Hello team looking for advice. We are leasing a house out has a smoke alarm fitted. Single level and alarm in. Holeway. Its main Powered and has a rechargeable non serviceable battery inside. I checked the Alarm and it works. I have read Alot of about QLD legislation. NSW can' s as much. NSW Smoke Alarms - Its the law Can you point me in the right direction
Frankly, I couldn't care less about the law in this matter. If I were a landlord, it be a priority for the safely of the tenants but that's just me. To potentially to place someone's life at risk to save a few measly bucks is callous in the extreme in my view. I have alarms in my place wired to the switchboard. Dumb not to have them.
Can you help me Clarify. The place has a mains alarm with an Internal rechargeable battery as stated. I came. On Site and tested today alarm works.
Fair trading There are requirements regarding the age of the unit - did you check the age of the isotope manufacture.
I put in 10 year lithium battery ones and check it every time there's a new tenancy. Beyond that it's the tenants responsibility to ensure it continues to work.
As SNM has already mentioned you just need to check the date and type of the smoke alarm to ensure it is still in date. The ionization type smoke alarms have a 10 year life span but will generally start alarming when they expire. The other type frequently used in a household situation is the photoelectric type. I am not sure what life span it has as it basically has no radioactivity half life as per the ionisation type. There are also two other type namely CO2 and heat but they are more specialised. I assume that by your comment "and has a rechargeable non serviceable battery inside" the unit is sealed and the battery is not removable. If so my guess would be that the life of the battery will determine the life span of the unit. The other thing to consider is the actual placement of the smoke alarm/s as they need to be withing 1 meter of the bedrooms doors. I believe Qld is even going for the interconnection option where all smoke alarms need to be wired or radio connected. https://www.fire.nsw.gov.au/gallery/files/pdf/community/smoke_alarms_advisory_note.pdf There is a preference for Photoelectric alarms in NSW. There is no need to get emotional about smoke alarms it's just a matter of complying with the laws.
