 125mm and 250 newtons, with the digital certificate delivered the same day. Call +61 2 8000 0287.
Haven Compliance — a NSW window safety specialist at home in one of Australia’s most intact nineteenth-century streetscapes. Paddington’s identity is its terraces: the two- and three-storey Victorian rows along Glenmore Road, Hargrave Street and Jersey Road, many now subdivided into upper-and-lower strata lots or small multi-dwelling schemes — which brings them squarely within NSW window safety law. Around the suburb’s edges, toward Woollahra and Centennial Park, the inter-war and post-war apartment blocks rise five and six storeys, with windows sitting well above street and courtyard.
We work with the strata managers, small owners corporations and owner-occupier committees responsible for that stock — and we work the way this suburb expects: one experienced technician, not a crew; a genuine knowledge of heritage window types, particularly the double-hung sash that is standard issue in a Paddington terrace; and hardware chosen to protect children without defacing joinery that has survived 140 years.
A terrace subdivided into two strata lots carries the same duty as a tower — scaled to its windows, but never waived by its age. The duty comes from section 118 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015, in force for every residential strata scheme in NSW since 13 March 2018. It requires the owners corporation to ensure complying safety devices on every qualifying window in the building: a window that can be opened, where the floor inside is two metres or more above the ground outside, and the lowest part of the opening starts less than 1.7 metres above that floor.
A complying device does two measurable things: it holds the opening at 125mm or less (or is a robust screen), and it resists 250 newtons of outward force — AS 5203:2016 being the standard test method for both. Adult-releasable designs are acceptable where re-engagement is possible; ordinary flyscreens are not acceptable anywhere. And the duty is building-wide: lot windows sit under the owners corporation’s obligation exactly as common-property windows do.
Because misinformation has circulated about Paddington before, two points deserve plain words. No law requires an annual inspection — the yearly cycle is sound practice, not a mandate, and we will not pretend otherwise. And the statutory fine tops out at $550 for a non-compliant owners corporation; the real risk was never the penalty but a preventable fall, with the civil and insurance consequences that follow it. Inspection and remediation records stay in the scheme’s files for 7 years under section 180.
Yes — and this is the point Paddington most often gets wrong. The moment a terrace is subdivided into strata title, it becomes a residential strata scheme, and section 118 applies to every qualifying window in it: upstairs bedrooms whose floors sit two metres or more above the rear courtyard, landing windows over stairwells, attic conversions above the parapet line. The building’s age, heritage status and modest lot count change nothing about the obligation — a two-lot terrace scheme carries the same duty as a two-hundred-lot tower, one register line at a time.
What terrace conversion does change is the compliance texture. Unusual floor plans put qualifying windows in unexpected places; rear elevations above sunken courtyards qualify where street fronts do not; and the classic terrace geometry — narrow, tall, stairs against the party wall — concentrates fall risk at exactly the windows original builders never imagined needing protection. Most Paddington schemes are small enough that the whole assessment is a short morning — and small enough that nobody has ever done it.
That combination is the suburb’s compliance profile in one sentence.
Nothing fitted at all — the leading finding in terrace schemes, where compliance simply never happened. Heritage sashes with improvised hardware — screws, blocks and latches added by owners over the decades, none of it capable of a measured 250 newtons. Aged timber fixings — devices correctly chosen but anchored into 140-year-old frames that release under load. Rear-elevation blind spots — courtyards and light wells that put windows above the two-metre line where nobody thought to look.
And insect mesh presumed to protect, which no heritage listing exempts from physics. Every finding lands with a per-window fix and price; none of them require anything the heritage streetscape would notice.
With hardware designed for the window rather than against it. The Victorian double-hung sash takes discreet travel limiters that restrict the opening to 125mm while preserving the sash’s normal operation and appearance — fitted into the frame’s existing geometry, finished to sit quietly against period joinery, and force-tested in place to the 250 newton requirement. Casements in the inter-war stock take stays selected on the same principle.
Where a window’s configuration defeats conventional restrictors, robust screen solutions can be specified without touching the facade. Fixings are the craft: century-old timber varies from iron-hard to powder, and anchoring a compliant device means assessing the material actually present — sometimes longer fixings, sometimes new anchor points, occasionally minor frame repair first. This is precisely where improvised DIY hardware fails and where an experienced heritage hand earns the fee.
Two boundaries stated plainly, as always: heritage character shapes the solution, never the obligation — a qualifying window must comply regardless of its age — and conservation-area rules in Paddington may constrain external alterations, which is one more argument for hardware that works within the existing joinery.
Small buildings, careful hands, one visit. Access is arranged directly with the committee or through the managing agent — in owner-occupied terraces, usually a single conversation — and the technician works through the scheme in an hour or two: every window assessed against the actual criteria, including the rear and courtyard elevations; every qualifying window tested to 125mm and 250 newtons; every result photographed.
Sash-compatible REMSAFE hardware travels on the van, so authorised installations happen in the same visit — a two-lot terrace can genuinely go from never-assessed to fully compliant and certificated between breakfast and lunch. The digital compliance certificate, photo-backed report and register are delivered the same day. See our inspection process guide for the full day, start to finish.
Terrace schemes sit at the small end of the pricing structure — most are single-property or 2–10 unit engagements, done in one visit. The structure is per unit and fixed in advance — shaped by unit count, access logistics and windows per lot, never by the clock. What the committee approves is what the invoice says. Rates are published rather than negotiated: a single property runs $250 + GST, buildings of 2 to 10 units run $490 + GST, and 11-plus-unit buildings take a fixed quote on request.
The digital compliance certificate lands the same day, inside the fee. Failed windows convert into an itemised REMSAFE remediation quote — per window, fixed — and pre-authorised replacements are completed in the same visit. Two structural savings beat any haggling: merge remediation into the inspection project, and share a run with nearby schemes. Window lock compliance overspend is nearly always coordination cost wearing a disguise.
One fee buys the finished article: the inspection, its photographic report, the building’s register and the same-day certificate, hardware call-out included. Paddington committees weighing quotes should total the road to certified compliance rather than the first invoice — the discount inspection that charges for its own paperwork, or needs a return trip for hardware, is usually the dearer path.
Small owners corporations and self-managed committees — the two-, four- and six-lot terrace schemes that make up most of the suburb; our self-managed scheme guide was written for exactly these buildings. Strata managers whose inner-east portfolios thread Paddington together with Woollahra, Darlinghurst and Surry Hills — grouped scheduling covers the run. Owner-occupiers with strong views about their buildings — a Paddington constant we regard as a feature: engaged owners make compliance decisions quickly once shown clear evidence.
Landlords and property managers in the suburb’s premium rental layer, using unit inspections and end-of-lease audits. Woollahra, Darlinghurst and Surry Hills have their own location pages; portfolio scheduling crosses the whole inner east.
Because heritage joinery punishes the generic. A checklist inspection cannot judge whether a sash limiter is anchored in sound timber, whether an improvised latch would hold newtons, or whether the rear courtyard elevation was ever scoped at all — and in Paddington those three judgements are the entire job. Our technicians do window safety exclusively, know the suburb’s window types on sight, and document every result photographically into a register a committee, an insurer or a buyer’s solicitor can rely on.
One technician carries the whole chain — assessment, sympathetic REMSAFE installation, re-verification, records — at fixed pricing with same-day certificates. And the standing honesty notes: there is no government accreditation for window safety inspectors in NSW, and no annual-inspection statute either. Compliance under the Act is a standing state, not an event, even one built in 1885.
Lightly — these are small buildings, and the cycle should feel that way. Schemes on our annual reinspection and maintenance program get every device retested in a short visit: timber fixings checked for movement, limiters verified under load, small adjustments made on the spot, and the register rolled forward with a summary the committee reads in a minute. Automated reminders find the secretary before each anniversary, which matters most in self-managed schemes where no agency calendar exists.
Annual is best practice rather than statute, stated plainly as ever. But in century-old joinery — where the failure mode is slow material movement rather than dramatic events — the yearly check is what keeps a certified terrace certified, and keeps the scheme’s file ready for the sale, the insurer or the question that eventually comes.
No. Heritage status shapes which compliant device suits the window — discreet sash limiters, sympathetic stays, screen solutions — but never whether one is required. A qualifying window in a listed terrace carries the full section 118 duty.
Fully. Strata subdivision brings the building under the Act regardless of size, and the owners corporation — that is, the two of you — carries the duty. The good news: a scheme this size is assessed, fixed and certificated in a single short visit.
Yes — purpose-made travel limiters fit within the sash’s existing geometry, restrict the opening to 125mm, hold 250 newtons, and are finished to sit quietly on period joinery. The window still operates normally and looks like itself.
A single property is $250 + GST and schemes of 2–10 units are $490 + GST — fixed, inclusive of the same-day certificate. Hardware, where needed, is quoted fixed per window and usually installed in the same visit.
No. NSW law sets no inspection interval at all. Yearly retesting is sound practice, and in aged timber it is the realistic rhythm for keeping devices genuinely anchored and the scheme provably compliant.
Not sure which service tier fits your building? Our compliance specialists can help you understand your requirements and choose the right option.
