Who Pays if the Smoke Detectors Don’t Work?

Home fires are an absolute nightmare, but that is compounded by the fact that if your smoke detectors aren’t working, you may have little warning of what is happening. When a smoke detector doesn’t work, you could find your home engulfed in flames and could sustain substantial burns and smoke inhalation from it, not to mention home damage. However, if your smoke detector isn’t working, who pays for it?

The bad news is that if your smoke detector wasn’t functioning due to low or no battery in it, and you own your own home, you are responsible for it. However, if you rent your home, then it is a landlord’s responsibility to check and maintain smoke detectors. Failure to keep smoke alarms in working order means that your landlord can be held responsible for it regardless of if the apartments or homes were kept up to city code in all other requirements.

While it is a landlord’s responsibility to ensure that smoke alarms are working, even if you own your own home, if your smoke alarm did not go off regardless of battery, it could be a defect from the company. The major problem with this is proving it. Often smoke alarms suffer substantial damages in the fire, and if this is the case, then your case against the company goes up in flames with it.

If you have been burned in a house fire due to a poorly maintained or malfunctioning smoke alarms, contact us today so we can talk about all your available options.