Queensland Combustible Cladding Rules: What Building Owners Must Do

After the Grenfell Tower and Lacrosse fires, Queensland moved earlier than most states to force building owners to find out what was on their walls. The Building and Other Legislation (Cladding) Amendment Regulation 2018 created the combustible cladding checklist regime, run through the Safer Buildings portal. The staged deadlines have long passed, but the obligations the regime created did not end with them, and they bind new owners as much as the originals.

Which buildings the regime covered

The checklist applied to privately owned buildings that are class 2 to 9 under the Building Code (broadly: apartments, hotels, offices, shops, warehouses, health and assembly buildings), of type A or B construction, with building work approved between 1 January 1994 and 30 September 2018. If your building fits that description and was never registered, that gap needs to be corrected, not ignored.

The three checklist stages

Part 1: registration and screening

Owners registered the building and answered basic questions about wall assemblies. Buildings that clearly had no combustible cladding exited here, with the completed checklist kept as the record.

Part 2: building industry professional statement

Buildings that could not self-clear required a building industry professional to assess the facade and provide a statement about whether combustible cladding was present. Many owners discovered at this stage that their as-built records did not match the wall.

Part 3: fire engineer assessment

Where combustible cladding was, or may have been, present, the owner had to engage a registered fire engineer, complete a building fire safety risk assessment, and obtain a fire engineer statement. Buildings in this category were also required to display an affected building notice in a conspicuous place and notify tenants and the body corporate.

The obligations that continue today

• Keep the completed checklist, statements and risk assessment, and make them available to the body corporate, tenants and prospective buyers
• Keep displaying the affected building notice while combustible cladding remains
• Carry out any interim risk measures the fire engineer specified, such as ignition source controls, alarm upgrades or evacuation changes
• When the building is sold, give the buyer the cladding documentation; the new owner inherits the obligations and must update the registration
• If rectification work changes the facade, update the records so they reflect what is now installed

Common questions about how these duties interact with strata committees and managing agents are covered in our FAQ.

If your building still has combustible cladding

A fire engineer statement is not a permanent licence to leave the product on the wall. It documents risk and usually assumes the interim measures stay in place. Owners typically face three paths: full replacement of the cladding, partial replacement of high-risk areas combined with fire engineering measures, or a documented retain-and-manage position where the assessed risk is low. Which path is right depends on the extent of the product, where it sits relative to exits and ignition sources, and what the insurer will accept. Premiums and excesses on buildings with unresolved cladding have risen sharply, and in some cases the insurance cost alone has justified replacement.

Scoping replacement starts with knowing exactly what is on the building. A close-range facade audit confirms the products, their extent and their fixing, which the desktop records frequently get wrong. From there, facade rectification can be staged to manage cost: replacement panels in a non-combustible product, new framing where required, and reinstatement of flashings and seals. Costs vary widely with access, height and panel extent, so per-square-metre figures quoted without an inspection are not worth much.

How rectification projects are run

Cladding replacement is facade surgery on an occupied building, and the programme reflects that. The product is confirmed by sampling (laboratory testing of core composition where records are unreliable), the replacement system is selected and certified as non-combustible, and the work is staged elevation by elevation so weatherproofing is never left open. Access choice drives much of the cost: mast climbers and scaffold suit full elevations, while smaller extents can run from swing stages or rope access. Behind the panels, the project frequently finds and fixes what the original builder left: missing fire breaks, corroded brackets, failed sarking. Owners should treat those discoveries as part of the value of the project rather than pure pain; the building that emerges has a documented, compliant wall system, which is exactly what the insurer and the next purchaser will ask to see.

What this means for insurance and sale

Unresolved cladding now shows up in two prices: the premium and the contract. Insurers ask for the checklist outcome, the fire engineer statement and any rectification records at every renewal, and load premiums or impose conditions where the position is unclear. Buyers' lawyers ask for the same file. An owner who keeps the documentation current, even where the decision was retain-and-manage, transacts from a far stronger position than one who has to reconstruct the story under deadline.

Practical next steps for owners

• Locate your completed checklist and confirm which part the building exited at
• Check the affected building notice is still displayed if one is required
• Confirm any interim fire safety measures are actually in place and maintained
• If documentation is missing or the facade has changed, get the records brought up to date before sale or insurance renewal forces the issue

Allied Commercial inspects, documents and rectifies cladding on commercial and residential buildings across Brisbane and the Gold Coast. If you are unsure where your building stands, contact us for an assessment.