Your Building Has No Anchor Points. A Tradesperson Just Climbed on the Roof Anyway

The storm has passed. A roofer calls to say they can inspect the hail damage today. You say yes. In that moment, you have not once thought about whether there is a certified, compliant way for that person to safely access your roof.

Most building owners never think about roof safety until the roof becomes an emergency. You focus on the damage. You trust the contractor knows what they are doing. You assume someone, somewhere, has already solved the safety question. That assumption has just exposed you to risk you did not intend to create.

Here is where it gets complicated. For a one-off reactive job like inspecting hail damage, a permanent height safety system is not always required. A competent contractor with a proper Safe Work Method Statement and the right temporary equipment can manage that access through documented risk controls. The SWMS is how that one-off risk gets managed. That is appropriate for irregular, non-recurring work.

The problem is a different scenario entirely. Your roof has HVAC units that get serviced quarterly. A solar array that needs cleaning twice a year. A plant room accessed by a building manager every month. These are planned, recurring access requirements. Under Australian work health and safety law, regular planned maintenance requires a permanent, certified height safety system in place before anyone goes up. That is not optional paperwork. That is the standard. And most commercial buildings in Victoria that have this kind of regular roof activity do not have a compliant system to go with it.

A rooftop access system in place. This is a stair system we build to access a plant platform with cooling towers. Safe and appropriate considering the frequency of access.

You are a Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking — a PCBU under the Work Health and Safety Act. Your duty of care extends to every person who enters your building to do work, including contractors with regular access to your roof or plant. The fact that a contractor agreed to go up without a compliant system does not transfer your duty. It stays with you. WorkSafe Victoria does not accept “they said they were fine with it” or “I didn’t know” as a legal defence.

This is not theoretical. WorkSafe Victoria has prosecuted businesses for exactly this situation. In March 2026, a construction company was fined $40,000 for having contractors work at height without any fall protection in place. In February 2026, an aggregate fine of $700,000 was issued for repeat height safety failures. These are building owners and contractors who thought they could manage without a system.

The scenario we see most often is not actually the post-storm call. It is the building owner who has had HVAC technicians on the roof every quarter for five years without a certified system in place. The storm just made the problem visible. If that same storm damaged the HVAC unit, the same trades are heading back up under the same conditions. The existing system, if there is one, is what they should be using. If there is no system and there should be one, that is the moment the liability becomes hard to ignore.

This roof has equipment that needs regular maintenance. Before anyone gets up there, the question isn’t whether the work needs doing — it’s whether there is a safe, certified way to do it.

This is where we come in. We start by understanding how your roof is actually used. What trades go up there, how often, and for what reason. The frequency and regularity of that access determines what type of system you need. Quarterly HVAC servicing, annual solar maintenance, monthly plant room checks — these are recurring requirements and they need a permanent, certified solution. We design and install it to AS/NZS 1891.4 for anchor points, AS 1657 for any fixed walkways, platforms, or ladders and AS1319 for signage. We test and certify everything, and we hand you the documentation.

We are not roofers and we do not do storm repairs. What we do is make sure the people who carry out that maintenance — yours and every contractor after them — have a safe, compliant system to work from.

That documentation is your proof of compliance. Any contractor arriving at your building now sees a professional, compliant system. They have access to documentation before getting on the roof. They prepare an accurate and compliant SWMS for the work being completed. They can access the roof safely. They do the work. Everyone goes home. You have met your duty of care.

The alternative plays out differently. A contractor accesses your roof without a system. They fall or nearly fall. WorkSafe investigates. The investigation finds no certified anchor points. No inspection records. No Safe Work Method Statement. WorkSafe’s position is clear: they will not wait for a worker to be seriously injured. They prosecute before the fall.

Clear and compliant signage showing where not to go is also part of the system.

A certified height safety system gives you protection. When the next storm hits, when the next contractor calls, your building is ready. Your roof is compliant. Your people are safe.

Start with our self-assessment checklist. Visit anchored.com.au and run a quick assessment. It takes five minutes. You will know immediately whether your current setup leaves you exposed.

Call us on 03 9555 3586, email sales@anchored.com.au, or visit anchored.com.au. We work across Victoria and beyond. We install, certify, and maintain height safety systems that keep your team and your contractors safe. Do not wait for the next storm. Get the system in place now.