New Family Cabon Monoxide Saftey Act in Colorado
June 25th, 2009 Categories: Buyer's Corner, Colorado Round Up, First Time Buyers, Home Inspections and Maintenance, REO and HUD Talk, Uncategorized
My friend is always asking me to “check” my carbon monoxide detector in my house and I said “I do”! The simple answer is, I look over to see that the red light is still on and that no one is sick yet! Sounds a bit frivolous, but I don’t remember having a carbon monoxide detector in my house when I was little, more less when my kids were little. Any of this sound familiar to you? The scary part is that you usually hear on the news during the winter time about some poor family that perished because of carbon monoxide poisoning and they never realized what hit them. Colorado’s Gov. Ritter Jr. signed a new bill May 2009 that requires all existing single and multi family dwellings offered for sale or transfer (after July 1, 2009) to have carbon monoxide detectors.
Bill 1091, Lofgren & Johnson Family Carbon Monoxide Safety Act, was named after Parker & Caroline Lofgren and their children who died while vacationing in Aspen over Thanksgiving 2008, and Lauri Johnson, 23 year old Univ. of Denver grad student who died in her apartment in Jan 09.
The act requires that all new or sold residential properties have Carbon Monoxide alarms on each floor of the property. Rentals will also be required to add Carbon Monoxide alarms when tenants change.
The safety act requires CM detectors to be located with in 15 ft. of the entrance to all rooms used lawfully for sleeping purposes. In addition, if the permit is for multi-family rental unit, CM detectors need to be located within 25 ft. of any fuel-fired heater, appliance, fireplace or garage.
There are actually 3 silent killers in your house that you might not be a ware of:
Carbon Monoxide
Radon
Mold
Carbon Monoxide and Radon are invisible to the naked eye and is hard to detect. Anytime you suspect water damage, or water infiltration – anywhere in your home, mold could be there behind or under something, and you don’t realize it. There are test you can have done for detection and also sucessful remediation for all of them. When you are thinking about purchasing a bank owned home that has been left unmaintained, or a total fixer upper, ask your Realtor to put in your contract that you will be having any or all of these test. You’ll be glad you did, and it will be the best money spent – by you as the buyer – before buying the money pit. Click on any of these links to learn more about Carbon Monoxide, Radon and Mold.
eMedicine’s advice on carbon monoxide poisoning everyone should know!
Click on this link to learn more about radon!
Mold detections, symptons and how to get rid of!
