Tool
Is your Queensland home ready for the 2027 smoke alarm law?
Answer seven questions about your alarms' type, age, power source, interconnection, and whether every bedroom, hallway and storey is covered, and this tool checks your answers against the Fire Services Act 1990 requirement that applies to every Queensland dwelling from 1 January 2027, sourced to the Act and Queensland Fire Department guidance.
Last checked 25 Sep 2026 against the sources listed at the end of this page.
What Queensland requires
| Question | What the law requires |
|---|---|
| Are your smoke alarms photoelectric and marked AS 3786:2014? | Smoke alarms must be photoelectric and comply with AS 3786:2014. |
| How old is your oldest smoke alarm, by its manufacture date? | Alarms must be replaced within 10 years of their manufacture date. |
| How are your alarms powered? | A removable battery alarm does not meet the standard; fit a hardwired alarm or one with a 10 year non removable battery. |
| If one alarm senses smoke, do all the others in the home sound too? | Every smoke alarm in the dwelling must be interconnected so they all sound together. |
| Is there an alarm in every bedroom? | An alarm is required in every bedroom. |
| Is there an alarm in the hallway connecting bedrooms to the rest of the home (or, with no hallway, between the bedrooms and the rest of that storey)? | An alarm is required in the hallway connecting bedrooms to the rest of the dwelling, or between the bedrooms and the rest of the storey if there is no hallway. |
| Is there an alarm on every storey, including one with no bedroom on it? | An alarm is required on every storey. On a storey with no bedroom, it goes in the most likely path of travel to exit. |
How to use it
- Answer all seven questions about your current alarms: type, age, power, interconnection, bedrooms, hallways and storeys.
- The result tells you whether your alarms already meet the requirement that applies to every Queensland dwelling from 1 January 2027.
- Treat any not sure answer as a fail until you check it: open the alarm and read the marking and manufacture date, then trigger one alarm to confirm the others sound.
- If work is needed on a hardwired alarm, book a licensed electrician; a battery only alarm can be swapped for a compliant 10 year unit without one.
Why 1 January 2027 is the date that matters
Queensland phased its smoke alarm law in over ten years, and the last phase lands on 1 January 2027. From that date, section 147Z(3) of the Fire Services Act 1990 applies to every domestic dwelling, owner occupied included, not just homes that have been sold, leased or newly built.
This tool is a self check against that section and the Queensland Fire Department's own guidance on it, so you can see where your current alarms fall short before an agent, a buyer or an inspector asks.
What counts as compliant
A compliant alarm has to clear five separate tests at once: it is photoelectric and marked to AS 3786:2014, it was manufactured less than 10 years ago, it is powered by a hardwired 240 volt connection or a 10 year non removable battery, it is interconnected so every other alarm in the home sounds when one detects smoke, and it sits in the right place, meaning every bedroom, every hallway that connects bedrooms to the rest of the dwelling, and every storey including one with no bedroom on it.
Miss any one of those and the answer is not yet compliant, whatever the others say.
What a fail or a not sure actually means
There is no prescribed smoke alarm compliance certificate in Queensland, and the Fire Department says plainly that one is not a legal requirement, though some real estate agents ask for one anyway. What this tool gives you instead is a plain reading of your own answers against the Act, useful for planning the work before 2027 or for a tenancy or sale check now.
It cannot see your alarms, so treat a not sure answer the same as a fail until you have actually opened the unit and read the date and marking on it, and if any electrical connection work is needed, only a licensed electrician can carry it out.
Sources
- From 1 January 2027, section 147Y of the Fire Services Act 1990 and the trigger subsections of section 147Z expire, leaving section 147Z(3)'s duty to install compliant smoke alarms applying to every Queensland dwelling. Fire Services Act 1990 (Qld), ss 147Y and 147Z, checked 25 Sep 2026.
- Each smoke alarm must be powered as prescribed, meet other prescribed requirements, have been manufactured less than 10 years before installation, operate when tested, and be interconnected so that if one alarm senses smoke, every other alarm in the dwelling sounds. Fire Services Act 1990 (Qld), s 147Z(5) and (6), checked 25 Sep 2026.
- The owner must replace a smoke alarm within 10 years of its manufacture date, or immediately if it fails when tested; a replacement for a hardwired alarm must also be hardwired. Fire Services Act 1990 (Qld), s 148A, checked 25 Sep 2026.
- By 1 January 2027 every Queensland dwelling needs photoelectric alarms complying with AS 3786:2014, interconnected, hardwired or on a non removable 10 year battery, in each bedroom, in hallways connecting bedrooms, and on each storey; 240 volt alarms must be connected by a licensed electrician. Queensland Fire Department, Frequently asked questions about smoke alarms, checked 25 Sep 2026.
- There is no legal requirement for a smoke alarm compliance certificate in Queensland, though a real estate agent may ask for one as part of their own process. Queensland Fire Department, Frequently asked questions about smoke alarms, checked 25 Sep 2026.