In response to the fires in Greenfell Tower in 2017 and in the Lacrosse Building fire in Melbourne in 2014 and concerns over combustible cladding on buildings the NSW government has established the NSW  Cladding Taskforce and has passed new regulations requiring certain buildings with cladding register online before 22 February 2019.

The new regulations apply if your building is

–          a Residential building  that is two stories or higher (a class 2 building); or

–          another type of residential building where people sleep, for example, hotels, boarding houses, backpackers, student accommodation (a class 3 building);or

–          an aged-care building, hospital, day surgery or public assembly building, such as theatres, cinemas, schools and churches (a class 9 building); and

–          has the following types of external combustible cladding on any external walls or other external areas of the building:

o   Metal composite panels including products that use aluminium, zinc or copper outer layers and a core material; or

o   Insulated cladding systems including systems comprised of polystyrene, polyurethane and polyisocyanurate.

This does not necessarily mean that your building has a fire or safety risk, just that it must be registered. We recommend that you have a fire or building expert assess your building and determine if it has the relevant type of cladding and to assess what, is any, risk there may be.

You can register your building by going to: https://www.claddingregistration.nsw.gov.au/

As only one registration per building is permitted we recommend that you ask your strata managing agent or your strata committee to register your building.

**** The new regulation does not currently apply to houses, offices, shops, warehouses, carparks, factories and other commercial buildings although they may be included at a later stage. ****