Who pays in rental apartments for life-saving smoke detectors?

Berlin. From their daily missions, the fire brigade knows that the small, round devices on the ceiling can save lives thanks to their loud warning tone. Most federal states have already made the installation of a smoke detector compulsory, Hamburg was one of the fastest.

In order to reduce the number of deaths of residential fires, installation in new buildings has been required since 1 April 2006. In existing buildings, this has been in place since 2011. Over one million private households in Hamburg are said to have been equipped with the equipment in recent years due to the obligation. Official controls, however, hardly took place.

Länder regulate the details differently

& quot; bedrooms, children & APOs; s rooms and corridors leading through the rescue routes of common rooms must each have at least one smoke alarm in apartments, & quot; according to the Hamburg building regulations. Kitchens as well as bathrooms and toilets are excluded. The further details, however, are regulated differently in the respective building regulations of the individual federal states.

In Hamburg, paragraph 45, paragraph 6 of the Building Regulations does not explicitly clarify the responsibility for the installation of smoke detectors. However, experts assume that the retrofitting of smoke alarm detectors in Hamburg is the responsibility of the owners. To have old or defective smoke detectors replaced after, for example, ten years, therefore also falls within their remit.

Test button on the device

In order to be legally on the safe side, landlords should have their tenants confirm the installation in writing and hand over the operating instructions. At the same time, experts assume that if the owner has installed the equipment, he is also responsible for inspection and maintenance-at least if nothing else is regulated in the lease agreement. Thus, the owner is also responsible for ensuring that the warning devices remain in working condition.

This includes pressing the test button on the device about once a year and triggering a test alarm. It is also advisable to clean the slots through which the smoke penetrates the warning detector. Sometimes the battery change is also part of maintenance. However, many models now have fixed batteries that are sufficient for a ten-year lifespan. These tasks give rise to the distribution of costs.

Installation and replacement

Eigentümer müssen den Installation and replacement bezahlen. Erste Streitfälle haben aber schon die Gerichte beschäftigt. Zu klären war unter anderem die Frage: Sind die Kosten des Leasings eines Rauchmelders und der jährlichen Wartung als Betriebskosten umlegbar? Im März 2016 entschied das Landgericht Hagen (Az.: 1 S 198/15) in Nordrhein-Westfalen beispielsweise, dass die Kosten der Anmietung für Rauchmelder nicht als Betriebskosten auf die Mieter verteilt werden können. Ebenso urteilte das Amtsgericht Dortmund (423 C 8482/16). Lediglich die Aufwendungen für die jährliche Wartung kann man demzufolge als Betriebskosten auf die Mieter übertragen. Abschließend durch den Bundesgerichtshof wurden diese Themen aber noch nicht entschieden, so der Immobilienverband Haus & Grund.

If the property owner, on the other hand, has bought the warning devices, he can transfer eleven percent of the purchase costs annually to the rent, because he is obliged by the law to purchase this.

Overall, expenditure is limited. For example, external maintenance per smoke detector costs five euros per year. The acquisition costs are also manageable. During its test at the beginning of 2016, the Stiftung Warentest found out that a good smoke detector is available for 20 euros per piece. It is not necessary to spend 30, 90 or more than 100 euros. You should opt for devices that remain ready for use for ten years, including the battery.

Regulatory safety rules

There are no official controls as to whether smoke detectors are actually installed in existing buildings. In the case of new buildings, the examination is carried out by the competent building office or the architect. The fact that the smoke detector obligation is a kind of legal appeal is also demonstrated by the information provided by the Gesamtverband der Deutschen Versicherungswirtschaft. After that, the insurance cover does not expire if smoke detectors are missing or defective.

"in principle, the policyholder of a household or building insurance must comply with all existing legal and official security regulations," says a spokesperson. But: "cases in which a missing or improperly operated smoke detector has had a negative impact on the compensation of insured property damage is unknown to us. Smoke detectors are supposed to save lives, protection against property damage is secondary. "