-- is it leased or owned, just for hot water, is there whole-house battery back-up?

I did this for smoke detector batteries until I switched to 10Y sealed Lithium batteries.You can also ask for evidence: "Tenant, send me a pic of the dirty filter you took out so I can see how the system is doing."

Sylvia, it is recommended that the furnace air filter is changed every 3 months and batteries in your smoke detectors yearly.

@Stephen Krzyzak are you asking the handyman to go specifically check in on the property from time to time or do you have then on a "look at it while you are there changing filters and batteries" kind of thing?   

Batteries last about 6 months. 

If I could find a way to run A/C in the summer off batteries that's be year round.

You will inspect all smoke detectors periodically and will replace worn out batteries when needed.

They made sure all the sprinkler heads in the condo were exposed and pressurized, and that all the smoke detectors were hard-wired and had battery backups and were working, and that the alarm sensor was active. 

"I need to check the batteries in the fire alarms and change the filters," gets me into a house whenever I feel like it.Check your local statutes concerning prepaid rents, typically you need to hold it in a separate bank account and slowly transfer it each month as you 'earn' it. 

They passed a battery of tests to become certified.