Since 1 February 2022, every home in Scotland has had to have interlinked smoke and heat alarms. “Interlinked” is the key word: when one alarm detects a problem, they all sound, so you hear it wherever you are in the house, not just in the room where the fire starts. It is part of the Tolerable Standard under the Housing (Scotland) Act, and it applies whether you own your home or rent it. Here is what compliant actually looks like, in plain English.
What does the law require?
To meet the Scottish standard your home needs, as a minimum:
- A smoke alarm in the living room or the main room you use most.
- A smoke alarm in every hallway and landing — the circulation space on each level of the home.
- A heat alarm in the kitchen. A heat alarm, not a smoke alarm, so everyday cooking and steam do not set it off.
- All of those alarms interlinked, so one sounding sets them all off.
- A carbon monoxide alarm in any room with a carbon-fuelled appliance, such as a gas or oil boiler, a wood burner, a stove or an open fire.
A typical two-storey, three-bedroom house therefore ends up with a smoke alarm in the living room, one in the downstairs hall, one on the upstairs landing, a heat alarm in the kitchen and a carbon monoxide alarm by the boiler.
Does it apply to my home?
Yes. Unlike some rules that only cover rented property, this one applies to every home in Scotland, owned or rented. For landlords it also sits inside the Repairing Standard, so a rented home has to meet it as a condition of being let. For owner-occupiers it is a legal duty too, and while enforcement against an owner living in their own home is light-touch, it increasingly comes up when you sell (in the home report), remortgage, or make an insurance claim, so it is worth doing properly.
Mains-wired or long-life battery?
Both are allowed, and both are fine:
- Mains-wired, interlinked alarms are hard-wired into your electrics and linked together by cable. They are the natural choice during a rewire or on a new build, and they never need a battery change.
- Sealed, tamper-proof alarms with a 10-year lithium battery interlink with each other wirelessly by radio. There is nothing to wire between them and no annual battery to replace for the life of the alarm, which makes them the least disruptive option to fit in a home that is already lived in.
The right choice depends on your home and whether other work is happening at the same time. Jack talks it through and fits whichever suits, the tidy way.
What about carbon monoxide alarms?
You need a carbon monoxide (CO) alarm in any room that has a carbon-fuelled appliance — a boiler, a fire, a stove, a flue or a heater that burns gas, oil, wood or coal. CO alarms are a separate requirement from the smoke and heat alarms, and, unlike them, they do not need to be interlinked. If your only such appliance is a boiler in a utility or kitchen, that is usually where the CO alarm goes.
What happens if my home does not meet the standard?
For a rented property it is straightforward: the home does not meet the Repairing Standard, and a tenant can take that to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland, which can order the work done. For an owner-occupied home the duty still exists; the practical prompts to sort it are the home report when you sell, your buildings insurance, and simply the fact that interlinked alarms are the single cheapest thing you can do to make a house safer. It is a small job with a big payoff.
How Snelling Electrical fits interlinked alarms
Most homes are done in a single short visit. Jack has a quick look round to confirm exactly what your home needs, fits the right alarms in the right rooms to the Scottish standard, interlinks them, adds a carbon monoxide alarm where an appliance calls for one, tests the lot in front of you and takes the old alarms away. You can read more, or get a price, on the interlinked smoke alarms page. If you are a landlord, it pairs naturally with a landlord EICR so the whole property is brought up to standard in one go.