| Smoke Alarms – New QLD Legislation

From 1 January 2022

All homes or units being sold or leased, or existing leases renewed, will require hardwired photoelectric, interconnected smoke alarms. Non-removable 10-year battery smoke alarms can be installed in place.
Smoke alarms in the dwelling must:
- be photoelectric (AS3786-2014); and
- not also contain an ionisation sensor; and
- Be hardwired to the mains power supply, if currently hardwired. Otherwise, smoke alarms can be either hardwired or powered by a non removable 10 yr battery or a combination of both.
be interconnected with every other smoke alarm in the dwelling so all activate together.
The legislation requires smoke alarms must be installed in the following locations:
- on each storey
- in each bedroom
- if there is no hallway, between the bedroom and other parts of the storey; and
- if there are no bedrooms on a storey, at least one smoke alarm must be installed in the most likely path of travel to exit the dwelling.
The obligations on property sellers are triggered by the date the initial sale contract is signed.
When a contract of sale is signed after the 31/12/21, the seller is obligated to upgrade the dwelling to the updated interconnected domestic smoke alarm standard prior to the dwelling being transferred.

Click here to access the QFES fact sheet which highlights some of the key information.