If you manage or own a Class 2 building or above in Victoria, you are required by law to produce an Annual Essential Safety Measures Report every year. Most people in building management have heard of it. Far fewer understand what it covers or what getting it wrong actually looks like.
Here is what you need to know.
An AESMR is a formal written declaration that the essential safety measures in your building have been maintained and are functioning as required.
It is not a maintenance contract. It is not a service record. It is a legal attestation -- a signed document stating that the safety systems in this building have been properly looked after.
The legal basis is Part 15 of the Building Regulations 2018 (Vic), specifically Regulations 223 and 224. The obligation sits with the building owner. For strata buildings, that means the Owners Corporation.
Source: Building Regulations 2018 (Vic), Regulations 223 and 224
ESMs are the safety systems installed in a building to protect occupants, primarily in the event of fire or emergency. Depending on the building, they typically include:
The specific ESMs required for any building are listed on its Occupancy Permit (for buildings constructed or altered after 1 July 1994) or a Maintenance Determination (for older buildings). That list, not a contractor's standard service scope, is the definitive reference for what must be maintained.
Source: Building Regulations 2018 (Vic), Schedule 8. Building and Plumbing Commission Practice Note ESM-02, Version 2.0, June 2021
The owner of any Class 1b, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9 building must ensure an AESMR is prepared each year. For a Class 2 residential building, that means the Owners Corporation.
The report must be completed within 28 days before the anniversary date of the building's Occupancy Permit or Maintenance Determination. For buildings constructed before 1 July 1994, the annual deadline is 13 June each year.
Missing the deadline carries a penalty of $4,070.
Source: Building Regulations 2018 (Vic), Regulation 223. Building and Plumbing Commission, bpc.vic.gov.au
The AESMR must be prepared using the government's approved form, published in the Victoria Government Gazette on 12 September 2019. The format is mandatory. You cannot use a different template without VBA/BPC authorisation.
The report documents:
The completed report must be kept on site and produced to the Municipal Building Surveyor or fire authority within 24 hours of a request. Failure to produce it on time is a further $4,070 penalty.
Source: Building Regulations 2018 (Vic), Regulation 224. Victoria Government Gazette No. S 255, updated 12 September 2019
The AESMR is signed by the building owner, or by an agent authorised to sign on their behalf.
In practice, most AESMRs in Victoria are prepared and signed by the contractor who also serviced the building. That means the same organisation that did the work is the one declaring the work was done correctly. There is no independent check.
There is no legal requirement for the signatory to be independent of the contractor. But the absence of a legal requirement does not mean the absence of a risk. When a contractor self-certifies their own work on a statutory document, the Owners Corporation has no independent verification that the work was actually completed to the required standard.
This is why independent AESMR preparation and sign-off exists as a service and why more strata managers and OC committees are asking for it.
The approved form is not optional. Regulation 224 is explicit: the AESMR must be in a form approved by the Authority.
The approved form contains a specific declaration: the signatory confirms they have taken all reasonable steps to ensure essential safety measures have been inspected, tested and maintained as required.
Some service providers circulate their own variations of the AESMR. Documents that carry similar language but depart from the approved form in ways that serve the preparer rather than the building owner.
A notable example is the practice of signing a document as though it certifies compliance, then appending a caveat after the signature acknowledging that critical defects exist.
Think about what that means.
A critical defect means the building's safety systems are not operating as required. Signing a compliance declaration and noting non-compliance in the small print after the signature is not a valid approach to statutory reporting. It is creative paperwork.
Defects must be rectified before a compliant AESMR can be signed. The AESMR is a positive attestation. It cannot be signed with asterisks.
If your building receives a document that departs from the standard BPC-approved form, two questions are worth asking. First: has the Authority formally approved this alternative format? Second: does the document contain a positive attestation that all ESMs have been maintained as required, or does it sign off compliance while simultaneously noting that critical defects exist? The first question has a simple answer: ask for written evidence of approval. The second question answers itself.
Source: Building Regulations 2018 (Vic), Regulation 224. Victoria Government Gazette No. S 255, 12 September 2019
The AESMR is the Owners Corporation's formal record that it has met its legal obligations. If that record does not exist, is incomplete, or contains inaccuracies, the consequences can include:
The AESMR sits at the end of a year's worth of maintenance activity. Its accuracy depends entirely on whether that maintenance was actually carried out -- at the required frequency, to the required standard, covering every item on the Occupancy Permit.
The right question for any OC committee is not just "has the AESMR been signed?" It is "who checked that the work behind it was done properly?"
If the answer is the same contractor who did the work, that is worth thinking about.
Further reading
The Building and Plumbing Commission (BPC) is Victoria's current building regulator, replacing the Victorian Building Authority on 1 July 2025: bpc.vic.gov.au
ESM guidance and the approved AESMR form remain accessible via the VBA website during the transition: vba.vic.gov.au/consumers/guides/essential-safety-measures
The full text of the Building Regulations 2018 (Vic), including Part 15: legislation.vic.gov.au
Note on the regulator: References in this article to the "approved form" and Practice Note ESM-02 were published under the Victorian Building Authority (VBA). The approved form and practice notes remain current. The VBA was replaced by the Building and Plumbing Commission (BPC) on 1 July 2025 following an independent review that found significant systemic failures in how the industry had been regulated. Source: Weir Legal and Consulting, Victorian Building Authority -- The Case for Transformation, 2024.
Focus BRC is an independent ESM compliance firm based in North Fitzroy, Victoria. We prepare and sign AESMRs with no servicing contracts and no financial relationship with any maintenance contractor. Start with a free compliance review.