Smoke detectors in multi-family

[Maria M.]

Hello again,

I hope someone can answer my question about smoke detectors in multi families in Florida. My question is: do you have tenants sign something stating that smoke detectors work? Do you put that in the lease? Are battery operated smoke detectors allowed? I wonder if doing any of these wrong could allow insurance to deny a claim for fire. Thank you. 

[Andrew Freed]

At least in my area, when you purchase a property, there should be a smoke certificate completed by the fire or building department showing that the smokes are up to code which is required by the lender. Sometimes battery operated are grandfathered in, other times they need them to be hardwired. It all depends on the towns regulations. But once that smoke cert is completed, you can base the requirements on what is existing. 

Yes, you can definitely include this in the lease or house rules advising that the tenant should not removed smoke detectors for safety reasons. You can include it in there, but in practice, if a smoke detector constantly goes off in the kitchen when the tenant is cooking, they are going to take it down. Hard to regulate that.