Basic Fire Safety Concerns for Landlords

Dryers are one of the leading causes of house fires and it can usually be attributed to lint combustion.

Wholesale Real Estate in California: As a landlord, you will want to be vigilant about safety issues in and around your rental houses. While you may be insured for fire, it would be tough to get over losing a tenant or having someone burned because you failed to follow basic fire safety precautions to keep your tenants and your investment houses safe. What tenants do, and there are plenty of nightmare stories out there among landlords and firefighters, you cannot control.

You can, however, do your part to assure that alarms are installed, the systems are all up to date and working properly, and you don’t have any recalled appliances in the house. The following are just a few suggestions to help you protect your tenants and property. Before you rent out a house, install the appropriate number of fire and smoke alarms. They are each different and respond to different stimulus. Fire alarms go off when intense heat is sensed, but not if the smoke is present and the heat hasn’t reached them yet. Smoke alarms go off when there is what appears to be smoke as detected by the ‘eye’ in the unit.

“Before you rent out a house, install the appropriate number of fire and smoke alarms.”

These don’t go off where there is heat, but little smoke. They also tend to go off when you steam up the shower, or cobwebs look like smoke to the electronic ‘eye.’ Try a more sophisticated model that senses both. A CO1 detector is also a good idea and can be purchased as a unit that alarms when any of the 3 is present – smoke, fire, and deadly CO1, carbon monoxide. These units serve as a warning to your residents to allow them the maximum time to exit the house in case of emergency and call 9-1-1. Check your heating and cooling systems, hot water heaters, stoves, dishwashers, refrigerators, electrical breaker boxes, etc. for recall notices or other safety warnings. You can do this online fairly easily. Just type the specific model number into the search box with ‘recall’ and you’ll find what you need to know.

A few years ago there was a massive recall of home heating systems spanning several popular brands because they presented a fire hazard. If you provide a clothes dryer, there are brand specific ways to open it up and clean out the lint thoroughly. Flex vent tubing can be replaced with semi-rigid tubing or metal ducting to prevent lint from sticking in the ribs and combusting. Dryers are one of the leading causes of house fires and it can usually be attributed to lint combustion.

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