TL;DR — A one-off window safety audit proves your building was compliant on a single day; an annual compliance program keeps that proof current every year. Audits are the right tool for baselines: a new building, unknown records, a change of manager. Programs are the right tool for the ongoing section 118 duty, which never switches off. Most Sydney strata schemes need one audit — then a program. Call Haven Compliance on +61 2 8000 0287 to work out which applies to your building.
Strata committees asking for window safety quotes usually discover two different products with confusingly similar names: a one-off audit, and an ongoing compliance program. They are not competitors — they answer different questions. The audit answers “where does this building stand today?” The program answers “how do we stay compliant, provably, every year from now on?” Under section 118 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015, the second question is the one that never goes away.
What does a one-off window safety audit actually give you?
A full audit gives you a complete, dated baseline: every qualifying window in the building identified, every device tested against the 125mm opening limit and the 250-newton force requirement, and a unit-by-unit register recording exactly what passed, what failed and what is missing. It is the single most useful document a scheme with unknown compliance history can hold.
What it cannot do is stay true. The day after the audit, its findings begin to age — windows get replaced, residents renovate, hardware wears. An audit is a photograph, and buildings keep moving after the shutter clicks.
What does an annual compliance program add?
A program adds the cycle: a scheduled yearly re-test of every qualifying window, on-the-spot maintenance of fixable hardware, an updated register after every visit, and a renewed compliance certificate — so the building’s proof of compliance is always dated within the last twelve months. Haven’s Annual Re-Certification Program also carries the admin: Haven schedules the cycle, coordinates access and times the report to land before the AGM.
The maintenance component matters more than most committees expect. A loosening fixing caught at an annual visit is a two-minute adjustment included in the cycle; the same fixing left for three years is a failed device, a replacement quote and a period of non-compliance nobody can retrospectively erase.
When is a one-off audit the right choice?
An audit is the right first move in four situations. First, a building with no credible records — nobody can produce a register, or the last inspection predates living memory. Second, a change of strata manager or committee, where the incoming decision-makers want an independent baseline rather than inherited assurances. Third, after major works — window replacements, façade projects, renovation waves — that may have disturbed devices across many units. Fourth, a pre-purchase or dispute situation where a dated, independent snapshot is the whole point.
In each case the audit re-establishes ground truth. Haven’s window safety audit service covers what the baseline visit includes.
When does a program beat repeated one-off bookings?
From the second year onwards, almost always. Booking inspections ad hoc means someone — a committee member, a strata manager juggling dozens of buildings — has to remember, get quotes, and re-explain the building every time. Each gap between bookings is a period where the register ages and small faults compound. And the costs arrive as irregular spikes rather than a known line item.
A program inverts all three: the provider carries the calendar, the register never ages past twelve months, and the treasurer budgets one fixed amount — at Haven’s standard rates, starting from $250 + GST per cycle, quoted fixed for the building before booking. The budgeting guide shows how committees plan for it.
Can you start with an audit and move onto a program?
Yes — that is the normal path, not the exception. The audit establishes the register and clears any remediation; the program then keeps both current. Schemes that already hold a recent, credible register (from any provider) can usually skip the fresh audit and move straight onto the annual cycle, because the compliance records belong to the scheme, not to whoever created them. The guide to switching providers explains that handover.
How do committees decide in practice?
Five questions settle it in almost every case. First: can anyone produce a unit-by-unit register from the last eighteen months? If no, the decision is made — audit first. Second: has the building seen window replacements, renovations or façade work since the last inspection? If yes, at minimum the affected units need re-baselining. Third: who currently owns the task of remembering to rebook — a named provider with a scheduled cycle, or “the committee”? If the answer is the committee, the task is already failing quietly. Fourth: did last year’s budget contain a window safety line item, and was it spent? A budgeted-but-lapsed line is the classic sign that ad-hoc booking isn’t working. Fifth: when the AGM asks “are we compliant?”, is the honest answer a document or a recollection?
Committees that answer those questions badly are not negligent — they are running a continuous duty on an event-based system. The fix is structural, not moral: put the building on a cycle, and the questions answer themselves every year. That is also why the decision rarely needs revisiting once made; schemes that move to a program stay on it, because the alternative was never really a system at all.
The annual inspections guide for owners corporations covers the cycle itself in more depth — what happens at each visit and how it folds into the scheme’s compliance calendar.
Audit vs program questions, answered
Does an audit or a program satisfy section 118?
Section 118 requires complying devices to be in place and working at all times — it is a continuous duty, not an event. An audit demonstrates compliance at a point in time; a program is how schemes keep demonstrating it year after year.
Is an annual program compulsory in NSW?
No statutory interval is set for re-inspection. Annual cycles are best practice because the duty is continuous, penalties of up to $550 apply, and records must be kept for seven years under section 180.
We had an audit two years ago — audit again or start the program?
If the register from that audit is intact and the building hasn’t seen major works, a program cycle usually re-baselines it in one visit. If records are missing or works have intervened, a fresh audit first is safer.
Do program visits test to the same standard as an audit?
Yes — every qualifying window is re-tested against the same 125mm and 250-newton requirements using the AS 5203:2016 test method. The difference is what happens next: in-visit maintenance, an updated register and a renewed certificate.
Not sure whether your building needs a baseline audit or the annual program? Haven will tell you straight — and quote both fixed. Call +61 2 8000 0287 or email admin@havencompliance.com.au.
