How to Pass the NJ Required Home Sale & Change of Occupancy Fire Inspection
The State of New Jersey, under state administrative law 5:70-4.19 requires the following to be in place and have an inspection completed by the local fire official's office or the NJ State Division of Fire Safety upon sale of the dwelling or change of occupants. Hiring our firm can mean the difference between passing on the first inspection with no problems, or failing and having to spend additional time, money and the potential for the home sale contract to fall through as a result of a failed inspection.
How to understand the state fire code
For the layperson who might not understand the technical writing under the state fire code, NJSA 5:70 - 4.19, we breakdown the information below and encourage that if you have concerns about your home or if you are unsure if you are ready for your home sale fire inspection to contact us today for an estimate and proposal for our assistance.
Kitchen Fire Extinguisher
Kitchen Fire Extinguishers must be a 2A-10B:C extinguisher and no more than 10 pound capacity. The Kidde Pro 210 Fire extinguisher is compliant, comes with the wall mount and is sold at most home improvement stores, the extinguisher must be wall mounted under 5 feet in height, it must be mounted on a wall in a direction in which you would exit the kitchen during a fire and the receipt must be affixed to the outside of the extinguisher at the time of the inspection.
Smoke Alarms
Smoke Alarms must be present and up to date as originally installed, battery/self contained units must be 10 year sealed. If the smoke alarms are hard wired, they must be less than 10 years old and have battery back up. When tested all hard-wired alarms must activate together. At a minimum, smoke alarms must be present on levels of the dwelling and within 10 feet of every bedroom. Hardwired smoke alarms are not allowed to be replaced by battery operated smoke alarms. Due to the highly complex nature of this part of the statute, we recommend you consult with us to confirm if your smoke alarms are current and if ready for inspection. When we replace smoke alarms, new batteries will also be installed, and we will test the detectors before completing our work.
Carbon Monoxide Alarms
Carbon Monoxide Detectors are required on all bedroom levels of the dwelling and be less than 10 years old in age. We encourage that you place at least one carbon monoxide detector on each level of the dwelling and purchase plug in CO detectors closer in value to $50 per unit as they are more reliable and less likely to have a false alarm. Upon our replacement of your carbon monoxide detectors, we will provide new batteries, test the devices before completing our work.
Our Inspection Process
If you anticipate your home selling quickly or are under contract, we recommend you utilize our services to ensure that your closing day does not fall through due to a failed fire inspection.
Our staff will set up a time for a pre inspection to determine your needs, and if we locate deficiencies, we can supply for you and install/replace your smoke alarms, fire extinguisher and carbon monoxide detectors and will then provide you with a report of the work we completed to ensure you are ready for the state required fire inspection and will pass on the first inspection.