Smoke alarms: the annual check
What has to be tested, how often, when an alarm reaches end of life, and why smoke alarm compliance slips more often than gas and electrical.
Annual, not two-yearly
Smoke alarms must be tested and maintained every twelve months. That is half the interval of the gas and electrical checks, so over a four-year tenancy an agency has to hit four smoke alarm dates and two of each of the others.
Because the interval is different, the date is different. An agency running one compliance date per property will always be late on this one.
Ten years is the limit
Every smoke alarm has a manufacture date and a ten-year life. Past that it must be replaced whether or not it still sounds when tested, because the sensor degrades in ways a test button does not show.
A good annual visit records the expiry of every alarm in the property, not just the pass or fail, so a replacement is planned rather than discovered.
Placement matters as much as function
An alarm that works but is in the wrong place is not compliance. Placement is governed by AS 3786 and the building regulations that applied when the dwelling was built or last renovated, so an alarm a previous owner fitted in a hallway corner may need moving rather than testing.
Where a property has been extended or a bedroom added, alarm coverage almost always needs revisiting, and that finding is worth having in writing.