Smoke alarm testing and compliance certification can now be automated as part of a new Artificial Intelligence (Ai) driven Maintenance AI feature of Propic CONCIERGE for Property Management. The new feature allows landlords and their property managers to stay ahead of their legislated responsibility to ensure at least one working smoke alarm is installed and working on each level of any residential property as a standard duty of care to tenants.
Within Propic Concierge for Property Management, property managers can now set a minimum number of months between automated checks of the smoke alarms, and trust the Propic Ai service to activate a full compliance certification whenever that lease is renewed or signed with a new tenant, for example.
They can choose whether landlords are alerted to any maintenance service requests or conversations handled by Propic CONCIERGE, or whether they'd prefer to report manually to accomodate individual client preferences.
The Propic CONCIERGE automated Smoke Alarm compliance feature does more than trigger a to-do reminder for a property manager to take action. It helps relieve the administrative burden by reaching out to tradespeople, connecting with smoke alarm suppliers, and keeping certification up to date and accurate.
The result is confidence for landlords, and their property managers, and ultimately, safer homes for their tenants, without added administrative burden or fines.
Propic CONCIERGE uses its natural-language style Ai Conversation skills to send a work order to the mapped Smoke Alarm tradesperson. It then manages the completion of compliance certification via the Maintenance AI features and settings within Propic CONCIERGE (renamed August 2022).
Why is smoke alarm compliance testing so important?
Fire and Rescue New South Wales investigations discovered 56 per cent of home fire deaths in New South Wales were in homes without a working smoke alarm, reports REINSW. It goes on to state the four most common causes of home fires in Australia as unattended or abandoned cooking, electrical failure, overheating and mechanical failure.
Tenancy laws changed from March 2020 making it mandatory for landlords to ensure a working smoke alarm is installed in every property, with fines upwards of $2,200 issued by Fair Trading for non-compliance to a range of mandated stipulations, such as:
- Smoke alarms serviced annually
- Alarms replaced within 10-year expiry period
- Removable batteries installed or replaced (or a person engaged to install or replace) in all smoke alarms annually
- Replace or repair any smoke alarm that is not working within two business days of becoming aware of its status
- Reimburse the tenant for any costs of a repair or replacement of a smoke alarm in accordance with clause 18 of the Residential Tenancies Regulation 2019
- Condition report provided to the Agency relative to smoke alarms and batteries for the inclusion in the tenancy agreement before the tenant moves in.
For more information about smoke alarm compliance regulations for property management we recommend this REIQ article.
