Emergency Lighting and Exit Signs: What Victorian Businesses Must Maintain

Most people walk under an exit sign every day without seeing it. In a shop, office, or workshop, though, those green signs and the emergency lights beside them are a legal maintenance duty, and the paperwork behind them is something a council or fire authority can ask to see.

If you own or run business premises in Frankston, Bayside, or on the Peninsula, here is what Victoria expects and who is responsible for which part.

Emergency lighting and exit signs are essential safety measures

The Building and Plumbing Commission, the trading name of the Victorian Building Authority, explains that the owner of a building other than a house or outbuilding is responsible for its safety features. These are called essential safety measures.

The term is defined in Part 15 of the Building Regulations 2018, and the items are listed in Schedule 8. Emergency lighting and exit signs are both on that list, along with things that sit close to them:

• Emergency power supply.
• Exit doors.
• Paths of travel to exits.

The building classes it lists include offices, shops, cafes and restaurants, car parks and storage, buildings used for production or assembly of goods, public buildings, and apartment blocks.

The owner maintains them, the occupier keeps the exits clear

The Commission splits the duties plainly.

• Building owners must ensure each essential safety measure is maintained so that it operates satisfactorily.
• Building occupiers must keep all exits and paths of travel to exits readily accessible, functional, and clear of obstructions.

So if you lease a shop, the stock stacked against the back door is your problem even if the emergency lights are the owner's to maintain. Read the lease, and ask the owner or agent who arranges the maintenance and who holds the records.

What your building's paperwork should say

When the building went up matters.

• Built or altered since 1 July 1994: the list of essential safety measures, with the performance level, frequency, and type of maintenance each one needs, is included with the occupancy permit or certificate of final inspection.
• Built before 1 July 1994: the owner must still ensure the safety equipment, fittings, and measures are maintained and fulfilling their purpose, including exits and paths of travel.

The owners of Class 9 buildings, and of Class 2 to 8 buildings built or altered since 1 July 1994, must have a current copy of the occupancy permit on display in the building.

The annual report and the records

Maintenance is only half of it. The Commission says the owner must prepare an annual essential safety measures report, in accordance with the approved form. The owner can authorise an agent, such as a specialist maintenance contractor, to complete it.

The owner must also keep records of maintenance checks, safety measures, and repair work. The municipal building surveyor or the chief officer of the fire brigade can ask to inspect them, and they must be made available after 24 hours' notice.

Non-compliance can bring an infringement notice and a fine from the council or the fire authority, and possibly prosecution.

What the standard covers

Routine servicing of emergency lighting and exit signs is set out in AS/NZS 2293.2:2019, Emergency lighting and exit signs for buildings, Part 2: Routine service and maintenance. Standards Australia describes it as specifying requirements for periodic inspection and maintenance procedures, so that these lighting systems are in a state of readiness for operation at all times. Its listing currently marks it as pending revision.

Design and installation sit in a separate part, AS/NZS 2293.1. The intervals and test procedures your building needs should come from its maintenance schedule and the person servicing it, not from a guess.

What you can check, and what is licensed work

You can walk the premises and look, without touching anything:

• Every exit sign is lit and readable from where people would stand.
• Nothing hangs in front of a sign or a fitting, such as banners, shelving, or new partitions.
• Exit doors open, and the paths to them are clear of stock, bins, and trolleys.
• No fitting is cracked, hanging loose, or missing.

Anything past that is for a licensed electrician. Energy Safe Victoria is direct about it: it is illegal and potentially fatal for unlicensed and unqualified people to undertake any electrical work, and businesses must engage qualified and licensed electrical workers for work on their premises. That includes opening fittings, replacing batteries or lamps inside them, and moving or adding signs during a fit-out.

On fit-outs, the Commission also notes that altering an existing building may affect its essential safety measures. New walls and shelving can leave an exit sign facing the wrong way or a corridor without emergency light. Check with a building surveyor before the work starts.

What to do next

Find out who owns the maintenance duty for your premises, and ask to see the latest annual essential safety measures report and the records behind it. If a sign is dark, a fitting is damaged, or a fit-out has moved the walls around, have a licensed electrician look at the emergency lighting before it is next put to the test.