TL;DR — Window safety compliance belongs in the administrative fund as a fixed annual line item, not in the “deal with it when it surfaces” pile. At Haven’s standard rates an annual re-certification cycle starts from $250 + GST, quoted fixed for your building — in-visit maintenance included, replacement hardware quoted separately per window. Budget it once, defend it in one AGM sentence: “our section 118 duty is continuous, and this keeps our certificate current.” Call Haven Compliance on +61 2 8000 0287 for a fixed quote for your building.
Every strata treasurer knows the two ways a compliance cost can arrive: as a line item everyone approved in advance, or as a surprise that needs a levy conversation. Window safety compliance is unusually easy to keep in the first category — the work is annual, the scope is knowable in advance, and fixed per-cycle pricing exists. This guide covers what to budget, where it sits in the fund structure, and how to answer the owner who asks why the scheme is paying for windows that “were already done”.
What does annual window safety compliance actually cost?
At Haven’s standard rates, an annual re-certification cycle starts from $250 + GST, with every building quoted fixed in advance — the full tier table is on the pricing page. The cycle price includes the re-test of every qualifying window, on-the-spot maintenance of fixable hardware, the updated register and the renewed certificate.
The one cost that can’t be fixed in advance is replacement hardware — a failed or missing device found during the cycle. Those arrive as itemised, per-window quotes from the same visit, so the committee approves specific numbers rather than an open-ended remediation budget.
Which fund does window safety compliance come from?
The recurring annual cycle is administrative-fund territory: it is a routine, predictable, yearly expense, exactly what that fund exists for. Larger one-off remediation — a building-wide device installation after years of neglect, or replacement across many units following a façade project — is the kind of non-routine capital expense committees typically plan through the capital works fund. Your strata manager will confirm the treatment for your scheme; the practical point for budgeting is that a building on an annual program rarely generates the second kind of expense, because faults get caught while they are still maintenance.
Why budget annually when the building passed last year?
Because section 118 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 imposes a continuous duty — devices must be in place and working at all times, not just at the last inspection. Buildings drift out of compliance quietly: renovations remove restrictors, replacement windows arrive bare, coastal air corrodes hardware, everyday use loosens fixings. The reinspection and maintenance page details how that drift happens; the budget consequence is simple — proof of compliance is perishable, and renewing it annually is cheaper than re-earning it from scratch.
There is also the record-keeping angle: inspection records belong in the scheme’s section 180 records, kept for seven years. An annual cycle populates that file automatically. Our guide to the window safety compliance register covers what those records should contain.
How do committees defend the line item at the AGM?
One sentence usually does it: “This is our section 118 duty — the levy covers the annual re-test, in-visit maintenance and a current compliance certificate for the building.” The comparison that lands with owners is the alternative pattern: skip the cycle for a few years, then face an audit, a multi-window remediation quote and a compliance gap on the record — all at once, all unbudgeted. A fixed annual amount that prevents that spike is one of the easier levy components to justify.
For committees still choosing between one-off bookings and a standing program, the trade-offs are laid out in audit vs annual compliance program.
What makes the cost predictable year to year?
Three design features of a well-run program. Fixed per-cycle pricing agreed before booking, so the treasurer’s November number is still right in June. Maintenance included in the visit, so the small faults that would otherwise become quotes get absorbed into the base price. And provider-managed scheduling — under Haven’s Annual Re-Certification Program, Haven contacts the scheme when the cycle is due, which means the budget line actually gets spent on schedule instead of lapsing and compounding into a bigger cost two years later.
A worked example: budgeting a small strata building’s year
Take a typical 8-unit walk-up. The treasurer enters one line in the administrative fund: annual window safety re-certification at Haven’s fixed quoted rate for the building. The cycle is timed for two months before the AGM. At the visit, every qualifying window is re-tested; suppose the inspector finds two loose restrictors and one stiff mechanism — all fixed on the spot, all inside the cycle price. One device in unit 5 has failed outright: it is quoted fixed for that window, in writing, the same week. The committee approves the single replacement by email, the follow-up recheck confirms it, and the renewed certificate and updated register land in the AGM papers.
Total exposure for the year: the budgeted cycle fee plus one known, itemised replacement. Compare that with the same building unmanaged: no line item, no visit, three small faults maturing undetected, and — whenever the next trigger forces an inspection — a multi-window remediation quote, a levy conversation, and a period of demonstrable non-compliance in the record. The worked example is boring by design. Boring is what a compliance budget is supposed to look like.
Note what the example did not require: any guess about hardware costs in advance. Replacements are quoted per window when found, so the budget never carries a padded contingency — the committee approves real numbers against real windows, and the compliance certificate renews once everything passes.
Budgeting questions, answered
Is the annual cycle price per building or per unit?
Haven’s rates are per building, banded by size, starting from $250 + GST and quoted fixed before booking. In-visit maintenance is included in the cycle price.
What should we hold in reserve for hardware replacement?
Replacement needs vary too much between buildings for a standard figure — age, exposure and renovation activity drive it. The program structure keeps it contained: failures are quoted fixed per window from the visit, so the committee approves known amounts case by case.
Does skipping a year save money?
It defers rather than saves. Faults that would have been in-visit maintenance mature into replacements, the register ages past credibility, and the scheme may need a full audit to re-baseline — while the section 118 duty applied the whole time.
Can the cycle be timed to our financial year or AGM?
Yes. Most schemes time the cycle so the updated register, any remediation quotes and the renewed certificate land shortly before the AGM — turning window safety into a five-minute standing agenda item with the numbers already on the table.
Want a number your treasurer can put straight into the budget? Haven quotes every building fixed, before booking. Call +61 2 8000 0287 or email admin@havencompliance.com.au.
