Contact us and FAQ

Customers who:

• make unreasonable demands on staff or resources
• are rude, angry, harassing, or aggressive towards staff
• try to coerce or influence staff on any service being undertaken
• persistently badger on their job status within legislated timeframes

may be managed differently. We reserve the right to restrict contact or even refuse service to customers who demonstrate unreasonable conduct towards our staff.

The privacy of the customer will be respected and preserved as required by the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998. Customers should have expectation that their information will be handled confidentially to avoid prejudicing any service request or anyone’s privacy.

However, personally identifying information may be made available where needed, solely for the purpose to which the need relates. This extends to persons who act in official capacity where such rights to privacy are not afforded.

All information relating to any customer making any complaint or comment will be actively protected from disclosure, unless the customer has expressly consented to its release.

We are committed to providing an open and transparent process for everyone so that we can be accountable to the community we serve. Feedback and complaints are a valued and legitimate part of our relationship with customers. We will treat all complaints seriously and expect all staff to be fair, effective, and efficient when dealing with our customers.

A complaint is any expression of dissatisfaction made to or about an organisation, related to its services or staff, where a response or resolution is explicitly or implicitly expected or legally required.

Complaints do not include:

• decisions subject to other review or determination
• decisions not subject to our control
• feedback on the quality or delivery of our services or the conduct of our staff, which do not explicitly, implicitly, or legally require a response
• responses to public consultations
• staff grievances
• public interest disclosures or protected disclosures by staff
• complaints about breaches of the Code of Ethics and Conduct
• requests for information.

We will address all complaints in a sensitive, objective, professional, and unbiased manner. Complaints will be acknowledged upon receipt and will be responded to in a timely manner.

At any time, a customer reserves the right to lodge a complaint with external bodies such as the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), the Ombudsman, or the Audit Office of NSW. If you have any allegation of corrupt conduct, misconduct, or serious waste of resources, you are encouraged to approach these organisations directly.

Section 42 of the Fire and Rescue NSW Act 1989 allows FRNSW to charge for the provision of certain other services which are not considered core functions under the Act. These other services are summarised on the Fees and charges page.

In general, when you are seeking advice, assessment, consultancy, attendance or a report from us it will likely require you to pay for that service, especially where it relate to a given building, premises, proposal, concept or other specific matter. The applicant or requestor is expected to pay the fees and charges applicable, however, they may nominate the responsible person 9e.g. owner) if acting  directly on their behalf by agreement only.

If you are seeking general information about fire safety, including advice regarding statutory fire safety, you are welcome to ask us a question. General requests for information or advice will not incur any fee or charge.

Following independent review of charges by IPART, it was determined that FRNSW should recover administration, risk assessment and service overhead costs being incurred in providing compliance and enforcement of statutory fire safety.

As these costs relate to every application or request being received, the corresponding "assessment" charge applies when the application or request is being made irrespective of the actual service "provision" charge.

An invoice for the "assessment" charge will be sent following assessment of the application. Where applicable, an invoice for the service "provision" charge will also to be sent following that service actually being provided.

Where timeframes for the provision of a service is prescribed by legislation, FRNSW have the specified number of business days to undertake the required service or function.

A business day is counted as any full day Monday to Friday, of standard business hours between 8am-4:30pm, and is not a declared public holiday.

Customers are requested not to make contact just to enquire on the status of their job request if it is still within any legislated timeframe. We will not expedite any service based upon any urgency of any proponent, particularly in respect to prescribed reports related to any building certificate (e.g. PBDB, IFSR, FFSR, FSSR).

If any legislated timeframe has elapsed and/or been exceeded, you may courteously make an enquiry on its status.

A general enquiry can be made anytime, including when no legislated timeframe applies. The enquiry should not relate to any specific details associated with any case, building, proposal or job request that is, or should be, formally referred to FRNSW.

We also recommend that you review our FAQs and publications to see if your enquiry can be addressed by the information provided.

It depends on the nature of your enquiry. If simple like identifying which form to use, or how or make a payment, then please contact us by phone for an immediate response.

However, if your enquiry is more involved then it is best to contact us by email. If you have any FRNSW reference number relating to the enquiry please provide it in your email.