Fire safety compliance strata/body corporate vs landlord responsibilities

Nobzy – firstly, yours is not a stupid question but it’s rather reflective of a landlord who’s exercising due diligence over the management their properties; good on you!!

In general terms, smoke alarms that were installed within units and elsewhere at the time of a building’s construction become the responsibility of the Owners Corporation upon registration of the strata plan, and those installed post registration in order to comply with the (smoke alarms) Regulation (2006) are the responsibility of the Lot Owner / landlord in terms of maintenance, replacement, and ensuring correct operation at the commencement of each new tenancy, and by the tenant thereafter only with regard to replacing batteries if fitted and to reporting operational faults.

I used the word “generally” (above) because I’m aware that some Owners Corporations (O/C) include smoke alarms installed within Lots post Strata Registration in their annual Fire Safety Inspections. That complicates matters to some degree with regard to rental properties, as those annual Inspections don’t align with the inspections that Landlords / Property Managers are required to make at the commencement of each new tenancy.

In your circumstances, I’d determine who owns the smoke alarms within each of your rental properties, and then continue with the private contractor to annually inspect yours ($ seem a bit high), permit your O/C to annually inspect theirs (which will likely the hard-wired unit), and have your Property Manager/s check all smoke alarms at the commencement of each new tenancy and note that on the Incoming Condition Report/s as they’re required to.

I hope that’s clear….because it is a little complicated.

(Just saw Scotty’s post, but no matter ’cause we’re on the same page).

nobzy – YES it does, unless your O/C has magnanimously decided to inspect those on your behalf concurrently with its annual Fire Safety Inspections; check?

On the basis of what’s required of landlords and tenants with regard to the provision, operation, and maintenance of smoke alarms under the NSW Residential Tenancies Act (HERE), what’s recommended for fire safety by NSW Fire & Rescue (HERE) and in the absence of any knowledge about your present contractor’s scope-of-work, it just seemed to me that $100/annual check for each property was a bit steep.

After taking into consideration all of the above, and the fact that your Property Managers are required to undertake an inspection of each of your properties that’s sufficiently thorough to complete an Incoming Condition Report, including the prescribed item on smoke alarms, and you would expect they’d undertake routine property inspections on your behalf at least every six (6) months, I guess you’re the best judge about the worth, from all perspectives, of the services provided by your present contractor.

Perhaps rev. your Property Managers up to ensure that they’re duly diligent with the regular property inspections and reporting that you’re already paying for, let the inspection contract run for another 12 months, and then based on the quality of the information provided assess how you’ll proceed. 

Roo – There is one official “who’s responsible document” issued as a Memorandum by the Director General of NSW Land & Property Information, a couple of quasi-official versions by strata industry organisations, and many interpretations of those including the one that you’ve referenced in your post.

The problem is that the authors of most versions, interpretations, and extracts omit to read the Principles underlying the official document, and particularly the one that states that it’s “a guide to assist in determining whether a particular item in a strata scheme is part of an owner’s lot or is common property”.

Now that I’ve gotten that of my chest, it’s important to understand that the Building Codes for Class 2 Buildings, which is the Code used by Councils as the basis for their regulation of the design and construction of multi-unit developments can, whilst allowing for the degree of autonomy permitted to Councils within the Codes, empower them to require that smoke alarms be installed within individual lots as one of the elements of the building’s overall Fire Safety Schedule forming part of their Consent.

Smoke alarms then installed under that Schedule at the time of construction become part of the building’s Fire Safety Certificate, and the correct operation of those and everything else listed on that Certificate such as fire-rated entry doors, hydrants, hose reels, extinguishers, etc is subject to the annual Fire Safety Inspection and Report that Owners Corporation’s commission at their cost.

I hope that clarifies rather than confuses the position that Scotty and I posted earlier, and whilst on the subject of confusion, light fittings on ceilings can be common property is some situations. 

If you’re really worried have you considered calling the people who did the inspection, their details would be on the certificate?  They shouldn’t sign off unless everything is ok, they could be held liable.