Carbon Monoxide Detectors & Rental Properties

Rehabbing, Fix and Flip, Rental Properties
1

Will more cities start requiring them?

The smoke caused by house fires can be detected in numerous ways without a smoke detector; heat, smell, sight, sound and even taste. We can detect smoke in our homes with all our five senses. CO or Carbon Monoxide on the other hand is colorless, odorless and tasteless. It stands to reason that smoke detectors should not be the only safety concern of cities when CO is potentially much more dangerous and difficult to detect.

The Consumers Product Safety Commission recommends that all homes have at least one CO Detector installed near sleeping quarters, preferably one on every level of the home. CO Detectors shouldn’t be installed near or above fuel-burning appliances or within 15 feet of heating or cooking devices.

Given all this, it should come as no surprise that more and more cities are starting to require CO Detectors.

Landlords won’t find a lot of battery-only CO Detectors as they tend to go through batteries fairly quickly. Most are plug-in or hardwired types. CO Detectors also have to be replaced every five years or so, depending on what the manufacturer suggests.

Wal-Mart, Lowes and Home Depot carry numerous CO models with varying prices. A smoke detector costs anywhere from $7.00 to $65.00. A CO detector, a good one that recalibrates in fresh air (like recharging a battery) costs anywhere from $19.00 upwards to $329.00. An inexpensive Carbon Monoxide detector is one that will collect CO until it is full, but will then begin, most likely, to give off false alarms - this coming from a Captain at the Detroit Fire Marshal’s Office.

When considering where to install a CO Detector, keep in mind that CO is less than 97% as heavy as “air’. On top of this CO will usually be mixed with hot gases being given off by something burning, so it will usually rise. Please read the manufacturer’s directions thoroughly to install correctly.

2

They are required here in NJ. I have them in all 3 of my properties.

3

I put them in every property! We had one go off one cold night here in ND and it woke the tenants. I promptly sent them to a motel and paid for it. The fire department determined that it was a bad furnace. We got it taken care of quickly and I have never thought twice about putting them in all my units. The last house we remodeled we used a unit that had a duel smoke carbon monoxide detector.

Money well spent

4

This is cheap insurance, IMHO. I think all of us need to probably be more diligent about safety items and documentation should something bad happen and we end up in court over it. Even if it wasn’t preventable, we need to be able to show that we were not negligent in taking care of our properties.

I read a book a while ago that talked about a flyer to mail all tenants every year asking about safety. They were required to answer questions about things that they found unsafe about the property. I haven’t done it yet, but it’s in the works to implement such a procedure and documentation to go with lease renewal.

My only worry is the people that worry too much or want to nitpick.

5

We put fire extinguishers and smoke detectors in all of our properties. The fire extinguisher is mounted in the kitchen. I put them out in the open so people see them. I don’t want someone to forget they had one in a cabinet under the sink if they have a fire. Smoke detectors go in the living room and all bedrooms. If the property has any gas appliances, I put CO detectors in the living room and main bedroom. It never costs over $100 per house for these items. I think it is money well spent.