Smoke detectors: If you don't install them, you pay up to 50,000 euros

Every law, every ordinance only makes sense if compliance is checked. Smoke detectors, for example, which are now mandatory by law in residential property – whether privately used or rented. Whether the round things are actually hanging in the prescribed places, no one has the supervision. And insurance companies pay – with or without a warning device.

There's no question: smoke detectors can save lives. Properly installed and regularly maintained, they have woken up many a citizen so that he could get to safety from a fire. In this respect, the smoke detector law is almost comparable to the seat belt requirement. With one difference: If you get caught without a seat belt, you pay. Because the law enforcement officers keep an eye on it and can prove misconduct.

In the case of smoke detectors, on the other hand, nobody is responsible for complying with the law. Landlords have to ensure by regulation that their buildings are equipped with it. Whether they do it or not, no one looks. And therefore there are no figures or estimates as to how many apartments are missing detectors.

Owner responsible

The police are not responsible for preventive measures. Neither did the fire brigade, as Usingen's city fire inspector Michael Grau emphasized. Let's ask a chimney sweep: Detlef Creuzberg, district master chimney sweep from Neu-Anspach, says with a smile on the phone: "If I were commissioned. . .” But he is not and therefore also outside of the control.

No control

The highest authority for buildings in the district is the building inspection. District spokeswoman Andrea Herzig emphasizes that "according to the Hessian building code, the owners must install smoke detectors, and at least one in bedrooms and children's rooms and corridors". However, there is no regulation that a public authority - i.e. the building inspection - controls this.

The "ensuring of the function" is the responsibility of the "immediate owner", i.e. the person who lives in the rooms, i.e. also a tenant. Apart from the owner, for example in large residential complexes, have taken on the obligation to maintain.

Nevertheless, it could theoretically have criminal consequences, because in the event of a fire, the police also check whether a fire alarm has been installed. Only: If the booth burned down, no smoke detector can be found - whether it was there or not. It only gets expensive if a tenant complains directly to the building inspector if his landlord has not installed a smoke detector. A fine of up to 50,000 euros could then be due.

Insurance pays

So if no one checks, then it would at least be up to the insurance companies to bleed the injured party in the sum insured if there were no smoke detectors. Not at all.

Allianz spokeswoman for Germany, Charlotte Gerling, stressed that it was not the practice to look for smoke detectors. “If the house burns down, we pay – with or without a smoke detector.” Personal injury is not covered by building insurance anyway. "But of course we point out to all insured persons how useful the devices are." In the event of a fire with personal injury, the authorities determine whether the smoke detectors are working properly. If this is not the case, a charge of negligent bodily harm or, in the worst case, negligent homicide is threatened. If it is proven in the process that the smoke detector could actually have prevented the death, the prison sentence could be up to five years. Only: how can such a thing be proved when only ashes are left of the house?