For Landlords

Smoke Alarms for the Landlord - it's much more than just changing a battery!

 

It’s the Law

The Residential Tenancy Act 1997 requires owners to install and maintain smoke alarms for rented residential properties. This is detailed in the Residential Tenancy (Smoke Alarm) Regulations 2022. Tasmania has one of the highest house fire fatality rates per capita, the highest dependency on heating and the oldest percentage of homes in Australia.

These laws are designed to protect people from fire who live in your rental properties and describes a shared responsibility between Landlords and Tenants.

The laws state that from the 1st of May 2013 all residential rental properties must have working smoke alarms during occupancy. All rental properties must have either mains powered alarms or 10 year lithium nonremovable battery alarms.

Yes, the tenant does have a shared responsibility to clean and test the alarm. Does this occur? Are they capable of completing this task? Have they disabled or removed the alarm?

We provide peace of mind knowing that your property has functioning, compliant smoke alarms and we provide a comprehensive Compliance Report to your Property Manager along with access to all the smoke alarm history should an event occur where you are required to provide this information. For $89 per year, let us take the responsibility for making your property compliant and protect both the tenant and your asset from the impact of fire.

This annual service fee includes as many inspections as required to ensure your property remains compliant.

These new regulations are quite complex and include such things as...

• Maintenance and testing must be carried out prior to a new tenant taking occupancy of a rental property.
• Smoke alarms must meet Australian Standard 3786 – 2014.
• Smoke alarms must not be expired. All smoke alarms have a 10 year life.
• Smoke alarms must be positioned correctly depending on the building class and floor plan.
• Type of smoke alarm installed and associated maintenance with type of alarm.
• The tenant carries some of the responsibility for the maintenance and testing of the alarm.

Penalties may apply to tenants or landlords who fail to meet the regulations. Refer to Part 4 .21 -23 of the Residential Tenancy (Smoke Alarms) Regulations 2022.