Fire Marshal Stephen Yonkin, Williamsport Bureau of Fire.

I get asked a lot of questions from people renting in the city about what landlords are legally required to provide tenants in residential dwellings and apartments. Landlords must abide by certain rules and laws to safely have tenants.

Having safe and healthy living spaces is your legal right if you rent in the City of Williamsport.

Let’s take a look at what that means.

The apartment or house you rent should have interconnected and functional smoke detectors. They can either be hardwired together or connected via Wi-Fi throughout the rental that connect to the basement smoke detector which is hardwired. Required locations are: in each sleeping room, outside the sleeping rooms and on each floor of the structure including the basement. Unoccupied attics or crawl spaces are not required to have smoke detectors.

Basements and attics spaces should not be used as sleeping units unless they meet the correct code requirements and have been authorized by the codes department.

If the unit has and attached garage, oil or gas heat, or other fuel burning appliance a carbon monoxide alarm is required to be placed outside sleeping rooms. Carbon monoxide is a colorless and odorless gas that is a product of combustion. If sources of combustion are not vented properly, carbon monoxide can easily kill people if levels are high. This is another provision a landlord must provide: Fuel burning appliances venting properly and existing mechanical ventilation systems should be functional if present.

As a renter you are entitled to functional heating that is able to maintain 68 degree Fahrenheit in living spaces. You are entitled to clean potable water. You are entitled to both hot and cold running water with leak free plumbing throughout. There should be proper sanitary drainage, sewage disposal and backflow prevention.

There shouldn’t be leaking from the roof or walls. External stairs, porches and railings should be stable. Yards should be without high weeds and grass, trash and accumulation of combustible materials.

Interior floors, walls and ceilings should be free of holes and deterioration. This is for your safety. It also prevents fire from rapidly spreading throughout a building should one occur. Stairs, handrails and guards should all be structurally stable. Doors, windows and locks should operate and be secure. They should also be weather tight. Doors, windows and other fire escapes should not be blocked, obstructed or fastened shut that would prevent one from utilizing it in the event of an emergency. Emergency doors should be easily operable without special knowledge or tools to open. No screws. No nails. No padlocks. No slide locks. It’s not a bank safe door that you should have to break out a stethoscope to crack the code to open. It’s an emergency door. It should act like an emergency door.

Electrical receptacles should all have face plate covers. Electric service should be safely maintained and all wires terminated correctly. Electrical receptacles within 6 feet of water should be GFCI.

If you building has sprinklers or automatic fire alarms those systems should be inspected and tested yearly and remain functional 24/7 except when being currently serviced by a professional contractor.

If you rent in the City of Williamsport but your landlord does not, a local building contact should be provided to you by your landlord in the event that something needs fixed.

We have many apartment buildings in the City of Williamsport. Over 60% of the houses are rentals. That means a majority of the citizens of the city are renters. This would allow me to draw the conclusion that most of the children in our city grow up in rentals. The children of Williamsport deserve to grow up in healthy and safe environments so that they may reach their highest potential.

Let’s examine “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.” We can clearly see that the basic needs of safety, security, food, water, sleep, shelter, warmth….those are all at the bottom of the pyramid. If those basic needs are not provided for the higher functions of a human being become stunted or impaired. Educational achievement, health, relationships, mental health, behavioral health, creativity and other higher development will smolder out of an individual whose basic fundamental human needs are not met.

Consider for a moment that every smoke detector, warm bath, ceiling hole patched or other reoccurring daily demonstration to a child that they are safe and secure may lead to better grades, better health and their overall development into the next amazing new adult citizens of Williamsport.

We do. Therefore, should you find yourself renting in the City of Williamsport and you are without the necessary provisions listed above, please reach out to me and the following: fireinspector@cityofwilliamsport.org codes@cityofwilliamsport.org

Stephen Yonkin is the Williamsport Bureau of Fire’s fire marshal.