Musings of a Career Consultant

SoCal Texan in Bmore Leading Rock Stars

Wait. Every Californian needs a Carbon Monoxide Detector? June 27, 2011

That’s right. Every home. This is not a dreaded POS (point of sale) law. (Ask me another time why I dislike POS so greatly.) This is for any and every CA house (yep, that means rentals, too). A little Q&A:

When does it need to be in? July 1st on single family homes up to 4 units and January 1, 2013 for everyone else.

How many need to be in? And where? This is the best question. Best answer? Call your city. Why? Because if city law is more stringent than state law then the city law overrides the state law. Most early guesses from months ago said you’d only need one. Now, we’re thinking you should treat them like smoke detectors (one per bedroom). Some interpretations say you can have a combined one in each room and some say outside of each room. Why do I “think” rather than “know”? Because the lovely law isn’t specific enough. So, best advice is to call your city and ask them. If they don’t know, treat them like smoke detectors or get the combined one and install that where all your smoke detectors once were.

Seriously, who’s going to know? Good question. I don’t know but if they find you don’t have one, you’ll be given a written 30-day notice to comply and then will be fined up to $200 per infraction.

Can I, as a Buyer, back out if they don’t have them? Not quite. But you can sue for $100 (yep, that’s all) and court costs. Easier choice? You should probably just shell out for them and call it a day. Want to be real sneaky and get them to pay for it? I might have an idea but it’s only given on a need-to-know basis.

Will my Landlord have to install these? What if they stop working? They have to put them in but guess who has to keep them up? Yep, you. If you don’t notify your Landlord that they go out, you can’t come after them for not working. Makes you want to put “Check detectors” as a monthly reminder, huh?

This is not sufficient. I have more questions. Where do I get it? Just let me know. This is not all the information I have about this. And, I’d be happy to help you navigate with your specific city.




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