NSW Coroner issues warning about smoke alarms in investment properties

The state of smoke alarms in rented housing is back on the agenda.

NSW State Coroner Mark Buscombe recently recommended that real estate agents regularly check and maintain smoke alarms in the homes they manage.

The comments came at the inquest into the 2010 death of a man in a Hamilton house fire, near Newcastle.

Smoke detectors became mandatory for all NSW residential buildings in 2006.

Tim McKibbin, CEO of the Real Estate Institute of NSW, says that residential leases make it clear who is responsible for smoke alarms.

“The reality is that the landlord is required to have a working smoke alarm in the premises while the tenant is required under the lease to replace batteries in a smoke alarm,” says McKibbin.

The practice among some tenants of removing batteries from smoke detectors to use elsewhere, usually in a television remote control, was so prominent that such interference is now forbidden and enshrined in the NSW Residential Tenancies Act.

According to the Tenant’s Union of NSW, if a detector gives a false alarm triggered by cooking, tenants should not remove the battery or disable it.

“Contact the landlord or agent and ask for the alarm to be moved to a more suitable location or replaced with a different style of alarm,” the organisation says.

Fire & Rescue NSW will replace old smoke alarm batteries for free for the elderly and people with mobility problems.