Reapit in Australia & New Zealand:
Change Region: ANZ
Nearly 60 per cent of Queensland rental properties do not have interconnected smoke alarms in place, despite being required by law in the new year.
Data collected by property technology company Console revealed only 43 per cent of houses and 39.3 per cent of residential units were compliant with the 2022 smoke alarm requirements.
From January 1, all rental homes are required to have photoelectric, interconnected smoke alarms, with a unit to be placed in every bedroom, connecting hallway, and level of a property. The alarms must be hardwired or be powered by non-removable 10-year lithium batteries. If one alarm is triggered, all of them are to go off.
The laws were introduced in 2017, with a phased 10 year roll out. By 2027, all Queensland homes will have to have interconnected smoke alarms.
Console Chief Operating Officer Matt McGown said the race was on for property managers and landlords to ensure their rentals adhere to the new laws.
“Our Console Cloud data shows a lack of compliant smoke alarms is particularly a problem in regional Queensland, with north and central Queensland districts recording the lowest percentage of compliant properties.
“On the other hand, Strathpine, North Lakes and Beaudesert are leading the way, with more than 60 per cent of rental properties already meeting the new standards – but even in these areas there are a lot of smoke alarms yet to be installed.”
Mr McGown said ensuring rental properties are always compliant, with inspections and certifications kept up to date was a large part of a property manager’s role.
“With tens of thousands of properties needing the new smoke alarm systems to be installed, property managers and landlords will be under a lot of pressure to meet the impending deadline.
“Considering hardwired smoke alarms must be installed by a licensed electrician – the time to install smoke alarms is rapidly running out.”
AreaPercentage of properties with 2022 compliant smoke alarms
AreaPercentage of properties with 2022 compliant smoke alarms
Console has been the leading Australian and New Zealand provider of real estate, property management, and trust accounting software for 29 years. Its flagship product, Console Cloud, is the fastest-growing cloud-based property management software platform. In 2019, Console implemented a simple identifier in the platform to record what properties had achieved a 2022 Smoke Alarm compliance status.
To compile the smoke alarm data, Console reviewed the number of rental properties managed in Queensland by agencies actively utilising the Console Cloud compliance workflow feature. From this review, a total of 118,791 properties were sampled. On November 2, just 42% of these properties were recorded as smoke alarm compliant.
Vaxa Group
Kate Wilson 0403 953 015 | kate.wilson@vaxagroup.com
