A while back I wrote an article notifying our Team Reba blog readers that changes were afoot for both new construction and non-owner occupied housing to require carbon monoxide alarms. Please see the recent answer from WA Assoc. of REALTOR legal folks regarding an update that just came into being. You’ll want to be kept abreast of the changes, particularly if you own rental properties.
The question to the legal hotline was as follows:
Did the rules regarding installation of carbon monoxide monitors just change AGAIN?
Answer:
Yes. Until recently, carbon monoxide monitors had to be installed in all non-owner occupied housing by July 1, 2011. The installation requirement applied regardless of whether the home included fuel-fired appliances or an attached garage. Those portions of the rule have now changed.Based on the adoption of an emergency rule, carbon monoxide (CO) monitors no longer have to be installed in any existing housing until January 1, 2013. Said again, carbon monoxide monitors do not have to be installed in non-owner occupied housing by July 1, 2011. Carbon monoxide monitors must now be installed in non-owner occupied, existing housing, by January 1, 2013.In addition, the requirement to install the CO monitor is now limited to housing that includes fuel-fired appliances and/or an attached garage. Said differently, if a residence has no fuel-fired appliance and no attached garage, there is no requirement to install CO monitors.The portion of the rule requiring all new residential construction to be equipped with carbon monoxide monitors still takes effect January 1, 2011. Again, however, the requirement for installation is limited only to new construction with fuel-fired appliances and/or an attached garage.Stay tuned to this issue. Since the recent changes came in the form of an “emergency rule”, a final rule must still be implemented. That process will be undertaken this coming year, with the promise of a final rule by the end of 2011. The final rule may or may not change the requirements as they now stand. As for now, however, new residential construction with an attached garage or fuel-fired appliances must include CO monitors effective January 1, 2011 but existing housing, owner-occupied or otherwise, has no compliance requirement until January 1, 2013.
