A company, a trust, a real estate agency, a body corporate or a developer that owns or manages houses, townhouses or apartment units in Queensland is a landlord in the eyes of the smoke alarm law, with the same duties as a private owner and a lot more properties to meet them in. The portfolio does not change the rules. It changes what happens when one property slips: it is rarely one. This page sets out the rules that apply to every residential property your business holds, the dates that trigger them, and how we run compliance across a whole portfolio so nothing slips.
If what you operate from is an office, a shop or a warehouse, that building comes under different rules, the building fire safety rules, and a licensed fire protection contractor services it. Our article on smoke alarm requirements for commercial properties sets those out.
The rules that apply to every house, townhouse and unit you hold
Since 1 January 2022 every residential property sold or leased, or with a lease renewed, must meet the full standard, and from 1 January 2027 every residential property must (Fire Services Act 1990, sections 147Y and 147Z). The standard is the same for one property or three hundred:
- photoelectric alarms complying with AS 3786-2014, no ionisation sensor
- hardwired, or a sealed battery built to last at least 10 years
- manufactured less than 10 years before installation, and replaced within 10 years of manufacture
- interconnected, so that when one alarm sounds every alarm in that dwelling sounds
- in every bedroom, in the hallway the bedrooms open onto, and on every level with no bedroom
Before every new tenancy the lessor must test and clean every alarm within the previous 30 days, replace spent batteries, and replace immediately any alarm that fails (sections 148A, 148B, 148C, 148E). The law lets your agent do this for you, and says in terms that the tenant cannot be your agent for it (section 148H).
Apartment buildings: inside the unit is yours, the building is not
In a unit building the alarms inside each sole occupancy unit are domestic smoke alarms under these rules, and the duty sits with the unit’s owner. The hallways, stairwells, car parks and the building’s detection system are prescribed fire safety installations under the Building Fire Safety Regulation 2008, maintained by the building’s fire safety provider and reported to the Queensland Fire Department in the occupier statement. We service inside the units. Our strata and body corporate article covers how the two sit together.
Why portfolios fail compliance
Not because owners do not know the rule. Because the rule fires at a different date for every property: a tenancy change here, a sale there, a 10 year expiry somewhere else. Alarms fitted in the first wave of the new standard, from 2017, start reaching their 10 year dates in 2027. A portfolio that was upgraded once and left alone will fail property by property from then on. The fix is a schedule, not a reminder.
How we run a portfolio
- Every property on one schedule, built around tenancy dates, sale dates and 10 year expiries, so each visit happens inside the window the law sets.
- The annual service plan, priced per property per year on our pricing page: unlimited compliance checks during the year, including before new tenancies, lease renewals and sales, with no lock in.
- Replacements at our published per alarm price, interconnected and tested before we leave. Hardwired alarms are fitted by a licensed electrician, and we organise it.
- Every alarm we supply is covered for its full 10 year life while the property stays on the plan.
- We contact tenants by email, SMS and phone to arrange access, and tell the managing agent when we cannot reach them.
- The owner or managing agent gets the result after every visit, and a Certificate of Compliance is available on request once the invoice is paid, for agents, insurers, buyers and auditors.
From a single investment unit to an agency’s whole rent roll or a village’s independent living units, the schedule runs to your dates, not ours.
Send us the property list and we will tell you which ones are due this month and which reach their 10 year date next year. Call the office on (07) 3349 0636, or send your details through the contact form and we’ll get back to you. Send me the property list.
Smoke Alarm Services has serviced rentals, units and townhouses across Brisbane, Logan, Ipswich, Redlands and Moreton Bay for over 20 years.
