Co - Heat - Smoke Alarm Installation

• Smoke Alarms should be sited on the ceiling, as centrally as possible within the room/area they are installed

• Place alarms 300mm from walls, light fittings or any obstructions – this is to ensure that they are outside of any ‘dead air’ spaces that occur in corners and spaces where the airflow may be blocked.

• There should be an alarm within 3 metres of every bedroom door to ensure audibility

• Alarms should be positioned between high-risk rooms and bedrooms

• Heat Alarm should be placed in or near the kitchen where will give you warning of an increase in temperature caused by a fire but will not be set off by cooking fumes. Some battery or mains alarms can be interlinked, so that when one alarm detects a fire they all go off together, giving you warning wherever you are in your home.

• Alarms should not be sited within bathrooms or too close to a bathroom door as steam and moisture can affect them.

Landlords are specifically required to carry out a check to ensure that smoke alarms or carbon monoxide alarms are in proper working order on the day a tenancy begins where it is a new tenancy. From 1 October 2022 if a landlord is notified by a tenant of a defective smoke or CO alarm the amended regulations require landlords to investigate and repair or replace the item as soon as reasonably possible. Typically the tenant will be responsible for checking the alarm during the lifetime of the tenancy. Landlords are advised to provide them with the instruction manual or demonstrate how to perform these checks to ensure they are done correctly.