Illegal boarding house crackdown

The Queensland Fire and Rescue Service has issued warning notices to the owners of eight illegal boarding houses in Innisfail after a safety crackdown in the North Queensland town.

Emergency Services Minister Neil Roberts said the State Government received complaints from the local council about four boarding houses last month.

These budget accommodation buildings were issued with notices to cease operating until breaches were addressed.

“The QFRS were informed of a further six complaints by the Cassowary Coast Regional Council on Wednesday this week,” said the Minister.

The Minister requested that these buildings be inspected by QFRS as a matter of urgency.

Complaints included up to 15 backpackers crammed into one room, exposed wiring and a lack of smoke alarms.

“All of these 10 properties were inspected on Friday and two of the original four have now complied with the remaining two working to meet the necessary requirements,” said the Minister.

“But four of the six new properties were found not to comply with the relevant fire safety standards.

“They have been ordered to cease operations until they have made the changes they need to make. If they don’t do that they will face prosecution.

”Additionally the Electrical Safety Office, the Department of Immigration, the Council and QFRS will revisit these premises next week to determine if there are breaches of other legislation or by laws involved .”

The Minister said that Queensland has some of the toughest legislation in Australia following the Childers Backpacker fire in June 2000.

“After that terrible tragedy the Government introduced retrospective legislation to require tough fire safety standards of both new and existing buildings,” he said.

The Government improved fire safety standards in budget accommodation buildings with the Building and Other Legislation Amendment Bill (BOLA) 2002.

Over 6,500 notices and infringements have been issued to suspect budget accommodation buildings since the legislation was introduced and there have been 92 prosecutions.

The Minister said that since January 2007, 435 illegal boarding houses had been inspected along with other types of ‘budget accommodation buildings’.

Mr Roberts said that of the 435 buildings that QFRS has inspected across Queensland ;

• 202 requisition notices were issued by QFRS to the owners of the buildings to reduce their occupancy numbers to meet the requirements of the legislation ;
• 59 notices to upgrade existing fire safety systems to comply with the Fire Safety Standard were also issued by QFRS
• 389 buildings are now either compliant or have reduced their occupancy numbers to satisfy the requirements of the legislation.
• Of the 46 remaining buildings – 5 have pending prosecutions with the remaining 41 still due to be re-inspected by QFRS in line with notified re-inspection timelines.

Since 1 January 2007 QFRS have carried out 39 prosecutions in relation to budget accommodation and 37 of those prosecutions have been successfully leveled against the building owners.

The maximum penalty is $3,750 for each offence when pursued through the court. A most recent example saw an owner of a budget accommodation building prosecuted with a charge of around $8,000.

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