Owners now liable for smoke alarms

PROPERTY owners are being made responsible for fitting smoke alarms in all rented properties – including holiday homes – with a deadline of March 8, 2015, for work to be done.

Obligatory detectors, formally known as DAAF (Détecteur avertisseur autonome de fumée), have been legally required since mid-2010 but it was the duty of tenants to fit them.

Now, a new law, the Loi Alur, has changed responsibility for fitting alarms to owners – with the tenant responsible for the upkeep, testing and the renewal of batteries. The owner is responsible for the supply and testing in holiday lets. Smoke inhalation is the major cause of death in house fires, which kill up to 800 people a year.