Rental Properties and Lithium Batteries: A Fire Safety Guide for Landlords, Tenants and Property Managers

Plenty of Australian renters now keep an e-bike in the hallway, an e-scooter in the laundry and a drawer full of power banks. The landlord owns the building, the tenant owns the batteries, and the property manager sits in the middle. When a battery fails, all three find out quickly how clear their arrangements really were.

Why rentals deserve their own conversation

Lithium-ion battery fires are no longer rare events. Fire and Rescue NSW recorded at least 318 lithium-ion battery fires across the state in 2024, up from 272 in 2023 and 165 in 2022 (Fire and Rescue NSW, 2025a). By late November 2025 the service had attended its 100th e-mobility battery fire of the year, a blaze that started where an e-bike battery was kept in the front room of a two-storey terrace in Redfern (Fire and Rescue NSW, 2025c).

Most of these fires happen in homes, and many of those homes are rented. Yet the people who make decisions about a rental are split. The tenant chooses what devices come into the property and where they are charged. The landlord is responsible for the smoke alarms and the building. The property manager runs inspections and passes on information. A gap between those roles is where risk sits.

Behaviour is the other part of the picture. A NSW Government survey found 73% of people charge devices while unattended, 70% charge batteries near living spaces or exits, and 51% use low-quality chargers or batteries (Fire and Rescue NSW, 2025a). In a rental, the person doing the charging is rarely the person who will be asked about the damage afterwards.

What the law already asks of landlords

There is no single national rule about e-bikes in rentals, but every state already places firm obligations on landlords around smoke alarms, and working alarms are the first line of defence in any battery fire.

Other states and territories have their own rules, so check with your local fire service or tenancy regulator. The point is the same everywhere: alarms in a rental are not optional, and with e-bikes and e-scooters now common, they matter more than ever. Fire and Rescue NSW advises a working smoke alarm on every level of a home as a minimum (Fire and Rescue NSW, 2025c).

A checklist for landlords and property managers

Smoke alarm compliance is the floor, not the ceiling. A few practical steps help a property manager reduce battery fire risk across a portfolio without overstepping into a tenant's private life.

• Keep alarm testing and battery replacement records up to date, and act on fault reports within the required timeframe.
• Add a short battery safety note to the welcome pack: where to charge, what not to do, and how to dispose of old batteries.
• Look at where a tenant can practically charge an e-bike. A ground-floor laundry or carport with a power point is better than a narrow hallway that doubles as the only exit.
• Make sure the power points used for charging are in good condition. An electrician's safety check is cheap compared with a fire claim.
• During routine inspections, note obvious hazards, such as several batteries charging on carpet beside a bed, and raise them in a calm, written follow-up.
• Check what your landlord insurance policy says about fires caused by tenant-owned devices, and whether the policy has any specific conditions.
• For managed apartment blocks, coordinate with the owners corporation on common-area rules for storage and charging.

A checklist for tenants

Renters control the biggest single factor in a home battery fire: how the battery is bought, charged and stored. The safety advice from Fire and Rescue NSW and the ACCC is consistent and simple (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission [ACCC], 2023; Fire and Rescue NSW, 2025b).

• Never sleep or leave home while a device is charging, and unplug it once it is full.
• Use the charger supplied with the device. Do not mix and match chargers and batteries.
• Charge on a hard surface away from beds, sofas and carpet, and never next to your exit.
• Let a battery cool after a ride before you charge it.
• Stop using any battery that is swollen, leaking, hissing or unusually hot.
• Never put lithium-ion batteries in the household bin. Use a battery drop-off point.
• Tell your landlord or agent straight away if a smoke alarm is not working. In NSW you are required to (NSW Government, 2024).

Buying a new e-bike or e-scooter?

If you are in NSW, the rules have changed in your favour. NSW Fair Trading introduced mandatory safety standards for e-micromobility devices, batteries and chargers from 1 February 2025, with mandatory testing and certification from August 2025 and labelling requirements from February 2026 (Fire and Rescue NSW, 2025a). From 1 February 2026, businesses that hire out e-bikes must also buy only certified and marked vehicles for their fleets (NSW Fair Trading, n.d.). Buying a certified product from a reputable retailer, rather than a cheap import, is one of the most effective things a renter can do.

When a battery fails at 6am

Fires do not wait for a convenient time. In July 2025 a woman in Daceyville, in Sydney's south-east, was awake at about 6am when an e-bike battery failed and burst into flames in her semi-detached home. She escaped, but 22 firefighters needed about an hour to bring the fire under control and the house was severely damaged (Fire and Rescue NSW, 2025b). At that point the service had recorded 157 lithium-ion battery fires in NSW for the year, 55 of them involving micromobility devices (Fire and Rescue NSW, 2025b).

Lithium-ion battery incidents can cause burns, chemical exposure and smoke inhalation, not just property damage (ACCC, 2023). That shapes the response. Equipment has a role in the first moments, for example smothering a small device or isolating a battery that has started to hiss or swell, but it never replaces getting people out. In a shared building, such as a block of units or a terrace with a shared wall, the neighbours need to know too.

Sensible equipment for a rented home

Equipment for a rental should be portable, because it belongs to the tenant and moves with them, or simple enough for a landlord to supply as part of the property. Three items cover most rental situations:

• An e-bike and e-scooter fire blanket (2m x 2m), kept where the bike is charged, to cover a burning device and slow the spread while you get out.
• A fire-resistant battery containment bag for charging and storing removable e-bike batteries, power tool packs and spare batteries.
• A 1L lithium-ion fire extinguisher with wall bracket, sized for the household and easy to mount near a charging spot.

Property managers with a portfolio can supply a blanket at each property in one order with our 10 pack, and our Business & Bulk team can help with larger portfolios.

In an emergency

If a battery is smoking, hissing or on fire, get everyone out, close the door behind you if you can, and call Triple Zero (000). Do not stay to fight a fire that is growing, and do not go back inside. Your safety, and the safety of the people you live with, comes before any property or device (ACCC, 2023).

General guidance only, not legal advice. Tenancy and smoke alarm rules vary by state and territory, so check with your local regulator. Fire blankets and containment bags contain a fire and buy time; they do not extinguish thermal runaway. In any battery fire, get clear and call Triple Zero (000). Our extinguishers are certified to EN 3-7:2004+A1:2007 and are supplementary to your statutory fire safety equipment.