BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Research Center S.B. 1715
By: West, et al.
AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT
Currently, Chapter 92 (Residential Tenancies) of the Property Code requires landlords to install smoke detectors, but only those which would alert a hearing person.
S.B. 1715 requires a landlord, if requested by a tenant as an accommodation for a person with a disability or as required by law as a reasonable accommodation for a person with a disability, to install smoke detectors that are capable of alerting a hearing-impaired person in the bedrooms the detectors serve.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS
SECTION 1. Provides that this bill is enacted to honor the memory of Sephra Burks.
SECTION 2. Amends Section 92.254, Property Code, by amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsection (a-1), as follows:
(a) Includes among other requirements that a smoke detector be designed with an alarm audible to a person in the bedrooms it serves.
(a-1) Requires that a smoke detector, if requested by a tenant as an accommodation for a person with a hearing-impairment disability or as required by law as a reasonable accommodation for a person with a hearing-impairment disability, in addition to complying with Subsection (a), be capable of alerting a hearing-impaired person in the bedrooms it serves.
SECTION 3. Effective date: January 1, 2010.