If you own or manage a rental property in Perth, or you are about to sell your home, WA law already has requirements for your smoke alarms, whether you have read them or not. Here is what smoke alarm testing actually covers, how often it needs doing, and what it costs to get wrong.
1. WA law requires compliant alarms at sale, rent, or hire
Under the Building Act 2011 and Building Regulations 2012, a home cannot be sold, rented, or hired out in WA without compliant smoke alarms. In practice that means alarms that are mains powered, in working order, and less than 10 years old.
2. Getting it wrong is not a small fine
Consumer Protection WA can issue a $1,000 infringement notice for a home without a smoke alarm at the point of sale, rent, or hire. For a landlord who lets out a property without one, that can climb to $5,000.
3. Only a licensed electrician can connect one
Mains powered smoke alarms are electrical work. WA's Building and Energy division is explicit that only a licensed electrical contractor can connect or disconnect one, so this is not a job for a general handyman or a weekend DIY project.
4. DFES says test every alarm once a month
The actual testing part is simple. DFES recommends pressing the test button on each alarm monthly until it sounds. It takes about ten seconds per alarm, and it is the only way to know the unit still works rather than assuming it does.
5. Clean it twice a year, replace the battery once
Dust and cobwebs build up inside a smoke alarm and can stop it sensing smoke properly or trigger false alarms, so DFES recommends a light vacuum every six months. If the alarm takes a replaceable nine volt battery, that gets swapped once a year. Mains powered units still have a backup battery worth checking at the same time.
6. Every alarm gets replaced at ten years, no exceptions
Regardless of type, model, or how well it has been maintained, DFES is clear that every smoke alarm needs replacing once it hits ten years old. The sensor degrades over time in a way that cleaning and battery changes cannot fix.
7. The compliance job splits between landlord and tenant
In a rental property, Consumer Protection WA puts the overall compliance job on the landlord: keeping the alarm working, mains powered, and under ten years old. The tenant's part is smaller, testing the alarm monthly and swapping an easily reached 9 volt battery if it needs one. If the alarm is hard to reach, that responsibility falls back to the landlord too.
For a Perth property manager juggling more than one rental, that split is easy to lose track of, especially around a change of tenants or as a unit approaches its ten year mark. An expired alarm is a bad thing to discover the week before a new tenancy starts. The Local Guys run residential smoke detector testing on a set schedule, so that tracking happens automatically instead of on a spreadsheet somewhere.
Book Your Perth Smoke Alarm Testing
Not sure if your smoke alarms are compliant, or when they were last tested? Call 13 11 05 or request a quote online. See our full range of test and tag services in Perth for everything else we cover on site.
