§ 11-258. Smoke Alarms.

(a)

Requirements for multifamily apartment houses, hotels, motels, and dormitories.

(1)

Multifamily apartment house. It shall be the responsibility of the owner of each new or existing multifamily apartment house to install smoke alarms in each such multifamily dwelling unit intended to be used or originally built or designed to be used for residential purposes, not to include any dwelling unit within any structure which has been wholly converted to a nonresidential use. They shall be installed by July 1, 1978, in the manner hereinafter provided unless any other provision of County, State or federal law shall require installation before that date.

(2)

Hotels, motels, and dormitories. The owner of each new or existing hotel, motel and dormitory shall install smoke alarms in each sleeping area. They shall be installed in existing buildings by July 1, 1980, in the manner hereinafter provided, unless any other provision of County, State or federal law shall require installation before that date.

(b)

Location. At least one (1) smoke alarm shall be installed in close proximity to the access for each sleeping area.

(c)

Installation. Smoke alarms may be directly hard wired to the building's power supply and have a battery-powered back-up. The batteries shall be in accordance with the manufacturer's specifications.

(d)

Maintenance of smoke alarms in multifamily apartment houses, hotels, motels, and dormitories. It shall be the responsibility of the property owner or agent to annually inspect and maintain any smoke alarm device, installed in compliance with the provisions of this Section, in accordance with the manufacturer's warranty and/or suggested maintenance schedule. In addition, the property owner shall provide any tenant access to a copy of the maintenance schedule, operating manual, and any other instructional or precautionary literature which the manufacturer may supply with the unit.

(e)

Supervision. In new multifamily apartment houses, motels, hotels, and dormitories which have a required manual fire alarm system, a heat detector shall be installed next to the required smoke alarm(s) and the heat detector shall be connected to the manual fire alarm system.

(f)

Certification at change in occupancy. At every change of occupancy or tenancy in any multifamily dwelling unit occasioned by or incidental to a sale, lease, sublease, or change in tenancy, it shall be the duty of the grantor thereof to certify to the tenant, at the time of conveyance and before occupancy, that all smoke alarms as required by this Section (or other applicable laws) are installed and in proper working condition.

(g)

Other standards applicable. This Section is intended to be used with and supplemented by the applicable provisions of National Fire Protection Association Standard NFPA-72.

(h)

Requirements for one- and two-family residential dwellings. The requirements for installation and maintenance of smoke alarms in one- and two-family residential dwellings shall be as prescribed by Title 9, Public Safety Article, Annotated Code of Maryland, as may be amended from time to time. As of July 1, 1982, Section 12A, as amended by Chapter 340 of the Acts of the General Assembly of 1982, requires that in one- and two-family residential dwellings the occupant of each dwelling unit shall be responsible for installing and maintaining at least one approved battery or AC primary electric-powered smoke alarm.

(i)

Replacement. It shall be the responsibility of the property owner to replace any smoke alarm(s) as specified by the manufacturer.

(j)

All multi-family dwellings shall have battery back-up smoke alarms in the manner specified by this Subtitle by January 1, 2007.

(CB-107-1979; CB-110-1982; CB-80-2006)