AFSS penalty notices: what five NSW councils actually publish

NSW prescribes one statewide AFSS penalty schedule. Checking five councils' own pages: three publish the full weekly step-up, two publish only the range.

New South Wales enforces one statutory penalty schedule for a late annual fire safety statement (AFSS), prescribed statewide by Schedule 1 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment (Development Certification and Fire Safety) Regulation 2021: a $1,000 penalty notice in the first week the statement is overdue, a further $2,000 in the second week, a further $3,000 in the third week and a further $4,000 a week from the fourth week on. It applies the same way in whichever of the 128 local government areas in NSW the building sits. Checking five councils' own public AFSS pages on 15 September 2026 found they do not all describe that schedule the same way: three (City of Sydney, Penrith City Council, North Sydney Council) publish the full weekly step-up; two (Bayside Council, Inner West Council) publish only the outer range, "$1,000 to $4,000", with no weekly breakdown.

The statewide schedule

The amounts are set by the Regulation, not by individual councils. Our AFSS penalties and non-compliance guide sets out the full enforcement sequence, including the Land and Environment Court maximum and what happens beyond a penalty notice. This page is about a narrower question: what councils' own websites tell a building owner about that schedule.

What we checked

We fetched five councils' own AFSS or fire safety statement pages directly on 15 September 2026: City of Sydney, Penrith City Council, North Sydney Council, Bayside Council and Inner West Council. Four further attempts, City of Parramatta, Liverpool City Council, Burwood Council and Wollongong City Council, were blocked by those councils' own bot protection and are not included. NSW has 128 local government areas in total, so this is a small, convenience sample, not a survey of the state. We are not claiming a rate such as "most councils" from five checked pages, only reporting what those five specifically publish, with a source link to each.

Why the range-only pages are still accurate, just less specific

Bayside Council and Inner West Council are not wrong: $1,000 and $4,000 are the real floor and ceiling of the statutory schedule. What their pages don't show is that the fine is not a single flat amount somewhere in that band. It is $1,000 in the first week, a further $2,000 in the second and $3,000 in the third, then $4,000 for the fourth and each subsequent week the statement stays outstanding, and a council can keep issuing a fresh $4,000 notice each week the breach continues after that. A reader who sees only Bayside's "$1,000 to $4,000" has no way to tell, from that page alone, that reaching the top of the range takes exactly four weeks of inaction, or that the amount steps up in between; Inner West's page at least discloses that its range recurs "per week".

The practical takeaway

The schedule applies the same way regardless of which of these five councils, or which of the other 123, is enforcing it, and regardless of how much detail that council's own page happens to show. If a statement is overdue, the cost of waiting another week is fixed by the Regulation, not by how the council chose to word its website. Check the current due date with our AFSS due date calculator, and lodge as soon as the statement is ready rather than waiting for every open item to be resolved.

Frequently asked questions

Which councils were checked for this comparison?

City of Sydney, Penrith City Council and North Sydney Council, which all publish the full weekly $1,000/$2,000/$3,000/$4,000 step-up, and Bayside Council and Inner West Council, which both publish a $1,000 to $4,000 range without the weekly breakdown. All five pages were fetched directly on 15 September 2026; sources are linked below.

If my council's page only shows a range, does a smaller penalty apply?

No. The range and the stepped schedule describe the same statutory amounts, set by the Regulation rather than by the council. A council whose page shows only "$1,000 to $4,000" is not offering a lower or more flexible fine. It is simply not spelling out that the fine steps up over the first four weeks, $1,000, then $2,000, then $3,000, then $4,000, and stays at $4,000 a week from the fourth week on.

Sources

• Environmental Planning and Assessment (Development Certification and Fire Safety) Regulation 2021 (NSW).
• City of Sydney, register your annual fire safety statement (late-lodgement penalty schedule and Land and Environment Court maximum penalty).
• Penrith City Council, annual fire safety statement program (corroborating penalty schedule and the separate failure-to-maintain penalty).
• North Sydney Council, submit an annual fire safety statement (weekly penalty schedule, cites Regulation s89 by name).
• Bayside Council, fire safety statement (penalty range only, $1,000 to $4,000; no weekly step-up shown).
• Inner West Council, annual fire safety statements (penalty range, no weekly step-up shown).
• Office of Local Government NSW, about us (128 councils statewide).

This is general information, not legal or compliance advice. Check requirements and figures with your council and the FPAA register.

More guides

• AFSS compliance checklistThe steps to keep a NSW building's annual fire safety statement on time and valid, in order.
• Annual fire safety statement cost: AFSS pricing guideSee what Sydney AFSS providers actually charge by building type, what pushes the price up, and how to get a quote that matches your real schedule.
• New to owning a building? Your first AFSSIf you have just taken on an existing building, here is what the annual fire safety obligation means for you.
• NSW fire safety compliance statisticsOfficial figures on automatic fire alarm responses and building fire incidents in NSW, drawn from Fire and Rescue NSW published data and open data statistics.
• Accredited practitioner vs competent fire safety practitioner in NSWBoth terms refer to the same specialist role in NSW. The name changed on 1 July 2020. Here is what each means and which one you need for your annual fire safety statement today.
• Fire safety schedule vs AFSS: what is the difference?The schedule is the list of measures a building must have. The AFSS is the yearly proof those measures still work. Here is how the two documents connect.
• AFSS penalties and non-complianceThe dollar figures for an overdue annual fire safety statement in NSW: council penalty notices, fire safety orders, court proceedings and what to do next.
• AFSS vs supplementary fire safety statement: what's the differenceTwo different statements cover two different categories of fire safety measure in NSW. Here is what separates them, when a supplementary statement applies, and what to do if your schedule lists a critical measure.
• Fire safety upgrade order NSW: existing building fire upgradesWhat triggers a council fire safety upgrade order on an existing NSW building, the notice process, and your appeal window.
• Fire safety order at property sale: what buyers, sellers and conveyancers need to knowAn outstanding fire safety order does not disappear when a NSW building changes hands. It binds whoever owns the building next under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, appears on the property's Section 10.7 planning certificate, and is one of the first things a buyer's solicitor will flag before exchange. Here is what it means from every side of the transaction.
• Not the site you meant? Similar-named AFSS sites explainedThree NSW fire safety businesses have very similar names. Here is what each one actually is, so you land on the site you were looking for.