The new Residential Tenancies Act (2020) comes into effect on 23rd March 2020. One of the main changes that our landlords will see is surrounding the laws with smoke alarms. There will be penalties for all landlords who do not comply with the new regulations.
Currently the law states that a smoke alarm must be installed in any rental home, it needs to be installed in the areas outside of any bedrooms and if the property is more than one level, there must be an alarm on every level. There are no changes to this requirement.
From 23rd March 2020, a landlord will be responsible for ensuring the smoke alarms are not only installed, but also working correctly, on an annual basis and for maintaining them by replacing a removable battery annually or when directed by the manufacturer (where a landlord has installed a 10 year lithium battery).
Smoke Alarms will need to be repaired or replaced within 2 days of the landlord being made aware that there is an issue or fault.
You will also be required to replace all smoke alarms within 10 years from the date of manufacture, or earlier if the alarm specifies an earlier date. Many of our landlords will be surprised to know that this requirement will be something that they have to do immediately, as alarms themselves have not been changed over in many years.
To keep our landlords as protected as we can with these issues, our office is recommending that landlords sign up to a smoke alarm testing service. There is a form below that you can fill in and sign, so that you can ensure your property and tenants are protected and that you are meeting your obligations under the new laws. A certificate of compliance will be held on file for you, once your alarms are tested and working, ensuring that you are protected.
On the reverse of this form, is a statutory declaration that you are able to fill in and sign if you no longer wish our agency to deal with this part of your obligations any longer and you want to look after this part of your management yourself.
Please do take the time to consider this carefully and make sure that you have filled in one of the sides of the provided form and returned it to our office.
Click here to download the form
