Property Management in Dallas, TX and Arlington, TX on Smoke Alarms

The smoke alarm requirement enacted in January of 2012 gave property owners, landlords, and property management in Dallas, TX and Arlington, TX a full year to get their house in order and fully comply. As January 2013 looms in the immediate future, all those in charge of property management in Arlington, TX and Dallas would do well to double-check whether their real property's smoke alarms are correctly installed and in good working order.

The recent Texas code specifies the following smoke alarm and fire extinguisher regulations for rental investment properties:

• Battery-operated smoke alarms, consistent with their respective model codes, must be installed in all bedrooms of rental properties.
  
  
• The law stipulates that it is not necessary for bedroom smoke alarms to be connected to other devices.
  
  
• Non-refillable, single-use extinguishers for fires may be self-inspected by the property owners, the maintenance managers, or the rental property management team, to assure that this critical equipment is up to snuff, according to codes. The improvements threshold is changed by these recent regulations to $5,000, up from the previous $2,500.
  
  
• Technically, the new regulations allow for more stringent smoke alarms requirements for facilities that were constructed after September of 2011.

It is the responsibility of the one who owns the property to provide replacement batteries for all smoke alarms.