Legislation requires all NSW residents must have at least one working smoke alarm installed on each level of their home. This includes owner occupied, rental properties, relocatable homes, caravans and campervans or any other residential building where people sleep.
For homeowners
- Must have smoke alarms installed on every level of your home
- These alarms must be installed in a hallway outside bedrooms or another suitable location on each storey.
This includes owner occupied homes, rental properties, relocatable homes, caravans and camper-vans or any other residential building where people sleep.
For tenants
The landlord is responsible for ensuring the property meets the minimum legal requirements for smoke alarm installation and maintenance.
Tenants must notify their landlord or agent:
- If a smoke alarm is not working. They should not remove, repair, or replace the alarm themselves.
- If they are physically unable to change the battery
Note:
- Landlords are responsible for the installation of smoke alarms in rented premises.
- Landlords have the right of access to rented premises to fit smoke alarms after giving the tenant at least two days’ notice.
Once a tenancy has commenced:
-
Tenants may replace removable batteries in battery-operated smoke alarms
-
Landlords are responsible for maintaining hardwired smoke alarms, including replacement of backup batteries where applicable
For landlords
Landlords and agents must:
- Ensure smoke alarms are replaced within 10 years of manufacture, or earlier if specified by the manufacturer
- Ensure batteries are installed or replaced every year (or for lithium batteries, in the period specified by the manufacturer) / at the commencement of a tenancy.
- Check smoke alarms every year to ensure they are working.
Note:
- Neither the landlord nor the tenant are, except with reasonable excuse, permitted to remove or interfere with the operation of a smoke alarm fitted in the rented premises.
- The condition report section of the tenancy agreement must include a specific reference to smoke alarms so that tenants and landlords are able to note and comment on the presence of smoke alarms at the beginning and end of the tenancy.
- Owners of residential properties who rent out their premises as holiday accommodation are responsible for installing smoke alarms and replacing batteries. Other laws apply to boarding houses and backpackers.
For caravans and motorhomes
- Caravans and campervans have limited escape options in fire events. You have just a few seconds to get out of a burning caravan, because they are made of lightweight and highly combustible fittings and fires can take off frighteningly fast. So a working smoke alarm gives can mean the difference between life and death.
- You must have at least one working smoke alarm inside the van where the bed is, and one also in the annex if you sleep there.
- Smoke alarm must be fitted with a "hush" button allowing the occupant to silence the alarm for ten minutes.
- Smoke alarm must meet Australian Standards 3786 (AS3786).
To read more visit Fire & Rescue NSW
