New Laws

Sellers, especially, should understand that, for all closings taking place on or after March 31st, the local fire department will be inspecting for compliance with this requirement at the same time they are inspecting for compliance with the smoke detector law prior to closing. The regulations allow for all residential dwellings, including rentals, to contain battery operated or plug-in CO detectors rather than hard-wired units.  Further, the regulations require that CO detectors be placed on each habitable level of a dwelling; this expressly excludes unfinished basements, attics or crawl spaces. 

In addition, the law states that fire departments may NOT charge an additional fee for inspecting the CO detector if they are already there to do a smoke detector inspection.  Specific compliance questions should be directed to your personal attorney or local fire department.  For further information, please download and print out the .pdf files, as prepared by the Massachusetts Association of REALTORS®, by clicking the download icon below. If your system does not already have Adobe Acrobat, you will need to visit www.Adobe.com and download the free version in order to view and print each file.