NSW: Q&A Smoke Alarms in Strata Units

We have received the following questions about smoke alarms in NSW strata units, including who is responsible for maintaining smoke alarms in the common property and inside individual lots.

Table of Contents:

• QUESTION: Are battery-operated smoke alarms compliant for our class 2 building? If not, who is responsible for the cost of the upgrade?
• QUESTION: What smoke alarms are compliant for an old class 2 building? Are we required to have hard wired smoke alarms fitted?
• QUESTION: Can you provide some information about NSW Fire & Rescue’s “encouragement” to install interconnected alarms in NSW townhouses
• QUESTION: I have purchased a unit and noticed there is no smoke alarm installed inside the apartment. Strata states this is my responsibility. Is this right?
• QUESTION: Annual fire inspections were just carried out. Who is financially responsible for replacement of smoke alarms in a strata building? Owners Corp or individual owners?
• QUESTION: Each apartment has a heat & smoke detector wired to our fire system panel, plus a smoke detector installed and paid for by owners. Our fire safety inspector insists on inspecting lot owner’s smoke detectors. Is this necessary since the smoke detectors are owned by the lot owners.
• QUESTION: We have been told we need to install extra smoke alarms and all alarms must be hard-wired. Can a local council impose stricter requirements for smoke alarms in strata than the NSW Fire Legislation?
• QUESTION: In NSW, who is responsible to ensure the smoke alarms in strata units are operational? Who’s responsibility is the cost of replacement and installation of new smoke detectors?

Question: Are battery-operated smoke alarms compliant for our class 2 building? If not, who is responsible for the cost of the upgrade?

I am the secretary of our strata committee. Our building is six years old. We do not have a sophisticated safety system, with no central fire panel.

We are not required to submit a fire safety statement to the Council. However, we’re committed to ensuring we have all the safety measures and that they are routinely inspected.

We’ve been told that seven of our 27 units need to upgrade their power switchboard to install a hardwired smoke alarm and that battery-operated alarms are no longer permitted. For our class 2 building, are battery-operated smoke alarms compliant? If not, who is responsible for the cost of the upgrade?

Answer: If the smoke alarms are not listed on the Schedule of Essential Fire Safety Measures, battery-only devices are permitted, and the responsibility lies with the lot owner.

If the smoke alarms are not listed on the Schedule of Essential Fire Safety Measures (or approvals docs) for that building, then they can be battery-only devices and the responsibility lies with the lot owner.

If smoke alarms or BCA E2.2a are listed on any approval documents, they are required to be hardwired and generally regarded as common property.

Irrespective of the two possibilities above, having a working smoke alarm is the responsibility of every lot owner – even more so if they are a landlord.

Rob Broadhead
2020 Fire Protection
E: [email protected]
P: 1300 340 210

This post appears in Strata News #677.

Question: What smoke alarms are compliant for an old class 2 building? Are we required to have hard wired smoke alarms fitted?

Our building was built in 1977. I am getting conflicting information from Council and the contractor regarding our smoke alarms.

Due to the age of the building, are battery operated smoke alarms compliant? The building is old and it seems too complicated to go down the hard wired path.

I’ve heard the EPA guidelines are just an information sheet and, for class 2 buildings, the type of smoke alarm used is the owner’s choice – hard wired or battery operated. Is this correct?

Answer: It all depends on what it says on the schedule of Essential Fire Safety Measures on the AFSS or Council fire order.

It all depends on what it says on the schedule of Essential Fire Safety Measures on the AFSS or Council fire order.

In simple terms:

• If the docs state: “BCA E2.2a” or “Spec. E2.2a”, then hard-wired is the required option (irrespective of how difficult it is to retrofit).
• If the docs state nothing or only AS3786, then battery-only is generally acceptable.

There are some variants depending on whether the property is used for short-term-letting and therefore how the Residential Tenancy Act, smoke alarm regulation and BCA apply, but the above two are the most common determination of compliance.

Rob Broadhead
2020 Fire Protection
E: [email protected]
P: 1300 340 210

This post appears in Strata News #636.

Question: Can you provide some information about NSW Fire & Rescue’s “encouragement” to install interconnected alarms in NSW townhouses.

The 2006 NSW legislation regarding smoke alarms falls short of the NSW Fire and Rescue’s “encouragement” that interconnected alarms be installed.

Despite being very familiar with the NSW legislation I was unaware of NSW Fire & Rescue’s “encouragement” until a new electrician mentioned it last Friday.

It would be great to receive some information about interconnected alarms for townhouses.

Answer: The Fire Brigade are focussed on maximum life safety rather than simply the minimum Legislation requirements.

2006 Smoke Alarm Legislation is the minimum requirement. It’s stating that ALL homes that are sold or rented must have a working smoke alarm (battery-only or otherwise) in specific locations.

The current Building Code of Australia and Residential Tenancies Act/ Reg expand on this minimum to require mains powered &/or interconnected smoke alarms for new buildings and for certain tenancy situations.

The Fire Brigade – who are focussed on maximum life safety rather than simply the minimum, indeed recommend mains powered alarms, replacement every 10 years, additional locations throughout the home and interconnected.

Here is Fire & Rescue’s page outlining the legislation and their recommendations: Smoke Alarms

NSW Fire & Rescue make these recommendations due to the following:

The risk of a fatality in a home fire is halved if there is a working smoke alarm in a residential dwelling.

Additional and interconnected smoke alarms improve this as modern home furnishings burn much faster and more intensely than in the past and children are often not easily woken by smoke alarms.

Here’s an Underwriters Laboratory YouTube clip showing how quickly fire develops: Scarily – it’s quite old already and every year we’re all bring more flammable products into our homes.

Flashover… Old Vs. New

Rob Broadhead
2020 Fire Protection
E: [email protected]
P: 1300 340 210

This post appears in Strata News #560.

Question: I have purchased a unit and noticed there is no smoke alarm installed inside the apartment. Strata states this is my responsibility. Is this right?

I have purchased a top floor unit in Kogarah, NSW and noticed there is no smoke alarm installed. The unit was in a building built in 1974.

I emailed strata asking them to have a smoke alarm installed and their response was:

“As this is a requirement for within your own lot, you will need to organise to have the smoke alarms installed as soon as possible. Unfortunately, this is not a strata cost and one that you will need to cover.”

What is the requirement they refer to? How did the previous owner get away with not having one if the managing agent conducted annual smoke alarm checks and the owner of my unit was on the owners corporation?

What legislation is required in NSW as to what is needed in a strata title and what is the legal obligation of strata to conduct regular checks?

Answer: The Owners Corporation is not responsible for the installation of smoke alarms in privately owned units unless they are connected to a shared service such as a fire panel.

Under Division 7A of Part 9 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2000, smoke alarms must be installed in all buildings in NSW where people sleep. The smoke alarms must meet the requirements of Australian Standard AS 3786, Smoke Alarms.

The Owners Corporation is only responsible for common property, shared services etc. They are not responsible for the installation of smoke alarms in privately owned units unless they are connected to a shared service such as a fire panel. This extends to the OC also not being responsible to maintain a standalone smoke alarm in a privately owned lot / unit.

Chris Chatham
Linkfire
E: [email protected]
P: 1300 669 439

This article is not intended to be personal advice and you should not rely on it as a substitute for any form of advice.

This post appears in Strata News #456.

Question: Annual fire inspections were just carried out. Who is financially responsible for the replacement of smoke alarms in a strata building? Owners Corp or individual owners?

Answer: Realistically this will come down to the agreement you have with your Strata and Building Management; the following is the most common scenario that we see.

Realistically this will come down to the agreement you have with your Strata and Building Management; the following is the most common scenario that we see.

When Smoke alarms are at the end of their 10-year life span, this is reported back to the Strata / Owners Corp, generally, a large number of these will require replacement at the same time, due to the installation at the build of the apartments.

The replacement of the alarms is then coordinated through the Owners Corp (best like for like to try to keep all alarms the same), rather than allowing them to be replaced by the individual owners where there could be further issues going forward.

The costs for these works are then invoiced to the individual owners through the Strata or Owners Corp.

Chris Chatham
Linkfire
E: [email protected]
P: 1300 669 439

This article is not intended to be personal advice and you should not rely on it as a substitute for any form of advice.

This post appears in Strata News #399.

Question: Each apartment has a heat & smoke detector wired to our fire system panel, plus a smoke detector installed and paid for by owners. Our fire safety inspector insists on inspecting lot owner’s smoke detectors. Is this necessary since the smoke detectors are owned by the lot owners.

We have been with the same Fire service company since our apartments were built 16 years ago.

We are paying an excessive amount to our fire company for inspections. I am site manager of our building and also an owner on the committee.

We have two fire detectors in all apartments one is a heat & smoke detector wired to our fire system panel, the other is a smoke detector installed and paid for by owners. The owners smoke detectors have just been replaced by all owners.

I was aware that the Heat/Smoke detectors need to be check for fire safety. Our fire safety inspector now insists on inspecting lot owner’s smoke detectors. Why has this changed? Is this necessary since the smoke detectors are owned by the lot owners.

Answer: If a building has SOU smoke alarms the performance of these smoke alarms needs to be maintained.

Certainly, detectors connected to a fire detection system (i.e. fire panel) should be appropriately maintained. For stand-alone smoke alarms in Sole-Occupancy Units (SOUs) though, it is a little more complicated.

Smoke alarms (including any in SOUs) may already be listed in the FSS for a building, or they may otherwise be considered an essential FSM due to clause 186E of the Regs if they were installed after the FSS was issued. Therefore, either way, if a building has SOU smoke alarms the performance of these smoke alarms needs to be maintained.

This is the difficult part. If the building owner has engaged an Accredited Practitioner-Fire Safety (AP-FS) to complete and sign off the required assessment for the Annual Fire Safety Statement (AFSS), as they now have to do by law, then it may be the opinion of that AP-FS that they cannot verify the performance of smoke alarms inside SOUs without undertaking a suitable inspection and/or having access to appropriate service records.

As for why you have recently seen a change of process, this may well be due to this performance aspect described above. Recent changes in NSW legislation have in effect ‘raised the bar’ in relation to the assessments undertaken for signing off the AFSS, with practitioners now requiring specific accreditation that they could in practice lose if they are not doing the job properly. As the entire industry tries to come to terms with the changes and restructures their business models accordingly, significant changes (and cost increases) are not entirely unexpected, unfortunately.

Chris Chatham
Linkfire
E: [email protected]
P: 1300 669 439

This article is not intended to be personal advice and you should not rely on it as a substitute for any form of advice.

This post on appears in Strata News #387

Question: We have been told we need to install extra smoke alarms and all alarms must be hard-wired. Can a local council impose stricter requirements for smoke alarms in strata than the NSW Fire Legislation?

I live in an apartment in a strata scheme with three buildings and fourteen apartments.

After our latest fire safety inspection, we were notified that we were not compliant. Namely, we need to install extra smoke alarms in each apartment and all of the alarms must be hard-wired. Apparently, the Council (Ku-ring-gai) have stated to the fire safety inspectors that this has to be done.

All the bedrooms in the apartments are “clustered” and all have an alarm between the cluster and the living area. Most alarms are battery only. As far as I can see, the requirement for NSW strata is one alarm if the bedrooms are in a cluster and battery alarms are permitted.

Have I understood correctly? Can a local council impose stricter requirements for smoke alarms in strata than the NSW Fire Legislation?

Answer: Yes – a local council could potentially impose stricter requirements if they believe it is necessary for the safety of occupants.

This is a hard one to get across without all of the information at hand as there are a lot of variables that would play a part in those questions, however, we can address the last point directly:

Under Part 2, Schedule 5 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, a relevant enforcement authority (e.g. a local council), can issue a Fire Safety Order requiring the recipient to do or stop doing anything if they believe it is necessary to “…ensure or promote the safety of persons in the event of fire…”. So in relation to that part of your question, effectively yes – a local council could potentially impose stricter requirements if they believe it is necessary for the safety of occupants.

Chris Chatham
Linkfire
E: [email protected]
P: 1300 669 439

This article is not intended to be personal advice and you should not rely on it as a substitute for any form of advice.

This post on appears in Strata News #379

Question: In NSW, who is responsible to ensure the smoke alarms in strata units are operational? Who’s responsibility is the cost of replacement and installation of new smoke detectors?

Our strata committee regularly checks all our unit’s smoke detectors to ensure that they are still operative. I understand that this is a requirement under fire prevention legislation in NSW, and could also have a bearing on our strata’s property insurance.

I have recently discovered that smoke detectors have an effective ‘use by date’ and although 6 monthly checks have led to backup battery replacements over time, the entire unit is supposed to be replaced after 10 years.

As our installed units have a replacement date of 2014 is our strata in breach of any NSW fire prevention guidelines, or is the strata’s fire insurance cover compromised?

Answer: The Owners Corporation would not be in breach.

There are provisions in the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation that require existing buildings to install smoke alarms, but they are only limited. There are specific requirements for each classification of a building, including the locations of the alarms, however, there is no requirement for photo-electric alarms, unlike that has been introduced as of the 1st January 2017 in Queensland.

The responsibility for the replacement of the smoke alarm is that of the owner and any smoke alarms in the common property would be that of the Owners Corporation. The smoke alarms need to have supply from mains electricity or a non-removable battery with a minimum life expectancy of 10 years that is connected to the alarm.

The Owners Corporation would not be in breach of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation if an individual lot had not replaced their smoke alarm if it has passed its use-by date and this would not affect the Owners Corporation’s strata Insurance.

What would happen if an owner didn’t replace the batteries? I imagine the mother of all personal injury lawsuits! We need only to look at the drivers for change elsewhere e.g. The Childers Palace Backpackers Hostel fire 23rd June 2000 where 15 people lost their lives forced the Queensland Government to introduce the toughest and ‘best practice’ Fire Safety requirements in the country. The timber hostel did not have working smoke detectors or fire alarms.

Another example of what happens when smoke alarms are not maintained or tampered with is the Slacks Creek Fire in 2011 south of Brisbane. 11 people died in the worst residential house fire in Australia. When the fire started, no smoke alarms were functioning. The alarms had been disabled because they caused too many false alarms. Less than 15 minutes later, the house was a shell and eleven people had died. Had working smoke alarms been fitted, most lives would have been saved.

This is why Queensland introduced a requirement for Photoelectric smoke alarms to be fitted so that this type of preventable disaster would not happen again. Ionization alarms are not good at detecting fires. They ‘feel’ for the fire, whereas Photoelectric fire alarms ‘see’ the fire by detecting visible combustion particles. They won’t sound an alarm when the toast is burnt or shower steam escapes but they will sound an alarm where there is a dangerous, smouldering fire!

Research shows that both have comparable response times in “fast flame” fires, but photoelectric alarms respond over 15 minutes faster to a smouldering fire. In one study, the only time the ionization alarm was quickest was in detecting burning toast!

Smoke alarms are a really important warning device because unfortunately, there are too many ways in which a fire can start in a household. This includes:

• Kitchen stoves / cooking equipment
• Electric blankets
• Faulty wiring
• Smoking
• Overheated lighting
• Candles
• Heating (e.g. Portable heaters)

Most fires happen in the middle of the night when you’re sleeping – you may only have a few minutes to wake up and get you and your family outside. Most fire deaths are the result of smoke inhalation rather than from burns, another good reason to make sure this life-saving device is working.

Peter Berney
Solutions in Engineering
E: [email protected]
P: 1300 136 036

This post on appears in Strata News #146.

This article is not intended to be personal advice and you should not rely on it as a substitute for any form of advice.

Share your thoughts about smoke alarms in NSW. Have a question or something to add to the article? Leave a comment below.

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• NSW: Key changes to smoke alarm requirements for rented homes
• NSW: Smoke Alarms in Residential Accommodation

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