We all know time goes quickly…hey, it’s March already, and we’ve only just got used to writing ’20 instead of ’19! The Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ) are reminding people about the changes to Queensland’s smoke alarm registration that come into effect on 1 January 2022.
ALL domestic dwellings leased or sold have to be fitted with interconnected photoelectric smoke alarms; and at this stage there are no plans to extend the deadline, so it’s better to act sooner rather than later. We say the toilet roll panic that has swept across the nation, with 566,000 rental properties in Queensland, and only a finite number of skilled electricians available to do the work…you don’t want to leave it to the last minute and face the possibility of running out of time, due to a shortage of labour.
REIQ CEO Antonia Mercorella says, “The issue of skilled electricians is a great segue to the third misconception, which is that there are plenty of them out there to undertake this work. The reality is that we have a shortage of skilled technicians who understand the new legislative requirements.”
Ms Mercorella is concerned too many landlords are waiting, and when they do decide to act, they will not have enough time to meet that deadline.
“Not meeting the deadline does present some serious risks to property owners. If you are looking to rent your property, you will not be able to do so if it doesn’t have compliant smoke alarms by that date.”
“At its core, this legislation is about saving lives; there is no Australian who wants to continue seeing people losing their lives in house fires, so it is incredibly important that all of us get on board and support these legislative reforms.”
A 10-year phased roll-out saw this legislation take effect for all new dwellings and substantially renovated dwellings from 1 January 2017, to be extended to all domestic dwelling leased and sold from January 1 2022, and then further extended to include to ALL other domestic dwellings from January 1 2027.
Any new smoke alarm being installed, or existing smoke alarm being replaced from 1 January 2017 must also be a photoelectric-type alarm which complies with Australian Standard 3786. If your smoke alarm is more than 10 years old, it must be replaced with a photoelectric smoke alarm. A smoke alarm which is hardwired to the domestic power supply must be replaced with a hardwired photoelectric smoke alarm.
To tell if you have a photoelectric-type smoke alarm look on the front, back or inside of the smoke alarm unit for the word ‘photoelectric’, ‘optical’, ‘photo optical’ or the symbol ‘P’. If it does not contain these words or symbols your alarm should be replaced.