Smoke Detectors

Hi All,

I just received a letter from my real estate agent stating I have to pay $70 a year for someone to check my smoke detectors batteries havnt expired and are still operating. Is this correct?

I would have thought tenants should have been responsible for replacing the batteries, they do after all beep when they are flat every 30 minutes.

Alternatively, surely this is covered by the inspection the real estate agent does?

 

The PM is either being ultra cautious about their liability or blatantly ripping you off. Either way, it's totally unnecessary.

Landlords are obliged to provide smoke detectors and ensure they are working at the commencement of a lease. But it gets a big foggy as to whether tenants are obliged to maintain the smoke detectors if the battery dies. You should write this into the lease as a special condition to be sure and to cover your liability in the event of a fire.

Any reputable property manager will test smoke detectors during a property inspection (it takes about 10 seconds) and landlords can always do this themselves if they are inspecting. If the location of the smoke detector is particularly high or hard to get to, I could see why a PM would refuse to check it due to occupational health and safety risks. In this case, a landlord could do it themselves or get a family member/friend to do it safely with a ladder. It's not rocket science.