Tenants

Your Inspection: What to expect

It is a legal requirement that your smoke alarms are checked 30 days prior to every lease renewal or new tenancy and at least once a year. In addition, your property manager may request additional checks of corded blinds or a pool to ensure compliance regulations are met and your property remains safe.

Smoke Alarm Upgrades

From 1st January 2022, at the commencement of a new lease or lease renewal, all rental properties in QLD must be upgraded to the new smoke alarm legislation. If your property does not have interconnected smoke alarms and smoke alarms in the bedrooms, once we have received a work order from your property manager or landlord we will be in touch to upgrade your alarms. This visit can take between 1-2 hours.

COVID-19 Precautions

We know that people are understandably concerned about allowing our team access to their property to inspect their smoke alarms.

Smoke alarm services are an essential safety service and even through this pandemic these vital safety checks must be carried out to ensure tenanted properties are safe in the event of a fire and to meet government legislative directives.

Only functioning smoke alarms save lives and we are committed to ensuring the ongoing safety of you and the other residents in the property.

Please do not cancel your smoke alarm inspection unless you have Covid-19 symptoms or have been told to self-isolate. Our team are fully vaccinated and will follow their covid-19 procedures, wearing masks, hand sanitising and maintaining social distancing requirements

If you are undergoing testing or have tested positive, please advise our admin team to rearrange your appointment.

Notification of visit

We will send you an entry notice notifying you of the date of our attendance at your property, this will be sent a minimum of 24 hours prior to our attendance.

We will also send a courtesy SMS reminder of our visit on the day.

We will attend between 8:30am-5pm. Please note the 2-hour window timeframe does not apply to tradespeople.

Dogs/Pets

Please ensure our team has safe access to the property. This may include the garden if your safety switch is located there.

If you have a dog, please let us know in writing that we have permission to enter and whether the dog is friendly. If you need to be home to restrain/isolate your dog, please also let us know.

If you have any other pets that we need to be aware of, this is also helpful info for us to know!

Visit

We will collect keys from your property manager, so you do not need to be home. If you are not home, we will leave a card confirming our visit.

At your property, we will be testing the smoke alarms and sighting/testing the safety switch. We may also be fitting safety devices and warning tags to your corded blinds. Please do not remove any of these devices or tags as you may be charged by your property manager for their replacement.

Your smoke alarm/s may beep for up to an hour after they have been tested. Please contact us if this continues beyond an hour.

Alarm Help: Smoke Alarm Sounding

1. ASSESS THE RISK

Can you smell or see smoke, see flames? LEAVE IMMEDIATELY

Do not open any interior doors without first feeling its surface. If it is hot or you see smoke seeping through cracks DO NOT open the door. If you suspect a fire LEAVE IMMEDIATELY following your escape plan and contact the fire emergency services.

If you assess the situation as a false alarm, follow the next steps.

2. IDENTIFY THE ALARM THAT IS SOUNDING

The sounding alarm RED LED will be blinking rapidly. If the alarms have stopped sounding look for the alarm which has the RED LED flashing once every 2 seconds (it will do this for up to 72 hours). For interconnected smoke alarms (if one alarm goes off all alarms will go off) the triggering alarm needs to be hushed, this alarm will have a faster flashing red LED light than the other alarms.

3. PRESS AND HOLD THE HUSH BUTTON ON THE SOUNDING ALARM UNTIL IT SILENCES.

Each smoke alarm has a built in “Hush” button incorporated into the test button. Once pressed it will enter a dormant period for 10 minutes. If the smoke density increases during this period (i.e. from a fire) it will alarm again. If this happens please re-assess the risk. After the 10-minute dormant period the smoke alarm resumes normal operation, two beeps will sound to indicate this. If the alarm continues to sound and there is no fire please contact Coast Smoke Alarms or your agency.

Other causes

One of the most common causes can be a low battery.

Smoke alarms will indicate they have a low backup battery by making a “beep” or “chirping” sound about once a minute. Only the device with the low battery will chirp, the other interconnected alarms should be silent.

If you wish to replace the battery later, press the test/hush button to snooze the low battery beep for 10 hrs.

Steps to replace the backup battery

Press the button on the side of the unit and the unit will open and reveal the battery. Replace the battery and close the alarm.

Please note that the alarm will not close or operate if there is no battery present.

For further information, please watch our problem alarm walk-through videos in our resources section

Tenant Responsibilities

Whilst it is the landlord’s responsibility to ensure smoke alarms are installed correctly and are compliant, the tenant is responsible for regular maintenance.

As explained by the Residential Tenancies Authority (RTA), tenants must:

test and clean (by vacuuming or dusting) smoke alarms at least once every 12 months
replace any flat or nearly flat batteries
advise the property owner/manager if there is any issue with the alarm (apart from batteries)
allow the property owner/manager right of entry to install smoke alarms
not remove a smoke alarm or the battery (other than to replace it), or do anything to reduce the effectiveness of the alarm e.g. paint or cover it

Helpful Videos

We’ve sourced some helpful videos that will assist you in understanding the rights and responsibilities of the landlord, tenant and property manager in relation to compliance.