Last updated: 14 July 2026
TL;DR — In window safety, the record is half the compliance. An owners corporation that fitted every device but kept no evidence is, practically speaking, in the same room as one that did nothing — because after an incident, the only question is what you can prove. Haven’s compliance reporting turns inspections and installations into documents that do the proving: photographic reports written for committees, a unit-by-unit register maintained cycle to cycle, and files structured for the 7-year record duty under section 180. Call +61 2 8000 0287.
Because the duty is tested backwards. Nobody examines a building’s window safety on a good day — it is examined after a fall, a complaint or a dispute, and the examination starts with the file.
A scheme that can produce a dated register, photographs and completion evidence demonstrates a duty discharged. A scheme that can produce shrugs demonstrates the opposite, whatever the windows themselves look like.
Good reporting also makes the ongoing duty cheap: when this year’s inspector can see exactly what was fitted where and when, reinspection is faster, remediation is targeted, and the committee never pays to rediscover what it already knew.
Section 180 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 requires the owners corporation to retain its records for 7 years — and for window safety that sensibly means the inspection reports, the device register, remediation invoices and completion evidence, any certificates, and the committee minutes where compliance decisions were made. Two failure modes show up constantly: records that exist but are scattered across old emails and a departed manager’s laptop, and records that describe intentions (” quote approved”) with no evidence of completion.
Reporting done properly closes both gaps — one pack, one place, finding through fix.
Every engagement produces the same disciplined structure. The photographic report: each qualifying window, its device, its test result against the 125mm and 250N requirements, photographed and dated — written in plain English for committee members.
The unit-by-unit register: the building’s live compliance record, designed to be updated at every future cycle rather than rebuilt. And where work was done, completion evidence: what was installed, where, force-test results, and the invoice trail.
The pack is delivered digitally in a format that drops straight into the scheme’s records.
When the hard questions come, the file answers them by name and date: the building was inspected on this date, these windows failed, the committee resolved to fix them on this date, the work completed on this date, re-verified here. That sequence — finding, decision, action, evidence — is what ” acting reasonably” looks like on paper, and it protects the committee members and the managing agent personally as much as the scheme.
It also disciplines providers. An installer who knows every device will be photographed and force-tested for the register works differently from one who knows nobody will ever check.
A register is only as good as its last update. Haven maintains reporting as part of the annual reinspection and maintenance cycle: each year’s results roll into the same register, changes since last cycle are highlighted for the committee, and the scheme always holds a current position — not an archaeology project.
For strata managers running portfolios, the same format across every building means your team reads one report structure everywhere, and handovers — in either direction — stop destroying compliance history.
You probably recognise at least one of these: a single inspection report from years ago with nothing since; quotes and approvals in the minutes but no completion evidence; photos on a former contractor’s phone; a register that lists devices but no test results; or window safety records scattered between the managing agent’s system, a committee member’s inbox and a filing box in the building manager’s office.
The fix is a one-quarter project. Month one: gather everything that exists into one place and write a one-page index of what is present and what is missing. Month two: commission whatever fills the gaps — usually a fresh inspection to re-baseline the register.
Month three: minute the new record structure and hand the maintained register to whoever owns it going forward. From that point the annual cycle keeps it alive, and the scheme never rebuilds from scratch again.
More audiences than most committees expect. The committee uses the register to approve remediation and track the annual cycle. The strata manager attaches it to meeting packs and produces it at handover.
Owners request it when selling — buyers’ solicitors ask about s118 evidence. Insurers and brokers may want it when reviewing the scheme’s risk profile. Fair Trading or a tribunal would examine it if compliance were ever formally questioned.
And the next inspector works from it, which is what keeps every future cycle cheap. One document, six audiences — which is why the reporting is written in plain English with the photographs doing the technical talking.
A report only a locksmith can read serves one audience out of six.
Owners corporation records must be retained for 7 years under section 180 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015. Keep the full chain: reports, register, invoices, completion evidence and the related minutes.
Re-establish the baseline: a building-wide audit produces a fresh register and report, and the scheme’s record trail restarts from that date. Note the loss in the minutes so the gap is explained, not suspicious.
The register is structured so future cycles update it rather than replace it.
No. The report and register are the detailed evidence; the certificate is the formal summary statement issued on the back of them. Committees typically hold both — the certificate answers quickly, the report proves deeply.
The committee, the strata manager, and any incoming manager at handover. Owners can request records under the Act’s inspection provisions, and a current, well-kept register makes those requests painless.
If your scheme had to prove its window safety history tomorrow, could it? Haven builds and maintains the reporting that answers yes. Call +61 2 8000 0287 or email admin@havencompliance.com.au.
