Political Perspective
By Ron Kingston

State Retrofit Requirements May Soon Be A Reality

Most every owner of single-family and multi-family homes (including factory built homes, hotels, motels, and time-share units) will be required to install carbon monoxide (CO) devices within the next few years if SB 183 (Lowenthal) is signed into law. The cost of each device starts at $25 and tops out at approximately $200. The “Cadillac” version talks to you. Assuming the bill is signed into law:

• Single-family homeowners will have just a little more than one-year, January 1, 2011 to install these new devices.


• Multi-family owners will be required to install the CO devices on or before July 1, 2012. The ubiquitous transfer disclosure statement, TDS, will be amended next year and the Homeowners’ Guide to Environmental Hazards may be amended sometime in the future to add a new chapter on carbon monoxide devices.
  
  The net result amending the TDS will be to require that the owner of a single-family unit disclose the existence and operability of the device to a purchaser.

When the environmental hazards booklet is updated to include this all-tooimportant matter, additional information concerning the device will prove to be an important informative tool and may even serve to mitigate the possibility of incorrect information about the device. It is very important to know of the other requirements of SB 183.

• Only dwellings that burn “fossil fuel” or have attached garages will be required to have the devices.


• The State Fire Marshal must approve the devices that will be required to be initially installed and the installation instructions. If you have already installed a device you will want to check to determine if it complies with the term of the bill.
  
  If a CO device as required by this new law has been installed and the state determines to update the manufacturing standards or installation instructions sometime in the future, owners will not be required to install the new device until an application for a building permit is secured where the building modifications will exceed $1,000.


• Permits landlords and property managers to enter and install the device(s).


• The devices will be required to be installed on each floor and replaced once every seven years. The law relating to the placement and replacement of smoke detectors is different.


• You may purchase battery-powered, plug-in with a battery backup or a “hard wired” unit at most hardware stores.


• You may also purchase a combined smoke detector and CO device. If you are considering purchasing this type of device there are notable differences. Combination units are more expensive and require more frequent replacement than separate units.


• Landlords, on the other hand, will enjoy precedent setting laws. As you would expect, the device is to be operable at the time a tenant takes possession. For the first time in law a tenant is to notify the landlord if the device becomes inoperable or deficient during the entire tenancy, and the landlord shall not be cited for a violation for an inoperable or deficient device when he or she has not received notice of the inoperability or deficiency.
  
  Landlords should not be held liable for removal of batteries or removal of the device(s) from the power source.

Assuming the bill becomes law, landlords will have a little more than two years, and single-family owners will have a little more than one year, to purchase and install millions of CO devices in the state.