View Current

Facilities and Premises Guidelines - Damage or Loss of Property

This is the current version of this document. To view historic versions, click the link in the document's navigation bar.

Section 1 - Purpose

(1) This guideline supports the Facilities and Premises Policy and Facilities and Premises Procedure - Access, Use and Security, by describing how to:

  1. respond to an event or incident that involves loss of or damage to Charles Sturt University property or infrastructure assets, and
  2. manage insurance notifications and claims where the loss or damage is valued at greater than $10,000.

Scope

(2) Refer to the Facilities and Premises Policy

Top of Page

Section 2 - Policy

(3) This guideline supports the Facilities and Premises Policy.

Top of Page

Section 3 - Procedures

(4) This guideline supports the Facilities and Premises Procedure - Access, Use and Security.

Top of Page

Section 4 - Guidelines

Initial response

(5) Report the loss or damage to Campus Security.

(6) If the organisational unit or area has an incident response plan, this should be carried out. Alternatively, Campus Security or the Campus Facilities Manager or their nominee will advise how to proceed.

Response and recovery

(7) Where a response or recovery plan is in place, this should be carried out once the scene has been stabilised. See the Resilience Policy for more information.

(8) If no response or recovery plan is in place, the following process may be followed:

  1. Management heads of the organisational units affected by the damage will agree which affected organisational unit will be responsible for control of the recovery phase and nominate an incident controller from the agreed group. This decision should be based on which unit would normally be responsible for the majority of the recovery effort, including who is best placed to control the safety of the site, manage the containment of the scene and manage the complexity of the recovery process (e.g. damaged computer infrastructure would be Division of Information Technology (DIT), damaged building infrastructure would be Facilities Management (FM), damaged library collections would be Division of Library Services.)
  2. If the loss or damage is suspected of being caused by an illegal activity the police should be notified as soon as possible after the discovery of the event. Normally, Campus Security will notify the police, as stated in the Facilities and Premises Procedure - Access, Use and Security
  3. Each of the responding organisational units and affected stakeholders should appoint an incident coordinator who will act as the representative for their respective group. The incident coordinator will be the single point of contact with the incident controller and represent their respective group in the conversation, decision making, communication and resource coordination associated with the incident.

(9) Information about the loss or damage should be captured in a central register. This information must include a description of the damaged item, approximate cost to rectify the damage, relevant org/account codes, model, serial number, year of manufacture and photographic evidence.

(10) As stated in the Facilities and Premises Procedure - Access, Use and Security, loss or damage exceeding $10,000 must be reported to the University’s Financial Accountant (Insurance) who will provide advice on insurance claims and the appointment of a loss adjustor if necessary. Loss or damage under $10,000 must be borne by the organisational unit. Loss or damage exceeding the retention amount (currently $30,000 – this may vary) may be claimable under the University’s property protection policy.

(11) After all damage has been costed, the incident controller will forward the completed register and all invoices associated with the works to the Financial Accountant (Insurance), Division of Finance for processing.

(12) Affected organisational units are responsible for ensuring their business continuity plans are implemented and resuming normal operations and activities as soon as possible. This includes:

  1. working collaboratively with the other major stakeholders to ensure operational downtime is contained to a minimum,
  2. meeting all initial costs associated with the repair or replacement of damaged equipment or property, and
  3. providing information about the initial costs incurred to the incident coordinator to be captured in the central register.

Replacing equipment and repairs

(13) Replacing damaged office equipment, computers and AV equipment is the responsibility of the affected organisational unit, in conjunction with the insurance loss adjustor (if one is engaged).

(14) All replacement or repair costs must be recorded on the incident controller's register.

(15) All new equipment must be procured in accordance with the Finance Procedure - Procurement

(16) Building, structural or plant repair must be carried out or coordinated by FM, including engaging expert advice in relation to structural or plant damage.

(17) Repairs, replacements or making safe any affected data and communication infrastructure must be carried out or coordinated by DIT, including inspection and testing of wiring and related equipment integrity.

Top of Page

Section 5 - Glossary

(18) For the purposes of this guideline:

  1. Incident controller – refers to the person assigned to take control of the recovery phase.
  2. Incident coordinator - is the single point of contact with the Incident Controller and represent their respective group in the conversation, decision making, communication and resource coordination associated with the incident.