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Saturday, June 29, 2013

Smoke Detector Law Takes Effect

OCEAN CITY – The Ocean City Fire Marshal’s Office is spreading the word on a new state law effective July 1 that will enforce smoke detectors to be updated and placed on every floor of a residence by the year 2018.

House Bill 1413/Senate Bill 969, Public Safety-Fire Protection and Prevention Residential Smoke Alarms, has been passed and goes into effect on July 1.

The law requires homeowners to disclose whether the smoke detectors are over 10 years old and whether they use a 10-year sealed battery as required under Maryland law by 2018. The notice will be added to the current Seller Property Condition Disclosure Forms.

The legislation also requires homeowners to update smoke detectors to newer sealed battery systems if the smoke detectors are battery operated and are over 10 years old or malfunction when tested. Smoke detectors that are hard-wired are also required to be updated every 10 years or when those systems malfunction. Finally the legislation requires that at least one smoke detector be located on every floor of a residence by 2018.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

A lot of lobbying went on and someone got a big pay off. The list of government mandated purchases continues to grow. Toilets, lightbulbs, smoke detectors. Next it will be mandated what you wipe your butt with.

Anonymous said...

I'd be curious to know if any lobbying went on for the new parking machines 10:58. last year or maybe year before that company where they purchased them from was involved in pay off schemes. It was all over the news and I immediately recognized the name though have since forgotten.
Even if not involved I don't think OC should purchase from a company like that who was involved in illegal business practices and if they say they weren't aware it doesn't matter because they should be aware of everything about every company they spend the tax payers money with otherwise they are doing a horrible job at their jobs.