 Hello, welcome to today's recording on smoke alarm laws in collaboration with Queensland Fire and Emergency Services. My name is Lynne Smith from the Communication and Education team and our guest speaker today is Mark from Queensland Fire and Emergency Services. Welcome Mark and thank you so much for joining us today. Well, thank you so much Lynne and QFES welcomes the opportunity to spread this vital community education amongst community members. Great. Well, before we start with Mark talking about the smoke alarms, the RTA administers the Residential Tenses and Rumi Accommodation Act and the Tency Law states that the property owner must comply with and not be in breach of any health or safety laws. And these do include the smoke alarm requirements. So your property owners and managers or tradesperson can enter to comply with the smoke alarm requirements and they must give a tenant a minimum of 24 hours to enter. We are encouraging tenants, make sure that you report any faults or problems with smoke alarms so that your property manager or your owner can organise to get them fixed. But there are also opportunities to check your smoke alarms during routine inspections. Mark is going to also go through the obligations regarding the testing and cleaning of the alarms as these are still in place for both the owners, managers and the tenants. Mark, over to you to step us through the legislation that covers the smoke alarms, bust a few myths and also get everyone up to speed on the new requirements and what properties we are also talking about today. Yeah, thanks, Lynne. So the new domestic smoke alarm legislation was brought in under the Foreign Emergency Services and Building Fire Safety Regulation legislation and Queensland Fire and Emergency Services or QFES administers this legislation. The smoke alarm laws are applicable to class 1A's, which are domestic dwellings and townhouses and class 2's. So a class 2 is a sole occupancy unit or where people live in an individual unit within a class 2 unit complex. So what happens for like your student purpose build accommodation and your boarding houses or your holiday letting? Yeah, other types of specific accommodation like the ones you've mentioned are captured under the Building Code of Australia for different classes of buildings and they'll already have a smoke detection, smoke alarm or some sort of early warning system installed in those buildings as part of that national building construction requirements. And one last question on this one too. What about your caravans, your permanent lit caravans? Yeah, so at this stage caravans are not captured by this legislation. They are likely to be in the future. However, QFES strongly recommends that anywhere where anybody is sleeping in any type of structure, they should have an early warning or smoke alarm system installed. So it's probably wise as a further protection to have a smoke alarm in the caravan. Yeah, that's correct. Yeah. So most people probably will remember the fire in Slacks Creek that's on the south side of Brisbane back in 2011. It is this event that's actually had the impact on why these laws have been implemented. Yeah, that's correct, Lind. So as a result of the coronial inquest into that tragic fire at Slacks Creek, a number of recommendations were made and they were basically around occupant safety and a domestic dwelling. And to achieve that occupant safety, it's vital that early warning fire, early warning of fire is provided to the occupants and that then allows them time for safe evacuation. So there are some key implementation dates too that obviously they've been put in place. So this isn't new for a lot of people. This has been around now for obviously five years. Yeah, that's correct. So the new legislation had three stages of implementation or three phases. The first one was from January 2017 where all new builds or people undertaking a substantial renovation in their dwelling were required to be upgraded from that time. The next and key date that we're mainly concerned with today is from the 1st of January 2022. And this is the second stage which captures before the next new tenancy or renewal of a current tenancy from that 1st of January 2022 date must be upgraded to the new requirements. And it also captures dwellings being sold or transferred from the 1st of January 2022. There is a third stage which commences from the 1st of January 2027 and that captures all other dwellings which are typically going to be your owner occupants. Okay, so is there any leeway if a landlord doesn't meet this deadline of 1 January 2022? Yeah, so there's no intention for the legislation to have an extension date to it and I might add that with the 10-year implementation time frame and including the five years from the commencement for the rental market people have had time to plan for and budget for the upgrades. So just clarifying if you're renting or selling a property literally from 1 January 2022 you need to be sorting yourself out now to be compliant and for everyone else so an owner occupier you're looking at you've got five more years for all the other properties. Yeah that's correct so we clearly are running out of time for the the next phase that commences in January 2022 so it's certainly time to take some action and move forward on those ones right now. Yeah, is Queensland the first state to have these laws? I know that we also do have like interstate landlords that might be listening to today's recording. So other states do have some lesser type of smoke alarm requirements in their dwellings however Queensland is leading the way with this and it's a great safety move because lives will be saved so Queensland is leading the way and is the first to implementation a comprehensive requirement for smoke alarms such as we have. Great upgrade requirements. Yeah so the basis of this for all phases is that interconnected smoke alarms are required to be installed in each bedroom as well as in hallways which connect bedrooms and the rest of the dwelling and if there are no bedrooms on a story at least one smoke alarm must be installed and that smoke alarm must be in the most most likely path of travel to exit the dwelling. Okay so what happens Mark if someone is turning a room into a bedroom? So let's say it's like a sunroom or some other room that's not been designed as a bedroom that hasn't been approved as a bedroom but it's used as a guest room or a spare bedroom will that need the interconnected smoke alarm? Yes anywhere that is currently being used on a regular basis as a bedroom or for any sleeping accommodation does need to have that upgraded and the reason for that is that that early warning needs to be provided to sleeping occupants to ride them with that safe time to evacuate in the event of a fire in the dwelling. Okay the power supply part. Yeah so in smoke alarms under the new legislation can be either hardwired or powered by a not 10 year non-removable battery. There are a couple of points to note though existing hardwired alarms must remain hardwired and hardwired alarms cannot be removed however additional smoke alarms can be powered by either method and interconnection between all of the smoke alarms can be either hardwired or by a wireless system. Okay and the big question who's responsible? Yeah so it's pretty simple basically the property owner or the landlord is responsible for upgrading their rental property so the property managers, leasing agent, body corporates or onsite onsite managers are not responsible for the smoke alarm under upgrades in the individual dwellings or units. Similarly tenants are not responsible for the upgrades. Landlords may engage a third party such as an installation or maintenance company or any other person to fulfill their obligations and no licensees required to install 10 year battery smoke alarms. However it needs to be made quite clear that only qualified electricians can install or replace hardwired smoke alarms and just to clarify that hardwired means a smoke alarm that is powered by the dwelling's domestic power supply. So as a landlord you've said before I don't have to engage an external third party or an organisation to do the smoke alarm compliance. What is deemed best practice? So as a landlord if I do engage a company does that pass my obligations over to them? So no the responsibility at all times remains with the landlord to ensure that the upgrade in their dwelling has been done to meet the requirements. However landlords will often choose to engage a third party or professional company to come in and undertake the work for them and it could be reasonably assumed that they have a good understanding of the legislation and that they'll meet the requirements for or on behalf of the owner. However the owner should just clarify with any company or person who's coming in to make sure that they do have an understanding that they need to meet the new requirements that the obligation is on the owner for. So can a landlord just go and engage the local handyman up the road to do the installations? Yes so as I said earlier there's no licence required for the actual installation for 10-year battery powered smoke alarms. However obviously it needs to be a person who is competent and capable of actually undertaking the work. And what happens if I've got like a stubborn landlord who says look sorry I just don't have the money to upgrade the new smoke to the new smoke alarms I just don't have the dollars for it? Yes so there's been a five-year timeframe as we spoke about before to allow to plan and budget for the upgrades. There's no intentions of extending that timeframe so the landlord does have a legislated obligation to upgrade. I would recommend in the first instance that the tenant talks to the landlord or the leasing agent if they're going through one to try and ensure that the owner understands their obligations. If that isn't successful they can make a complaint through Queensland Foreign Emergency Services where we'll gather the evidence and undertake an investigation. Okay so just to be really clear here this is not a tenant's responsibility for the upgrade so it doesn't matter how long a tenant's been in the property say they're a long-term tenant for 10 years. This is still the landlord's responsibility to upgrade and the message is really clear that you should be upgrading now. Yeah that's correct Lynn it's the landlord's responsibility. Okay acting now which is what we've just said. Yeah certainly once again we highly recommend that the upgrade process does need to commence from now if it's all hasn't already been undertaken. You need to get interconnected now to avoid any potential risks. There could be unexpected delays that's possible there could be smoke alarm or install a shortage and remember their penalties do apply for non-compliance and if a smoke alarm leads replacing now it is probably more likely to be cost-effective to undertake the full upgrade rather than just replacing that individual smoke alarm and then have to go down a process of installing interconnected ones in the bedrooms in the coming months. Okay let's talk now about the testing and cleaning requirements. I mean these have been in for a while and just making sure who does what. Yeah so look the testing and cleaning requirements don't change with the new legislation so up until this time individual dwellings have required at least one smoke alarm in a hallway and depending on other circumstances there may have been more that doesn't change it's just the number of smoke alarms that will be affected. So there's no license required to test or clean the smoke alarms and there's no certificate or formal documentation required under Queensland legislation to actually show that the alarms have been tested. However in some landlord leasing agent arrangements the agents actually request documentation as part of their business practice and a landlord may engage a third party or agent to fulfill their obligations. However the testing and cleaning can be undertaken by anybody and they should just keep an accurate record of when and what occurred during that process to be able to justify or support the fact that they've undertaken their obligations. Yeah so it's still a good idea to keep some sort of a record some documentation that it has been done. Yeah certainly Glyn. So here we've split the landlord and the tenant obligations. Yeah so it's clear there's a clear delineation between the requirements or the obligations upon both groups. So the landlord's obligations are that they must replace non-working or expired smoke alarms and an expired smoke alarm is one that is more than 10 years past the manufacture date which will be stamped on the body of the smoke alarm and they must test before or during a tenancy any process where a smoke alarm needs to be changed before or during a tenancy is the landlord's responsibility. The landlord also has an obligation to test and clean all smoke alarms within 30 days before a tenancy commences and the landlord must replace batteries that are flat or nearly flat before a tenancy commences. The obligations for tenants are that they must test and clean smoke alarms at least once a year. They must supply and replace flat batteries in any smoke alarm during the tenancy so not before the tenancy commences but actually during the tenancy and another obligation upon the tenant is that they must notify their property owner or the agent immediately if a smoke alarm is not working other than if it's not working because of battery failure which is the tenant's responsibility to change the battery. Okay so Mark what happens if and we've seen this sometimes occasionally as well what happens if someone tampers with a smoke of smoke alarm? So say as an owner or an agent I've done an inspection and the tenant has decided to cover the alarm with plastic he keeps burning these toast and he refuses to have the alarm going off so he's covered it with plastic. What happens in that situation if someone has tampered with one? Yeah so it's an offence under the legislation to tamper with a smoke alarm or to have it deal with it in any manner which will reduce its effectiveness other than if you're actually changing the battery immediately in the same process. So clearly if there is an ongoing issue with a smoke alarm activating inappropriately because it might be too close to a kitchen area the tenant and the landlord would need to discuss the options around potentially moving that smoke alarm from where it is to a more appropriate position. And again making sure that people don't tamper or cover them up or anything like that and just clarifying too if a tenant is renting privately and say they're not on a lease which that's a total different ball game for us the rental property still needs to meet these requirements don't they? Yeah that's correct so there's still a requirement for smoke alarms to be installed and the same obligations apply around it not tampering with or reducing the effectiveness of the smoke alarm. Okay our QFEST information you've got a lot of information I know on your website which is fantastic for the Queensland rental sector. Yeah look that's correct and remember the rentals component or phase is implemented from the commencement or commences from the 1st of January 2022 and look this is a really great safety move for Queenslanders lives will be saved and I'll just reiterate or highlight the one reason which probably best explains it and that is that people who are sleeping in their bedrooms with their doors closed often may not hear that smoke alarm that's in the hallway which is on the evacuation route to exit the building in an emergency so with the interconnection if the smoke alarm that's in the hallway identifies a small amount of smoke because we're in the early stages of fire it'll activate the sounder in the bedrooms awaking the sleeping occupants and providing them sufficient time to exit the dwelling through that evacuation route which is possibly becoming compromised by smoke they'll then receive that safe evacuation time and then they'll be able to evacuate with their other family members to the outside before the fire actually takes hold Mark are you concerned people aren't acting now and the risks that you've identified earlier could easily impact on the rental sector being compliant Yeah look we know that the people are and landlords in particular are actively upgrading their properties now however I do say to anybody who hasn't investigated or made that move they really do need to act now because come the end of the year we get to the holiday period of time as we said before there could be situations where if they're going to use a third party installer they become busy it's holiday period so now is the time to move on it if you haven't already started and if I am a tenant renting a place and I have problems with the smoke alarm that the owner doesn't want to fix it or come January they haven't ensured they've met their requirements what do I do Look in the first instance talk to your landlord or your leasing agent if there's one managing the property and to see if it can be sorted out in the most appropriate manner if that can't be sorted at that level then once again and a complaint can be made through QFES and we'll investigate and ensure that the appropriate action is taken So that kind of comes down to the question of like you know the compliance how is the compliance upgrade going to be monitored moving forward? It's a slight complaint process Yeah that's correct we're still in the education process and phase and we're very confident that we are by educating the community about safety benefits that people will firstly be educated and understand their obligations and then willingly meet with those requirements however in the instances where we have somebody who deliberately refuses to do so then compliance enforcement action can be taken against the perpetrator And that's that reminder with those penalties to apply and I've got to ask this question with all the alarms now being connected how do you determine where the fire started from or which room to avoid? Yes so I think it's probably apt to say that should you get an activation at any time specifically during the night you need to just go and check all of the rooms immediately to have a look to see where there is potentially smoke or a fire has started so you would do that from wherever you are as you're moving through you'll know where your smoke alarms are and you need to go and check all of those areas in the first instance because the fire may actually not be very obvious in the early stages because that's the intention of the smoke alarms to actually identify in the very early stages of fire where the small amounts of smoke to activate that early morning and then provide that sufficient time to all of the occupants to safely evacuate before the fire takes hold Right and I suppose that's also the other message too from QFES at the moment too is have that little evacuation plan know where you need to go if you do have to go in case of a fire Yes certainly look as whilst the smoke alarms are really important and probably the key factor it's also equally as important to ensure that your family members all understand what to do in the event of a fire what they need to do what not to do so it's really important to have a a personal or a family fire evacuation plan and to practice and talk about that so that in the event of a fire everybody's at least familiar with what they need to do and that'll reduce any the impacts of maybe some part some members of panicking or being unsure what to do so yeah strongly recommend that practiced fire evacuation plan in conjunction with the upgraded smoke alarms Yeah and again your website's got fantastic information not just as you said the evacuation side of it what to do but also the smoke alarms and other information they might need for fire safety Yeah certainly there's comprehensive information and pages across there including some short videos for people who may choose to or find their information better like that so it's comprehensive there so I strongly recommend that everybody visits the site and gathers the information that they need and I'm sure it'll be a great learning experience Great okay from the RTA's Educator Point View you can connect with us by subscribing to the RTA News for regular updates on current topics and also follow us on LinkedIn the RTA produces various educational resources including webinars on TNC legislation and key topics as such as today as well as our Talking TNC podcast series you can access both of these through the RTA's website or for podcasts through your preferred podcast app and this is the links to our website again all our forms fact sheets publications and our web services all available at rta.qld.gov.au or contact our friendly call centre staff on 1-300-306-301 Monday to Friday 8.30am to 5pm look a big thank you to Mark for joining us today I know we do get inquiries on smoke alarm laws and it's good to have this as a resource for the Queensland Rental sector to understand what's required bust those myths answer some of the questions that we also get here in our call centre and also to help QFest with their promotion and compliance campaign so thank you Yeah thanks to RTA and yourself personally Lynn for this great opportunity to spread the message and further educate the community on their obligations but the key point as I said before is it's going to increase the safety of Queensland as which is what we're all about Great, thank you everybody and thanks for listening