Class 9c Building Regulations

Class 9c is residential care. It covers buildings where people live who need physical assistance with daily activities and with evacuating in an emergency, which in practice usually means aged care. It sits apart from Class 2 apartments and Class 3 shared living for one reason that then shapes everything else: you cannot assume the residents can get themselves out.

Class 2, Class 3 and Class 9c are together the regulated buildings under the Design and Building Practitioners scheme, so an aged care project carries the same design declaration obligations as an apartment building.

What that means for a Class 9c project

• Registered practitioners throughout. Every regulated design must be prepared and declared by a registered design practitioner, and the builder must be registered and appoint a qualified practitioner.
• Designs lodged before the work. Regulated designs go on the NSW Planning Portal before the building work they relate to commences, with variations lodged before the varied work is built. The Regulated Design Guidance Material lists which drawings are regulated and which consultant is responsible for each.
• The expected completion notice. At least 6 and no more than 12 months before you apply for the occupation certificate. It is commonly misremembered as a deadline for your designs, which it is not. The full explanation is on the Class 2 page.
• Facade engineer sign off is still the critical path. Window and door shop drawings have to start early, because the facade engineer will not declare without them.
• Waterproofing is regulated design work. In a building where residents have limited mobility a wet floor is a fall risk as well as a defect, so the Commissioner's waterproofing principles matter more here than almost anywhere.

What actually makes 9c different

The compliance obligations are shared with Class 2. The design problem is not.

Everything follows from staff assisted evacuation. The fire strategy, compartmentation, sprinkler design, egress widths and travel distances are all built around residents who cannot reliably evacuate themselves. That then flows into decisions that look unrelated: corridor dimensions, door hardware, threshold details, and where a level change is even permissible. A Class 9c building is not an apartment building with handrails added, and designing it as one is how projects get redesigned after the fire engineer's first review.

Good Architect is registered for Class 2, Class 3 and Class 9c work. If you are planning a residential care project on the Central Coast, talk to us about it.