A Dunedin property management company has been ordered to pay more than $6000 after smoke alarms failed to activate in a house during a fire.
The Tenancy Tribunal ordered Cutlers Limited, trading as Cutlers Property Management, to pay $6450 in exemplary damages to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) on behalf tenants impacted by the September 2022 fire.
The tribunal found Cutlers had acted intentionally in failing to comply with the Residential Tenancies Act over smoke alarm and maintenance requirements.
During the fire, smoke alarms did not activate in either the upstairs or downstairs flat of the property. The fire was only detected when one of the downstairs tenants smelt something “melting”.
The Fire and Emergency New Zealand station officer who attended the tribunal hearing stated: “If the fire had occurred an hour later, it is likely the tenants would have been asleep and would not have been alerted to the fire by smell and the consequences may have been catastrophic. This is not an overstatement or dramatisation of the facts. It is the plain fact and stresses the importance of smoke alarms.”
Evidence supplied by MBIE’s Tenancy Compliance and Investigations Team (TCIT) showed that Cutlers provided non-compliant smoke alarms to the downstairs flat and left them for the tenants to install. The smoke alarms were subsequently installed by a family member of the tenants but were not tested.
Inspection of a smoke alarm in the upstairs flat, which failed to activate, found it was expired and not functioning.
The property manager who carried out inspections on the tenancy had recorded the smoke alarm as compliant without testing either the operation of the alarms or recording the expiry dates of the smoke alarms in the upstairs flat.
TCIT national manager Brett Wilson said the decision emphasises that a landlord must have compliant and operational smoke alarms in each residential rental property.
“There must be at least one smoke alarm in each flat and they must be located within 3 metres of any sleeping space. The smoke alarms in these tenancies were required to be 10-year photoelectric smoke alarms.
“Smoke alarms save lives, and it is important that both landlords and tenants are aware of their obligations to install and maintain them. Failure to comply with the smoke alarms regulations could result in significant financial penalties,” Wilson said.
TCIT has recently completed a compliance operation where the focus was solely on ensuring landlords were meeting their obligations to have working smoke alarms installed at rental properties. The TCIT checks covered more than 1300 landlords around the country.
“The results showed a high level of compliance among landlords; however this tribunal case highlights the significant risks of what could happen where landlords fail to meet their obligations,” Wilson said.
