 Hello, today's RTA recording is in collaboration with Queensland Fire and Emergency Services with regards to the smoke alarm laws and what you need to know in Queensland. Today's recording is going to run for approximately 25 minutes and has vital information for both landlords, managing agents and tenants. During this recording, you can go at your own pace and pause the recording along the way. Thank you for watching today. My name is Lynn Smith and I'm a senior community education officer with the RTA and it's been my pleasure to work with the compliance and the engagement areas of QFest to put together today's webinar recording to help you understand Queensland tenancy and other legislation laws impacting the rental sector. Today our guest speaker is Jenny Omus from Queensland Fire and Emergency Services. Jenny works with the community education unit as a smoke alarm engagement officer. Jenny has experience in various roles with QFest including compliance and strongly supports educating the community and industry stakeholders as a subject matter expert on the smoke alarm legislation. So welcome today Jenny and thank you for your time. Thank you Lynn, great to be here and thank you for the opportunity to share this information with your clients. So just as a further note, the RTA cannot provide legal advice and you are encouraged to seek your own independent advice and make informed decisions. Before I hand over to Jenny to discuss the smoke alarm legislation, I'm just going to quickly go over the Residential Tenancies and Re-Recombination Act that links to the smoke alarm laws. So under section 185 the property owner must comply with and not be in breach of any health or safety laws and the smoke alarm laws are going to fall into this category. This section also continues to say that the property owner must ensure the property is fit to live in and also to maintain the rental property during the tenancy. Under section 192 which is the grounds for entry, the Act allows that the property owner or their agent to enter to comply with the Fire and Emergency Services Act 1990 and the smoke alarm laws and that means whether they need to be installed or whether they need to be checked. Notice needs to be given to the tenant before entering the premises as outlined under the rules of entry and the tenant needs to be given a minimum of 24 hours notice with regards to the smoke alarm maintenance. It's important to remember both the property owner and manager and the tenant have responsibilities regarding smoke alarms. The owner has further obligations regarding the installation and the maintenance of smoke alarms and they're also going to need to comply with current and also the new legislative requirements. I'm now going to hand over to our guest speaker Jenny who's going to go through the who, what, where and why requirements of smoke alarms, talk about the current requirements and the all-important new legislation requirements coming into effect on 1 January 2022. So over to you Jenny, why do we have the new smoke alarm laws? Thank you Lynn. Well we've had smoke alarm requirements for some time however the Sacks Creek House by in August of 2011 tragically claimed the lives of 11 people. The cause of death was found to be smoke inhalation. The current at the time determined that it was likely that some or all of the deaths would have been prevented if sleeping occupants had been quickly awoken. This inquest triggered the largest reform in the smoke alarm laws for Queensland. These reforms meant the introduction of the Fire and Emergency Services Domestic Smoke Alarms Amendment Act of 2016 which is incorporated into the Fire and Emergency Services Act of 1990 and together with the Building Fire Safety Regulations of 2008 the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services administers and enforces the smoke alarm legislation. So Jenny what's the key reason behind the changes in the legislation? The principal reasons for the smoke alarm laws are for occupant safety in a domestic dwelling and this means providing critical early warning of the presence of a fire which provides time for safe evacuation. Now this legislation has been rolled out in a staged approach over 10 years with three key dates. The first key date was the first of January 2017 when the legislation was enacted. This applied to new bills. The second and important key date is from 1 January 2022 for rental properties for all new leases or renewals and dwellings being sold or transferred. Now this date is just around the corner. The third and last key date is 1st of January 2027 for all other dwellings typically the owner occupier. Jenny just in summary the key dates for landlords is 1 January 2022 for renting out their properties and also for owners who are going to be selling and for everyone else those owner occupiers it'll be 2027. Absolutely. When getting ready to upgrade to the new requirements the following are some terms you will need to know about. Smoke alarms must meet the Australian standard 3786 2014. You'll find this number somewhere on the device and on the packaging. The smoke alarms will need to be interconnected. This means when one smoke alarm activates all the alarms would automatically sound the alert. A hard-wired smoke alarm means one that is connected to the building's 240 volt power supply that can only be installed or replaced by a licensed electrician. Alternatively a non-removable 10-year battery powered smoke alarm is one that is a standalone tamper proof device that can be installed by the home owner. A photoelectric smoke alarm means that this is the method the device uses to detect the smoke and testing has proven this to be the most effective type of smoke alarm in a domestic situation. Now I want to talk about the types of accommodation captured under the domestic smoke alarm laws. These are class IAs which are domestic houses and townhouses and class II sole occupancy units such as units or apartments. Now both of these classifications are referred to as dwellings. So Jenny what happens for like holiday lets or roomy accommodation or you know the student purpose built type of accommodation? Well that's a good question. So the domestic smoke alarm legislation captures class IAs and IIs. All other classes such as your student accommodation all under a different class and different legislation. So Jenny can you remind our audience today and outline the current obligations for smoke alarms for landlords and for tenants. Certainly Liam. So the current obligations for landlords are if a smoke alarm is not working or it has expired it must be replaced immediately by the landlord. Typically smoke alarms have a lifespan of about 10 years anything past that reduces efficiency. The landlord must test and clean all smoke alarms within 30 days before a tenancy commences or on its renewal. The landlord must also replace any batteries that are spent or almost spent within 30 days before a tenancy commences or on its renewal. And the landlord must replace the smoke alarm immediately when a tenant advises is that it has failed or it's about to fail during a tenancy. Now similarly tenants also have obligations under the act. Tenants are responsible for testing and cleaning smoke alarms at least once a year during the tenancy. The tenant is responsible for supplying and replacing any spent or nearly spent batteries during the tenancy. And most importantly a tenant is responsible for notifying the landlord or agent immediately if a smoke alarm is not working other than because of battery failure. Now I want to talk about testing and cleaning of smoke alarms. Because the smoke alarm laws applies to the domestic dwelling there is no specific license required to test or clean smoke alarms. Testing means by pushing the test button or as per the manufacturer's instructions making sure an alarm sounds. Cleaning means in a way stated by the manufacturer's instructions. This is normally done by vacuuming. This is to ensure dirt and debris is cleaned off. A landlord may choose to undertake the work themselves or engage an agent to fulfill their obligations. There is no certificate or formal documentation required under the Queensland legislation. So as we know Jenny a lot of agents do engage external organisations or third parties to do the smoke alarm compliance as part of their risk management. So you say you don't need to be a professional or that you do not have to keep certificates or documentations. Would you still see it as a best practice to keep some sort of personal record? As I just stated you don't have to but it might be a good idea to keep a record. Some businesses may do this as part of an internal process. So what are the upgrade requirements Jenny? The new legislation specifies the type, the positioning and the interconnectedness of alarms which are critical factors for early warning. So to meet the requirements at the appropriate times smoke alarms will need to be interconnected, photoelectric and meet the Australian standard 3786 2014. Smoke alarms will need to be installed in each bedroom in hallways which connect the bedrooms and the rest of the dwelling or if there's no hallway between the bedrooms and the other parts of the story and if there are no bedrooms on our story at least one smoke alarm must be installed in the most likely path of travel to exit the dwelling. Now I want to talk about the landlord obligations for these upgrades. The law places the obligation on the landlord or owner to upgrade their smoke alarms no later than the required date. Bodies, corporate or managing entities are not responsible for the smoke alarm upgrades. Similarly on-site managers are not responsible unless you have some prior contractual agreement. The landlord though may engage an agent to fulfill their obligations. So I guess here the main message that you're saying is that even if a property owner or landlord engages a real state or managing agent to look after the property the owner falls completely onto the property owner only to make sure of the upgrade. Absolutely that's right Lynn. The law places the obligation on the owner. So one of the questions that Cufis frequently receives is about the powering of smoke alarms. Now the smoke alarms must either be hardwired that's to the domestic power supply or powered by a 10-year non-removable battery. Any existing hardwired smoke alarm must remain hardwired. So to explain that a bit further if your property already has an existing hardwired smoke alarm it must remain a hardwired smoke alarm. Now additional smoke alarms can be powered by either method. This means if you have a room and you can't drill into the ceiling you can place the standalone smoke alarm in that room. As long as you can achieve interconnection by a wired or wireless system. So what happens if you can't get through that roof space or there's asbestos in that ceiling so or you've got some other genuine reason that you can't do the wired in alarms. And the legislation recognizes this which is why there is provision to have a combination of both a hardwired and a standalone battery powered smoke alarm. Now the other most frequently asked question centers around the location. So firstly a smoke alarm needs to be on the ceiling if it's practicable. In this diagram we have a smoke alarm in each bedroom one in the hallway. The red line indicates that it's interconnected. Now let me give you a scenario. It's late at night and all the occupants in every bedroom are fast asleep and everyone with their doors closed. Now the smoke alarm in the hallway is key because in the early stages of a developing fire the hallway smoke alarm will pick up any smoke triggering alarms in the bedrooms. This early warning gives the occupants time to wake up and escape the dwelling. So the other thing for your home it's a good idea to have a well-practised fire evacuation plan particularly if you have young kids. So do you need an alarm in the kitchen or the living areas? And I would hope not in the kitchen because of people who continually burn toast but do you need them in the other areas? So where the legislation helps is that it sets the minimum requirements for compliance as I've just outlined in the bedrooms and in the hallways. Okay so the main message is it's really about that safety ensuring that you've got that pathway to escape and it's covered with the interconnected alarms so whether that might be an additional area like a living area if that is your pathway to get out of the house. That's right then. So Jenny I know that we're doing this recording some 17 months prior to legislative requirement date so why would we upgrade now? Well there could be unexpected delays there could also be smoke alarms or installer shortages closest to the date which may impact on costs but if your smoke alarm needs replacing now it's likely to be more cost effective for you to undertake the full upgrades. I agree with that Jenny it's important not to leave it to the last minute. I can share a story with you regarding the pool safety laws when they came into effect. I too as known I thought I had plenty of time and it was about three or four months out of the legislative date and I booked the appointment only to find that I had over two months waiting time for an inspection so I was pretty close to that requirement date so I do get it that you know there could be unexpected delays and that's not an excuse. No that's right the laws have been in place since 2017. So what's the potential consequences if you don't get this done in time? So some of the potential consequences is that you'll be unable to legally rent your property this will have a financial impact on the landlord. There are also insurance implications also you may be compromising the health and safety of the occupants. Additionally penalties apply for non-compliances against the act. Remember it's the law to have compliant working smoke alarms. The other consideration from my understanding as part of internal processes rental managing agents are likely to require confirmation of the upgrades by 1 January 2022. So you've raised a lot of requirements for landlords but I guess tenants still do have their requirements to follow as well and more so when living in the property they should not cover or interfere with a smoke alarm. That's right it's an offence against the act to interfere with a working smoke alarm. So the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services strongly recommends upgrading early. If you want to email in a question you can contact us at smokealarms at qfes.qld.gov.au Otherwise visit the QFES website. When you get there you'll see this and depending on whether you're a landlord an owner occupy a renter your building or you're selling there is information for you. Great thank you Janie for being here today and sharing a lot of information relevant for the rental sector for Queensland. So for the RTA you can continue to connect with us through LinkedIn or subscribe to the RTA news articles through our newsroom where we can provide updates on current tensi and bond topics and trends. We will be continuing to work with Janie and her colleagues from QFES in providing updates and reminders and use these channels to share important information. So for more information on smoke alarm laws we also have a link on our website to QFES's website or other tensi and bond information. Please go to the RTA's website rta.qld.gov.au or if you have any questions please speak to one of our friendly staff in our contact centre on 1300 36311. Remember if you need any Tennessee assistance the RTA is here to help you. Again I'd like to thank our special guest Janie from Queensland Fire and Emergency Services for her valuable input today and thank you for your time in watching today's presentation. Please stay tuned as we deliver more tense information through this and other channels from the Residential Tenancies Authority. Thank you.