Hello all, asking for advice on behalf of a friend. Hope you guys can provide some help. My friend is absolutely defeated by the AFA Smoke Alarm System that was installed in his boarding house investment property in November 2018. Since then, he has had at least 1 unnecessary charge out a month, costing him $1600 for each false alarm. Some of the time its something to do with a malfunction and he gets it fixed (even though its completely new). And most of the time its all to do with tenants doing stupid things like forgetting to turn off the toaster, and once a kid of a tenant was left unattended and smashed the fire glass. Each time he has told the PM to do educate the tenants about this and find ways (putting up information sheets, door knock etc) to prevent false alarms but he has worked to no avail. Wanting to ask if anyone have experience in this and can provide some guidance or strategies to help reduce unnecessary charge outs. Because it's giving my friend plenty of grey hairs!
That's a tough one! 1. Position manual call points as high as legally allowed to reduce risk of little people (children) accidentally triggering them 2. Boarding agreements/policy must be sufficient to enable the Lessor to claim the cost for false alarms from the occupants if that turns out to be the case 3. CCTV monitoring the MCP's and smoke detectors (in common areas only of course) to provide evidence to substantiate claims in point number 2. 4. Positive or negative pressurised common areas to assist with venting away nuisance smoke (small amounts only of course) from the likes of burnt toast etc. That's all I've got. I know university boarding houses have big problems with this kind of thing. I used to live across the road from UQ and the fire truck would be hurtling past full noise at least once a week on false call outs, if not 2-3 times a week, it's crazy..
Nice list Michael Mitchell, I have some more to add... 5. Consult your alarm provider to see whether it is legal to change the smoke alarm in the kitchen to a heat alarm. 6. Go to your local fire station and have a chat with the firies. They will likely be happy to give advice to reduce unnecessary callouts. 7. Keep the reports of faults and bill the company that supplied the system for the callout fees.
Consult a fire engineer as they will review the entire building and may suggest either an engineered or a deemed to satisfy solution. As a boarding house is a class 2 building, the use of a combination of thermals and smokies may be a solution however as self-contained boarding house suites are around 16m2, they may be too small to be effectively separately monitored. Thermals may work sufficiently well in the case of a separate/common kitchen area.
