The State of Illinois and the City of Chicago Have New Requirements Effective 2023 for Smoke Detectors

This includes smoke detectors in high-rise condominium communities such as Park Tower.

The purpose is to do with the old removable battery-powered smoke detectors and replace them with more reliable alternatives, and specifically those with the minimum 10 year unremovable lithium battery.

Our team at Habitat has been working to interpret these changes and what is important for buildings such as Park Tower to understand. With some help of outside legal counsel it has been determined that as of January 1, 2023, the following requirements are in effect in both the State of Illinois and City of Chicago:

•  All condos which still use battery-powered smoke detectors (within units or in common areas) must begin using detectors with self-contained, non-removable, long-term batteries. This means the older model smoke detectors, which use removal 9v batteries, must be replaced with newer-model detectors with non-removable, sealed, long-term batteries (i.e., batteries that last up to 10 years). Several years ago, this was already done as a building wide project in the common areas. Also since then, we’ve only kept the 10 year smoke detectors in stock.
• We are not required to remove and replace the “old” smoke detector models immediately (though it is advisable to do so). It is said the law requires that the “old” removal battery models be replaced when:
  • The “old” models are more than ten (10) years past their date of manufacture; or
  • The “old” models fail to respond to operation tests or start to malfunction.

Later this year we will be conducting our Life Safety Inspections of all units. At that time we will conduct a census of any such smoke detectors remaining, and proactively contact owners to strongly recommend their immediate replacement. However, Owners can contact our team anytime to schedule a work ticket for this to be done. We do stock the code compliant detectors for $25, and will remove the old one and install the new one without a labor charge.

If you have an old removable battery operated smoke detector, and would like this to be replaced sooner rather than later, please e-mail us a request at parktowercondo-mgmt@habitat.com.