Queensland Smoke Alarm Rules: The 2027 Deadline

The requirement

Queensland homes need a photoelectric smoke alarm in every bedroom. You also need one in the bedroom hallway and on every other storey. All the alarms must be linked, so one sounds them all. Run them off the mains or a sealed 10 year battery. Every home must comply by 1 January 2027.

These rules are state law, not the NCC. They sit in the Fire Services Act 1990 (Qld) and the Building Fire Safety Regulation 2008 (Qld). The Act was renamed and these sections renumbered on 1 July 2024. Old guides use the old numbers. Go by the current Act.

The rules cover a house and a home unit. In code words, that is a class 1a building, or a sole occupancy unit in a class 2 building.

The alarm type. Each alarm must meet AS 3786-2014. It must have a photoelectric sensor. It must not have an ionisation sensor as well. So dual sensor alarms are out. Each alarm must be under 10 years old when you fit it. And it must work when you test it.

Power. You have two choices in an existing home. Wire the alarm to the mains. Or use a battery sealed into the alarm and built to run it for 10 years with no charging. You cannot use an alarm with a battery you pull out.

All linked. Every alarm must be linked to every other alarm in the home. When one alarm sees smoke, they all sound. That wakes a sleeper at the far end.

Where they go. One in each bedroom. On each storey with bedrooms, put one in the hallway the bedroom doors open onto. If a bedroom has no hallway door, put it between that bedroom and the rest of the home. On a storey with no bedrooms, fit one on the path you would walk to get out.

How to mount them. Fix the alarm to the ceiling where you can. If you cannot, use the underside of a joist or beam no deeper than 300 mm. A wall is the last option. Sit it 100 to 300 mm below the ceiling, and more than 300 mm off a corner. On a sloped ceiling, sit it 500 to 1500 mm from the apex.

Keep every alarm 300 mm clear of a light fitting and of a ceiling corner. Keep it 400 mm clear of an air vent and of fan blades. Do not put one in a stairwell where something blocks the rising smoke. If the set spot will not work, say steam keeps setting the alarm off, the Act lets you pick another spot. It must still warn the people inside.

The three dates

The rules came in over three stages. Each stage takes in more homes.

• 1 January 2017. New homes and big renovation jobs. The trigger is a building approval applied for after 31 December 2016.
• 1 January 2022. Homes sold, newly let, or re-let.
• 1 January 2027. Every home in the state, sold or not.

What counts as a big job? The law calls it a substantial renovation. It is work under a building approval that covers more than half the volume of the building. You measure it over the roof and the outside walls. Structural work approved or done in the past 3 years counts in too.

Not caught by a trigger yet? Until 31 December 2026 a lighter rule applies. Your alarms must meet AS 3786-2014. They go in as the BCA asked back on 1 January 2017. That rule does not ask for photoelectric alarms or linking.

New homes work a different way. The alarms go in at building approval, under the Building Regulation 2021 (Qld). It asks for an alarm in every bedroom. Each one must meet AS 3786-2014, be photoelectric, run off the mains, and be linked to the rest. There is no sealed battery option on a new build.

Owner and tenant jobs

An owner must swap out an alarm within 10 years of the date it was made. Swap out any alarm that fails a test straight away.

In a rented home the jobs are split. The landlord must test each alarm in the 30 days before a tenancy starts. The tenant must test each alarm at least once a year.

An owner who does not fit the right alarms can be fined. The cap is 5 penalty units. A penalty unit is $172.70 from 1 July 2026, so that cap is $863.50.

Selling up? You must tell the buyer in writing if the home has complying alarms. Hand that notice over on or before the day they take the keys. Miss it and the cap is 5 penalty units. Say something you know is wrong and that is 5 more. You must also tell the commissioner within 90 days of that date.

Related

• Part of the Queensland building code hub — which edition applies in your state, and what the state changes.
• The national picture: the NCC rule book for Australian chippies.

Sources

• Fire Services Act 1990 (Qld), Chapter 4A, Part 4, Division 5A “Smoke alarms for domestic dwellings”, ss 147W–148K (reprint current to 6 December 2025) — defines “domestic dwelling” as a class 1a building or a sole-occupancy unit in a class 2 building (s 147W(1)); sets the duty to install compliant alarms and the interconnection rule (s 147Z(5)–(6)); the under-10-year age and working-on-test requirements (s 147Z(5)(c)–(d)); the building-approval and substantial-renovation trigger (s 147Z(1), s 147Z(8)); the sale, new tenancy and renewal trigger operating from 1 January 2022 (s 147Z(2)); the interim standard that expires 31 December 2026 (s 147Y); the expiry of the trigger-limiting subsections on 31 December 2026, which leaves the unqualified duty in s 147Z(3) applying to every domestic dwelling from 1 January 2027 (s 147Z(7)); the replacement duties (s 148A(1)–(2)); the alternative location where the required position is impracticable (s 148); the lessor and tenant testing duties (s 148B); and the maximum penalty of 5 penalty units. Section 148I requires a transferor of residential land to give the transferee written notice, on or before the date of possession, of whether compliant smoke alarms are installed (maximum penalty 5 penalty units, and a further 5 penalty units for a statement known to be false or misleading); s 148J requires notice to the commissioner within 90 days after the date of possession. Both duties are excluded only where the transfer agreement was entered into before 1 July 2007. See legislation.qld.gov.au.
• Building Fire Safety Regulation 2008 (Qld), Part 5A “Smoke alarms for domestic dwellings”, ss 55C–55E (currency date 20 June 2025) — prescribes, for existing dwellings, where alarms go (each bedroom; the hallway or connecting area on each storey with bedrooms; the path of travel to an exit on a storey without bedrooms, s 55C(2)); the mounting positions and clearances, including the 300 mm joist/beam depth, the 100–300 mm wall band, the 500–1,500 mm sloping-ceiling band, and the 300 mm light-fitting and corner and 400 mm air-supply and ceiling-fan clearances (s 55C(3)); the permitted power sources, being hardwired supply or a non-removable 10-year battery (s 55D); and the AS 3786-2014 photoelectric-sensor-only requirement (s 55E). See legislation.qld.gov.au.
• Building Regulation 2021 (Qld), Part 4 “Smoke alarms for domestic dwellings”, ss 9–12 (currency date 10 March 2025) — the separate pathway for new dwellings at building-approval stage: an alarm in each bedroom, complying with AS 3786-2014, photoelectric and not ionisation, hardwired to the dwelling’s electricity supply, and interconnected with every other alarm. The Part prevails over the BCA to the extent of any inconsistency; the remaining BCA smoke alarm requirements still apply. See legislation.qld.gov.au.
• Building Fire Safety (Domestic Smoke Alarms) Legislation Amendment Regulation 2016 (Qld), 2016 SL No. 221, s 2 — commenced 1 January 2017, inserting Part 5A into the Building Fire Safety Regulation 2008. See legislation.qld.gov.au.
• Queensland Fire Department, “Smoke Alarm Reforms” — the administering agency’s plain-English summary of the three phase dates: 1 January 2017 for new dwellings and substantial renovations, 1 January 2022 for dwellings sold or leased, and 1 January 2027 for all remaining domestic dwellings. See fire.qld.gov.au.
• Penalties and Sentences Regulation 2025 (Qld), s 4 (current as at 1 July 2026) — prescribes the value of a penalty unit as $172.70, which applies to offences under the Fire Services Act 1990 through ss 5(1)(e)(i) and 5A of the Penalties and Sentences Act 1992 (Qld). A maximum of 5 penalty units is therefore $863.50. See legislation.qld.gov.au.
• Disaster Management and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2024 (Qld), Act No. 22 of 2024 (assented 9 May 2024) — s 20 replaced the short title “Fire and Emergency Services Act 1990” with “Fire Services Act 1990”, and s 56(2) relocated and renumbered the smoke alarm provisions from ss 104RA–104RM to ss 147W–148K. Part 4 and s 92 sch 1 commenced 1 July 2024 (2024 SL No. 69). Industry guides still citing the former Act name and its old section numbers are out of date. See legislation.qld.gov.au.