Who is responsible for essential safety measures in Victoria?

The building owner. Owners of buildings other than houses and outbuildings must keep ESMs maintained so they operate satisfactorily, and must prepare an annual essential safety measures report.

When is the annual essential safety measures report due?

Within the 28 days before each anniversary of the building's occupancy permit or the building surveyor's maintenance determination.

Who regulates building safety in Victoria now?

The Building and Plumbing Commission, which replaced the Victorian Building Authority. Municipal building surveyors and fire authorities enforce the maintenance provisions.

Essential Safety Measures Victoria & the AESMR: Guide for Contractors

Q: How quickly must ESM records be produced?

Maintenance records and annual reports must be made available within 24 hours' notice to the municipal building surveyor or the chief officer of the fire brigade.

In Victoria, building owners must keep essential safety measures working and sign an annual report saying so. That report is only as good as the maintenance records behind it.

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Last reviewed: September 2026 · General information, not legal advice — confirm requirements with the Building and Plumbing Commission or your municipal building surveyor.

What essential safety measures are

Essential safety measures, usually shortened to ESMs, are the safety features in a building that need to keep working for the life of the building. Owners of a building other than a house or outbuilding are responsible for maintaining these features so that each one operates satisfactorily.

That covers most of the commercial, industrial, retail and multi-residential buildings a maintenance contractor works in. The measures that apply to a given building are set by its occupancy permit or by the building surveyor's maintenance determination, so those documents are the place to start when you take on a site.

Owner obligations under Part 15

The rules sit in Part 15 of the Building Regulations 2018, which has two divisions.

Division 1: maintaining essential safety measures

Division 1 covers maintaining essential safety measures. This is where the owner's duty to keep each ESM operating satisfactorily, prepare the annual report and keep records comes from. It's also the part of the regulations your maintenance work most directly supports.

Division 2: exits and paths of travel

Division 2 covers maintaining exits and paths of travel for buildings and places of public entertainment. Occupiers must keep exits and paths of travel to exits readily accessible, functional and clear. Note that this obligation falls on occupiers, not only owners — which matters in tenanted buildings, where the person using the space day to day may not be the person who owns it.

For contractors on site, this is worth keeping an eye on. A blocked exit or a path of travel stacked with stock isn't something you maintain, but it is something you can see and report.

The annual essential safety measures report (AESMR)

The owner must prepare an annual essential safety measures report, known as the AESMR. It's the owner's statement that the building's ESMs have been maintained.

What goes in it

Regulation 224 sets out what the report must contain, and it must be signed by the owner. Because the owner signs it, the owner is the one putting their name to the claim that every measure has been looked after — and they'll usually be relying on the maintenance contractor's records to make that claim with confidence.

When it's due

The AESMR is completed within 28 days before each anniversary of the occupancy permit or the building surveyor's maintenance determination. In practice, that means every building has its own date, set by its own documents, rather than one date that suits everyone.

If you maintain several buildings for different owners, it helps to know each building's anniversary. Your records for the year need to be complete and handed over in time for the owner to prepare and sign the report inside that window.

Records and the 24-hour rule

Owners must keep records of maintenance checks, safety measures and repair work. They must make those records, and the annual reports, available within 24 hours' notice to the municipal building surveyor or the chief officer of the fire brigade.

Twenty-four hours isn't long. If the records live in a technician's ute, a pile of paper job cards or several inboxes, pulling them together on a day's notice is hard. The owner is the one who has to produce them, but they'll often turn to the contractor who created them.

Who regulates and enforces

Victoria's building regulator is now the Building and Plumbing Commission (BPC), which replaced the Victorian Building Authority. The BPC publishes ESM guidance for owners, and it's a good reference to point clients to.

Enforcement of the maintenance provisions sits with the municipal building surveyor or the chief officer of the relevant fire authority. These are the same people who can ask to see the records and reports on 24 hours' notice.

What good contractor records look like

The following isn't a legal requirement set out above — it's good practice that makes the owner's report easier to prepare and the records easier to produce at short notice. For each building you maintain, aim to have:

Records organised by measure — every check, service and repair filed against the ESM it relates to, matching the list in the occupancy permit or maintenance determination.
Clear results for every visit — what was checked, whether it passed, who did the work and when.
Defects and repairs linked together — each defect found, when it was reported to the owner, and the repair work that closed it out.
Photos and signatures — evidence that the work was done and who signed off on site.
Notes on exits and paths of travel — anything you noticed that the occupier may need to deal with.
Records you can send quickly — in a form the owner can hand straight to the municipal building surveyor or fire authority if asked.

Records like these mean the owner isn't signing the AESMR on trust, and a request on 24 hours' notice is an email rather than a scramble.

Building an audit-ready record in FieldOp

In FieldOp, each essential safety measure can sit on the building's asset register with its own service history, so every check, defect and repair lands on the measure it belongs to. A PPM contract schedules the routine inspections at the frequencies you set, so the visits come around without anyone having to remember them.

On site, technicians record results, defects, photos and signatures. The owner or their agent gets a branded report link they can open without an account, so the records behind the AESMR are in one place.

FieldOp doesn't produce or sign the AESMR. That's still the owner's report. What FieldOp does is keep the maintenance records behind it complete, organised and ready to hand over.

Essential safety measures in Victoria: the AESMR and the records behind it