The landlord says our Melbourne office fitout for 60 staff can rely on the base building's toilets a floor below. The building surveyor isn't convinced. How many sanitary facilities does a Class 5 tenancy need?

The count is the settled part: 60 staff on an equal split needs 2 closet pans, 2 urinals and 1 washbasin for men, and 2 closet pans and 1 washbasin for women, wherever those fixtures end up, before any accessible unisex facility is counted toward them. [1] [2] Whether the toilets a floor below can deliver that count is a separate question, and the wording that decides it is not covered here.

Step 1: split the headcount. Unless the premises are used predominantly by one sex, sanitary facilities must be provided on the basis of equal numbers of males and females. [1] So 60 staff is read as 30 men and 30 women.

Step 2: separate facilities, not unisex. A Class 5 building must have separate facilities for males and females in accordance with Table F4D4a. [1] Two concessions get raised on office jobs, and neither fits:

• A unisex facility may replace separate facilities only if not more than 10 people are employed. [1] At 60, it is off the table.
• If most employees are one sex, not more than 2 employees of the other sex may share toilet facilities, with walls, partitions and doors for privacy. [1] That is for a lopsided workforce, not a 30 and 30 split.

Step 3: run the table. Table F4D4a covers Class 3, 5, 6 and 9 buildings other than schools, and each sex is read against its own rows: [2]

• Male closet pans: 1 for 1 to 20, then add 1 per 20. 30 men gives 2.
• Urinals: 26 to 50 men needs 2.
• Male washbasins: 1 for 1 to 30. 30 men gives 1.
• Female closet pans: 1 for 1 to 15, then add 1 per 15. 30 women gives 2.
• Female washbasins: 1 for 1 to 30. 30 women gives 1.

"Add 1 per" includes any part of that number [1], and at 30 you are right on the edge: a 31st woman means a third pan and a second washbasin for women, and a 31st man means a second washbasin for men. If the tenancy is planned to grow, count to the planned headcount.

Urinals do not stand in for pans. Table F4D4a lists urinals as a separate line on top of the male pans, and carries no note letting one replace the other. [2]

The accessible toilet: required, and it counts. Under the Premises Standards, where closet pans are required in a Class 5 building, an accessible unisex sanitary compartment must be provided: 1 on every storey containing sanitary compartments. [3] It follows the compartments to whichever storey they are on, but does not say whether the tenancy floor may have none. It also works in your favour on the count: in calculating the number of facilities, a unisex facility required for people with a disability may be counted once for each sex. [1]

The location question is still open. The provision on whether a Class 5 tenancy's facilities may sit on another storey, and any travel distance to them, is not covered here, so this answer does not say the landlord is right or wrong. What holds either way is that the fixtures above have to be available to this tenancy's 60 people.

Practical next step. Ask the surveyor to name, in writing, the clause they are applying on location. Ask the landlord for the base-building fixture schedule for that floor and which occupants it is already counted for. Side by side, the argument becomes a check, not an opinion.

Victorian edition note. In Victoria the operative edition is NCC 2025, operative state-wide from 1 May 2026 as the sole edition. A project may remain on NCC 2022 only where the relevant building surveyor certifies substantial design progress before that date under s10(2) of the Building Act 1993. [4] No Victorian variation to Table F4D4a was found.