Window Safety Compliance !

Less than a year from now a new window safety ordinance will come into effect in New South Wales to prevent windows opening wide enough for little kids to fall and sustain serious injury or death.  Property owners have a period of grace until March 12, 2018 to have safety locks installed on all windows that meet the criteria of being two metres above the ground and are less than 1.7 metres above the floor of the room in which they are situated.

This legislation was enacted in response to ongoing tragedies over many years.  It proved the fallacy that a fly screen on a window is a sufficient barrier to prevent this type of accident.  Many people will remember a recent accident at Bankstown where two children fell from the same window - with tragic results.

The purpose of the legislation is to ensure that windows overlooking a fall danger can not open wide enough to allow the passage of a one-twenty millimetre sphere.   There is sufficient gap to allow a cooling air flow, but not enough space for even a small child to squeeze through.   The legislation is explicit on attachment details and minimum specifications.

Passing legislation is one thing.  Getting the public to comply is an entirely different matter.  Short of requiring a window inspection in every home in this state it is obvious that compliance will be spotty.  People who have no children will question the need to fit child proof safety measures to the windows in their home and many will ignore that need.

The measure probably needs supportive legislation to be effective.  It should become an offence to offer a rental property that lacks this safety measure and the compliance issue would need to be addressed by the Real Estate industry.  These letting agents should have the responsibility of ensuring that the stock passing through their hands is compliant.  It should be a responsibility of the letting agent to inspect and certify that the property complied with regulations when offering a property - or when the lease of a present rental is being renewed.

This fitting of safety locks would also be a useful addition to the property searches that relate to the conveyancing of home sales.  Safety locks in new constructions would automatically become a necessity for councils to sign off on completion but whenever an existing home changes hands making window safety locks a condition of sale would ensure that an ever increasing percentage of the national housing stock would be covered.

A lot will depend on whether the government is prepared to enforce this legislation with fines for non compliance.   I will not suffice to only take sanctions after accidents which injure children.  These safety locks are a means of preventing such accidents and to be effective they need to be in place across the entire housing spectrum.   It would be helpful if similar conditions applied to the installation and maintenance of smoke alarms !