Purchasing smoke detectors jointly offers several advantages for homeowners' associations. Besides the significant cost savings for all owners, the safety aspect is also important. By opting for a shared installation, all apartments are reliably equipped with smoke detectors. If each owner purchases them individually, experience shows that some apartments will inevitably remain unequipped. The resulting safety gaps then affect everyone. If a fire breaks out in an unequipped neighboring apartment, it also endangers the other residents.
Brunata Minol recommends that individual apartment owners only install smoke detectors themselves if the owners' association has decided that each apartment owner is responsible for their own installation. If, however, the owners decide on a communal installation, they do not have to exclude apartments whose owners have already installed smoke detectors themselves (Federal Court of Justice, judgment of December 7, 2018, V ZR 273/17).