Essential Safety Measures: getting your ESM programme audit-ready
An owner's checklist for the Victorian Building Regulations annual cycle.
Under Part 15 of the Victorian Building Regulations 2018, the owner of a building with Essential Safety Measures must prepare an Annual Essential Safety Measures Report (AESMR) certifying that each measure has been maintained in accordance with the determination in force at the time of construction or subsequent building permit.
The structural weakness in most Victorian portfolios is the gap between the maintenance determination on file and the building as it stands today. Tenant fit-outs, plant replacements and minor works frequently add or alter ESMs without updating the determination. The AESMR then signs off against a document that no longer describes the building.
A good annual cycle starts with a determination reconciliation, walk the building, list the ESMs that are actually installed, and compare to the determination. Where there is drift, the determination is updated through the relevant building surveyor before the maintenance contractor is asked to inspect against it.
The reward is a clean AESMR that the owner can sign with confidence, and a maintenance scope that matches the building. The cost of not doing it is a defensible-doubt finding when something goes wrong.