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Smoke alarms when you sell a house in Queensland
Compliance is tied to the sale, not the 2027 deadline. Sorted before listing it costs a few hundred dollars. Sorted under a settlement clock it becomes a bargaining chip.
Compliance is part of settlement now
Since 1 January 2022, a home being sold in Queensland has had to have compliant interconnected photoelectric smoke alarms. The obligation is tied to the sale, so it does not wait for the 2027 deadline that applies to everyone else.
| From | Applies to |
|---|---|
| 1 Jan 2017 | New homes, and existing homes undergoing substantial renovation |
| 1 Jan 2022 | Any home when it is sold or leased |
| 1 Jan 2027 | Every remaining home in Queensland — including the one you live in |
Sellers also declare the position on the Property Information form. Getting that wrong is a worse problem than the cost of the alarms.
Do it before you list, not before you settle
The common mistake is leaving it until the contract is signed. Two reasons that hurts:
- Once you are on a settlement clock, you are booking trades in whatever gap you can find, at whatever price is available.
- A building and pest inspection that flags non-compliant alarms hands the buyer something to negotiate with. It is a small item that makes a buyer wonder what else was skipped.
Done before listing, it is a few hundred dollars and an hour. Done under a settlement deadline, it is a bargaining chip.
What has to be true
- Photoelectric, compliant with Australian Standard AS 3786:2014
- No ionisation sensor — the older type is no longer acceptable
- Less than 10 years old, which is why a compliant install still expires
- Interconnected, so when one sounds every alarm in the house sounds
- Either hardwired to 240V with a backup, or powered by a sealed 10-year battery
- In every bedroom
- In hallways that connect bedrooms to the rest of the house
- Between the bedrooms and the rest of the house where there is no hallway
- On every storey, including storeys with no bedrooms — positioned on the likely path out
A house built or substantially renovated since 2017 already had to meet the interconnection rule. But alarms must also be under ten years old — so a 2017 build can be non-compliant today on age alone, even though nothing about the wiring has changed.
The paperwork a buyer's solicitor will want
You get a dated report listing every alarm and its position, with a photograph of each unit in place and the expiry visible. That is the document that closes the question rather than starting a conversation.
Pricing is flat and published — see what it costs. No hourly rates, so a settlement deadline does not become an excuse for a bigger invoice.
Not sure where you stand?
Ring or send a text with your address and how many bedrooms. I'll tell you straight what your place needs, what it costs, and whether it's worth doing before January.