Interlinked fire alarms in Scotland: what every home needs

Every home in Scotland needs interlinked fire alarms: a smoke alarm in the main living room, one in every hallway and landing, and a heat alarm in the kitchen, all on the ceiling and linked so that when one goes off, they all do. If there's a boiler, fire or other carbon-fuelled appliance, you also need a carbon monoxide alarm.

We're a free matching service, not an alarm installer. If you'd rather have someone fit them, we'll pass your enquiry to a local electrician or installer who quotes you directly.

Room-by-room checklist

Go round the property with this list. It applies to owned and rented homes alike, and has done since February 2022.

• Living room (or whichever room you use most during the day): one smoke alarm.
• Every hallway and landing: one smoke alarm each. In a two-storey house that's usually the downstairs hall and the upstairs landing.
• Kitchen: one heat alarm, not a smoke alarm.
• Open-plan hall and living room: one alarm covers both. If the open-plan space includes the kitchen, make it a heat alarm.
• All of the above: mounted on the ceiling and interlinked.
• Any room with a boiler, fire, non-electric heater or flue: a carbon monoxide alarm in that room.

Sealed battery or mains-wired?

Both are allowed. Sealed battery alarms link to each other by radio and you can fit them yourself; there's no wiring. Mains-wired alarms are connected to the electrics and must be fitted by a qualified electrician. Either way, check the packaging for the right standard: BS EN14604:2005 for smoke alarms and BS 5446-2:2003 for heat alarms.

If your home only has one standalone smoke alarm in the hall, it doesn't meet the rules. You need the full set in the checklist above, linked together.

Carbon monoxide alarms

You need a CO alarm if there's a carbon-fuelled appliance, such as a gas or oil boiler, an open fire, a wood burner or a non-electric heater, or a flue. It goes in the same room as the appliance. It doesn't need to be linked to the fire alarms. Gas cookers and hobs on their own don't need one. Look for a CO alarm marked EN 50291-1.

Homeowners, landlords and sellers

Homeowners: the law applies to you just as it does to landlords. It's the property owner's responsibility to meet the standard.

Landlords: working smoke, heat and CO alarms are part of keeping a rented home up to the Repairing Standard. Test the alarms when the annual gas safety check is done, so the CO alarm doesn't get forgotten.

Selling or buying: the rules apply to the home as it is now, not just when it changes hands, so there's no reason to wait for a sale.

Cost

We don't quote figures we can't cite. The price depends on how many alarms the home needs and whether they're sealed battery or mains-wired, and the installer will quote before any work starts.

See every check together

Alarms sit alongside the EICR, gas, PAT and legionella checks on our landlord certificates checklist, and there's a printable new tenancy safety checklist. We match enquiries across Scotland, with pages for Edinburgh and Glasgow.