20 September 2019
Perhaps its time we talk about Smoke Alarms. With the looming deadline for landlords and prospective sellers to have smoke alarms up to standard to meet legislative requirements, now is the time to begin taking action in order to beat the last-minute rush. Under the new laws, dwellings (houses, units, etc) in Queensland which do not meet the new requirements, will not be able to be sold or leased after January 1, 2022. To put that into perspective, from this point, roughly 800 rental properties a day across Queensland will need to be upgraded to beat the upcoming deadline. To briefly summarise the legislation, each dwelling will require every bedroom, and any hallway that connects a bedroom with the rest of the dwelling, to be fitted with a Photoelectric Smoke alarm. There also must be at least one smoke alarm fitted to each storey of a house. All alarms must be interconnected. They will also need to be hardwired to the property's’ 240-volt electrical supply or powered by a 10-year Lithium battery. Whilst we are only discussing the target date for landlords and prospective sellers at the moment, please keep in mind, the new legislation will eventually affect everyone.