The one on every property manager's calendar. Annual functional testing by a licensed contractor, semi-annual inspection, and a record that satisfies the fire official when he asks.
If you manage a multi-family building, a condominium or a lodging establishment with a fire alarm system, this is not optional and it is not annual-ish. Florida requires the system to be inspected, tested and maintained to NFPA 72, and the work has to be done by a contractor licensed by the Division of the State Fire Marshal.
It is also the obligation most likely to be discovered late, because nothing prompts it. No renewal notice arrives. The first anyone hears is usually an inspection, an insurance question, or an incident.
NFPA 72 sets different intervals for different activities, and conflating them is how buildings end up non-compliant while believing they are covered.
Weekly. The control panel is checked for normal operating condition. Owner or staff can do this.
Monthly. Battery visual inspection, and fire pump controller signals where fitted. Again, staff-level.
Semi-annually. Visual inspection of detectors, pull stations, notification appliances, the panel and the wiring.
Annually. The one that matters. Full functional testing by a licensed fire alarm contractor — every detector activated, every pull station verified, notification appliances tested, communication with the monitoring station confirmed, batteries load-tested.
Every two years. Smoke detector sensitivity testing with calibrated equipment, to confirm the detectors have not drifted out of range.
The annual functional test must be carried out by a contractor licensed by the Division of the State Fire Marshal, with permitted technicians. An owner can handle the weekly panel check and the monthly battery look. Everything else needs the licence, and a report signed by anyone else does not satisfy the requirement.
A dated inspection and testing report in the NFPA 72 format, listing every device, its location, and its result. That document is what the fire official asks for, what your insurer asks for after a claim, and what a buyer's due diligence asks for at sale.
Deficiencies come with a quote attached rather than a note saying 'contact your contractor', so you can price the remedy the same week rather than starting a second process.
Nothing chases you. A gas safety certificate in Britain has a legal renewal date and a landlord who misses it commits an offence; Florida's fire testing obligation is just as real but the enforcement is complaint-and-inspection driven, so it drifts.
The buildings that get caught are the ones where the managing agent changed, the contractor stopped calling, or the person who used to diarise it left. We track the date and book it before it lapses, which is most of the value.
We cover the whole state. These are the metros we work in most often — each page covers the local housing stock, code position and insurance context.
Generally not — most single-family homes have standalone smoke alarms rather than a monitored fire alarm system, and there is no periodic testing requirement for those. This applies to multi-family buildings, condominiums, and lodging establishments with an installed alarm system.
Annually for the full functional test, semi-annually for visual inspection, monthly for batteries and weekly for the panel. Detector sensitivity testing is every two years.
They can do the weekly panel check and the monthly battery inspection. The annual functional test requires a contractor licensed by the Division of the State Fire Marshal.
Usually nothing until a fire official inspects, an insurer asks after a claim, or a sale triggers due diligence. At that point the gap is expensive and occasionally worse. Bringing a lapsed system back into compliance is straightforward; explaining the gap afterwards is not.
Yes. We pick up the last report, establish what is actually due and when, and put it on a schedule. Buildings that have drifted usually need one catch-up visit and then run normally.
One number for the inspection and for whatever it turns up. Licensed, insured contractors across Florida.