Dead air space is an area in which trapped air can prevent smoke from reaching a smoke alarm and setting off the alarm. Dead air space commonly occurs at the apex of cathedral ceilings, corner junctions of walls and ceilings, and between exposed floor joists.
Smoke Alarms Australia has completed more than 2.2 million service calls, and we find many alarms are not compliant because they are located in dead air space.
There is too much at stake if alarms are not placed in the correct position. It only takes one alarm in the wrong position to put an entire household at risk.
When you sign up with SAA, we will ensure all alarms are in working order, properly placed around the home, and serviced each year to meet the standards set by the Building Code of Australia and relevant state legislation.
Where we find an alarm in a position that does not comply with regulations, our technician will move the alarm to an appropriate spot and place a cover plate to cover the location of the original alarm. It is then the responsibility of the landlord to have the ceiling or wall repaired, painted, or patched.
Safety is our number one priority and continuing to educate landlords, and their tenants on proper smoke alarm placement and servicing regulations is our goal.
If you have properties on your roll that need smoke alarm servicing, get in touch by clicking the button below.
Victorian rental providers are obligated to arrange a gas and electrical safety check every two years.
What is a Gas and Electricity Safety Check?
Under Victorian legislation, rental providers – property managers, and owners – are responsible to ensure gas appliances and electrical installations, fittings, and appliances are in safe working order. This is referred to as a gas or electrical safety check and, legally must be carried out every two years. You can read more about the legislation here.
Rental providers need to understand their obligations and have an effective service supplier in place to manage their risk and ensure compliance.
What gets checked?
Licenced Electricians and Gas Plumbers are required to carry out gas and electrical safety inspections. Upon completion, they should provide a compliance report to your agency.
The electrical service includes:
The gas service includes:
We make it quick and easy to manage the process for you
Smoke Alarms Australia has a dedicated team of qualified electricians and gas plumbers to manage the process from start to finish for you. Our end-to-end subscription service means no surprises, with services billed separately. Plus, our industry leading Victorian customer portal allows the Agency to see the whole portfolio in a single view, with an easy option to order the extra services.
Switching to Smoke Alarms Australia is easy with the assistance of your dedicated Business Relationship Manager (BRM) who will help manage the process so you can get on with your property management.
Your safety during COVID is our primary concern, and if your property is due for its annual smoke alarm service, we wanted to assure you that we take every precaution while carrying out this essential service.
After conferring with Fair Trading, it is confirmed that smoke alarms are an essential service and under sections 58 and 64A of the Residential Tenancies Act. As a tenant, you are required to grant access to the property for these essential services. The NSW Public Health Orders also confirm this under Sector 4 - Public Safety and Administration, fire protection and safety. Read more.
Smoke Alarms Australia will book directly with you to make a convenient time; however, we need to enter the property to service the alarms. Our team will confirm if you have any COVID issues at your home, and our field force will follow a strict process when attending to each property. Our priority is to keep everyone safe.
We understand you may have concerns about allowing our service technicians into your property to conduct our service. We take this responsibility very seriously. Our COVID safe hygiene and work practices are industry-leading and are as follows:
Our Technicians:
We thank you in advance for allowing us to carry out this service. In most instances, it will take 10-20 minutes and ensure you have working early warning protection from the risk of a house fire.
As a tenant, you have exclusive access to our tenant application available on the Apple or Google Play stores. You can message us directly with enquiries, check on your next scheduled service, track when the technician is on the way to their service, or log beeping, faulty, or chirping alarm service requests.
Smoke Alarms Australia (SAA) has been delivering smoke alarm compliance, testing, and maintenance services since 2005. SAA is proudly Australian-owned and backed by a team of dedicated professionals, taking pride in protecting your properties and keeping residents safe from the risk of fire. Now is the perfect time to get compliant with an SAA yearly subscription-based service as your landlords start to think about their annual tax returns. It is part of the Smoke Alarms Australia DNA to provide exceptional service to existing customers and offer simple changeover to new customers. SAA makes compliance easy for agents, landlords, and tenants.
Unlimited call-outs, including all alarms and batteries. All alarms meet the Australian standards, offering peace of mind for your Agency, landlords, and tenants.
Your tenants' time is valuable. SAA recognise this by scheduling an actual appointment time – not a two-hour window that interrupts your tenant's day. SAA will do the hard work of setting up the appointment, too, using SMS if the tenant can't be reached by phone, working closely with you for a satisfactory outcome.
A smoke chamber cannot be confirmed working unless there is an action that simulates an actual fire. Simply changing a battery or pushing the test button is not enough to provide a proper indication of the condition of a smoke alarm. During the visit to the property, tests are performed on existing alarms with artificial smoke, which forces the alarm to respond the same way it would if smoke entered the alarm. A push-button test only tests the alarm has power and is not enough!
Professionally trained technicians will provide smoke alarm expiry date checks, replace alarms when needed, and confirm the correct positioning of the alarms. When repositioning is required, technicians will install discreet cover plates at no extra cost. It's just part of the service SAA provides as an industry leader.
Quality work is key to servicing alarms, which means technicians will never leave a property unsafe. If a technician discovers a faulty hard-wired alarm, a temporary alarm will be installed while our electrician is organised to attend to complete the work. The technician will work with the SAA customer services team or the Business Development Manager to ensure that all parties are kept updated.
SAA also has a 24/7 Beeping Alarm Support Line for tenants. In the event of a beeping alarm, the tenant simply calls the support line, and a customer service team member will work with them to troubleshoot the issue. If they can't resolve it, a technician will be assigned to assist, being one less thing for the property manager to worry about.
SAA knows that tenant safety and happy landlords are paramount, so making the process of smoke alarm compliance easy and professional is so important. Get in touch now to find out how SAA can help your landlords meet their compliance requirements!
SAA has been working hard for Property Managers so your tenants can engage with us directly and easily. We want to give you back the gift of more time.
You are very busy, and we appreciate that you need us to work directly with your tenant and leave you to do what you do best.
When you onboard a new tenant, they download the free App from the Apple App Store or Google Play store. Their mobile needs to be registered on the SAA system to gain access to the App. You can either add their number in the portal with the new tenant details or email our Agency Services team to update you. If you are syncing data through Property Me, Property Tree, or Palace, the update will be done automatically for you on the next sync. If your tenant has issues logging in, have them call us for the team to help. Our number is 1300 125 276.
Once the App is downloaded, your tenant will be asked to log in with their mobile number, enter a security code and allow notifications.
Once their mobile is registered, tenants can, message us directly with enquiries, check on their next scheduled service, track when the technician is on the way to their service, or, log beeping, faulty, or chirping alarm service requests.
With some new legislation across different states, SAA has included information on the property the tenant needs to have access to under these new rules. They can:
Tenants can only see information relative to their property, and once they move out and a new tenant moves in, the old tenant will no longer have access to the property information. It would help if you let us know when you have a change of tenant.
Our consultants can show you a live demonstration. Click the button below, and our team will be in touch.
Legislation in NSW is changing. These changes are important from a landlord's perspective as there is more accountability for them in relation to how smoke alarms are managed in their rental properties. These changing components are mandatory. For some landlords who have taken on the responsibility of maintenance themselves in the past, this new legislation now requires them to do more.
Under the new legislative obligations, it is required that landlords:
Properties under strata are exempt from these regulations only if the owner's corporation takes full responsibility for the repair and replacement of the alarms & the tenant has been provided with that information in writing. A copy of that report will also need to be held at your agency in case of dispute with the tenant.
As smoke alarms are now classed as an emergency item, tenants can get repairs to their alarms organised if the landlord or property manager has not responded in two days. If this happens, it is required that the tenant is reimbursed within 7 days. This could put extra cost pressures on the landlord.
Landlords can sign up for our annual subscription program which takes care of their smoke alarms in their rental properties. Smoke Alarms Australia provides surety of cost through a low no more to pay program. This includes annual service checks, unlimited visits, full function testing, alarm location, and expiry checks, replacement of all batteries, and alarm replacements as needed on each visit. Once a property is onboarded with Smoke Alarms Australia, our bookings team liaises with the tenants directly to make an appointment at an agreeable time. Compliance certificates are provided back to the agency, after each visit for sharing with the landlord and tenant if required. Smoke Alarms Australia makes it easy to manage compliance for your rental properties.
Read the legislation here and the fair trading information here.
Proud Sponsor of the REINSW
SMOKE ALARMS AUSTRALIA IS EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE THAT IT HAS NOW INTEGRATED WITH PROPERTY TREE THROUGH A SECURE B2B API.
This integration makes the management of smoke alarm compliance simple and pain-free.
Setting up is easy
Benefits of the integrated system include automatic tenant and property manager updates. As you change information on a property that is part of our program, the details will update in our system.
This will be a set-and-forget process, which should make managing your portfolio with us easier. it will be a significant benefit for servicing properties in access difficulties by keeping information required for booking up to date. Remember: we have worked with Property Tree to only sync information required for smoke alarm maintenance; you can be assured that the rest of your data remains secure and confidential.
You will still need to send us work orders for change of tenancy or lease renewals at this stage, or you can load the job directly to our portal. We are working closely with Property Tree on the ability for SAA to load documents like invoices and service reports back to your system.
Adding properties has never been easier
Simply click the subscribe button, validate the address, and press save. A new section will also show you what properties we have subscribed to with Smoke Alarms Australia that doesn't match your Property Tree sync. This means you will need to advise if they should stay or be removed as they may no longer be managed. This will save your team time by updating non-managed properties quickly and simply and reducing the risk of us servicing and charging for a property you no longer need service after.
New benefits
There are also some new added benefits that you will be able to see in the customer portal. There is a new tile on the homepage, your Property Tree waiting action, and an action centre on the sidebar. This will take you to a screen where you can add properties to the program, with the option to add later after you speak with your landlords or remove if you no longer manage them. (You will also be able to see this under your Property Tree drop-down section). If a property is added, a job is created straight away, so there is no need to send a work order for it. The property section will also have some statistics for you that break your portfolio down into what is subscribed, how much of your portfolio is uncovered and how many action items you have, at a single glance.
Secure data
We have invested heavily in making your data secure by working with Microsoft Azure Data Centres who have extensive layers of security to meet a set of international and industry-specific compliance standards. SAA undergoes penetration testing each year, assessed independently to ensure that the security measures in place protect your most valuable asset. Our team can provide you with a copy of our privacy statement for peace of mind.
Ready to get started?
Get in touch to make sure everything is ready to go at our end, then activate Smoke Alarms Australia through the Partner Gateway tile within Property Tree. Your BDM can provide you with an instruction sheet on setting up integration if you need it.
To find out how to save time and increase your productivity through Property Tree integration, contact us your BDM, or our Agency Services team.