Holiday rental smoke alarm and electrical rules in Byron Shire

A house let as short-term rental accommodation in Byron Shire must meet the NSW Short-term Rental Accommodation Fire Safety Standard. For a detached house or townhouse, that means smoke alarms outside the bedrooms and on every other storey, on or near the ceiling, powered from the mains or a sealed 10-year battery, and interconnected if there is more than one, plus a heat alarm in any attached garage and evacuation diagrams. Long-term rentals fall under separate landlord smoke alarm duties, and the same house can move between the two sets of rules as its letting changes.

Which rules apply to your Byron Shire rental?

It depends on how the property is let.

How the property is used	Main electrical and alarm rules
Non-hosted holiday let (guests have the whole house)	STRA Fire Safety Standard, STRA register, the Byron Shire day cap
Hosted holiday let (you live there during the stay)	STRA Fire Safety Standard and register; no day cap
Long-term residential tenancy	Landlord smoke alarm duties under the Residential Tenancies Regulation 2019
Owner-occupied home	At least one working smoke alarm on each level, as the NSW smoke alarm rules require for all homes

Byron Shire Council’s short-term rental accommodation page lists the conditions for STRA in the shire: the dwelling must be registered on the NSW STRA register, lawfully built, on land where the use is permitted, compliant with the fire safety standard, and allowed under strata by-laws where it sits in a strata scheme.

What does the STRA fire safety standard require in a house?

The NSW STRA Fire Safety Standard, published in April 2021, sets these rules for a dwelling in a Class 1a building, which covers a detached house and attached homes such as townhouses:

• Where the smoke alarms go. In every corridor or hallway associated with a bedroom, or, if there is no hallway, in the area between the bedrooms and the rest of the house. Also on every other storey that has no bedrooms.
• How they are mounted. On or near the ceiling.
• Which alarms. Smoke alarms complying with AS 3786. Where an area is likely to set off false alarms, another suitable alarm type can be used there as long as AS 3786 smoke alarms are installed elsewhere in the dwelling.
• How they are powered. From the mains supply, or by a non-removable battery with a minimum life expectancy of 10 years.
• Interconnection. If there is more than one alarm, they must be interconnected so one sounding sets off the rest.
• Garage heat alarm. An attached private garage needs a heat alarm on or near the ceiling, powered the same way and interconnected so it sets off the smoke alarms. Durable notices must be fixed to the house and garage saying the heat alarm is there and connected.
• Evacuation diagrams. These must be fixed near the entry door and in each bedroom. They are a separate requirement from the alarms and are not electrical work.

Apartments in Class 2 buildings follow a similar alarm rule under the standard, with further requirements such as entry doors that open from inside.

Can you fit the alarms yourself?

Alarms that run only on a sealed battery are not connected to the mains. Hardwired alarms are different: connecting them is electrical wiring work, which NSW law reserves for licensed electricians or people working under one. Interconnecting older hardwired alarms with new ones, adding a garage heat alarm to the same loop, or moving an alarm closer to a bedroom hallway are all jobs for a licensed electrician.

The published Byron Bay range for a hardwired smoke alarm, supplied and installed, is $105 to $260 per alarm, from the What’s The Damage? Byron Bay electrician cost guide. A multi-storey holiday house can need several alarms, so ask for one price covering every alarm, the interconnection and testing. The smoke alarms service page explains the install job in more detail.

What do long-term rental landlords have to do?

If you switch from holiday letting to a standard lease, the alarm duties change. The NSW Government’s smoke alarms in a rental property page sets them out under the Residential Tenancies Regulation 2019:

1. Have at least one smoke alarm in a hallway outside a bedroom, or another suitable spot, on each storey.
2. Check every alarm each year to make sure it works.
3. Replace removable batteries each year, or for lithium batteries, in the period the manufacturer specifies.
4. Replace alarms within 10 years of their manufacture date, or sooner if the manufacturer says so.
5. Repair or replace a faulty alarm within two business days of finding out it is not working.
6. Use a licensed electrician to repair or replace a hardwired alarm.

Landlords cannot hand these duties to tenants in the lease. Strata properties have a limited exemption where the owners corporation takes on the repairs.

Do holiday rentals need safety switches?

The STRA standard covers alarms and evacuation diagrams, not safety switches. Even so, safety switches protect guests who do not know the house, and the NSW Government recommends having them on all circuits, installed by a licensed electrician. Its electrical safety guidance says properties built during or after 2000 usually have them, and older properties should be checked. Older beach cottages, which the Byron Bay cost guide notes can still have original wiring and old boards, may well predate that.

The safety switches page covers adding RCDs to an existing board, and an electrical safety inspection is a sensible check before a new letting season or after buying a house to let.

How does the Byron Shire 60-day cap work?

The NSW Department of Planning’s Byron Shire STRA page says a 60-day cap on non-hosted short-term rental took effect on 23 September 2024 for most of the shire, replacing the earlier limit of 180 days. Two mapped precincts are exempt and can be let for up to 365 days: one in and around the Byron Bay town centre and one at Brunswick Heads. Hosted STRA, where the host lives on site during the stay, has no day cap.

For electrical work this matters in two ways. A house that can now only be let for 60 days a year may move to a long-term lease, which brings the landlord duties above. And with fewer letting days in the calendar, it makes sense to book alarm work and inspections into the gaps between stays. Owners in town can see local detail on the Byron Bay electrician page, and the Brunswick Heads electrician page covers the other 365-day precinct.

What does a careful electrician check on a rental?

When asked to bring a holiday house into line, a careful electrician will usually:

• Map every bedroom, hallway and storey against the standard’s alarm locations.
• Check the manufacture date on each existing alarm.
• Confirm which alarms are hardwired and whether they are already interconnected.
• Look for an attached garage that needs a heat alarm.
• Test the safety switches and note any circuits without one.
• Check outdoor lights and power points around decks, pools and outdoor showers.
• Lodge a Certificate of Compliance for Electrical Work for any wiring work done.

They will not sign off wiring work they have not tested, and they will tell you in writing if an existing alarm or circuit is not safe to leave in service.

Who does the alarm work?

This website only passes on enquiries. An independent licensed electrician who services Byron Shire reads your details, quotes, and carries out the alarm and electrical work in their own name. The about page explains the arrangement. If you are ready, you can ask about holiday rental alarm work now.

Next step: send your rental compliance enquiry

Tell the electrician whether the property is a holiday let or a long-term rental, how many bedrooms and storeys it has, whether there is an attached garage, and how many alarms are fitted now, with photos of them and their date labels if you can. Add the suburb, any booking gaps when the work could be done and whether you need a written record for your property manager. Then request a rental smoke alarm quote.

Send a job enquiry