Newark, OH Building Safety: Door Locking Hardware (2026)

Section 1446.19 sits in Chapter 1446, the Rooming House Code, and its standard is short: access doors to all rooming units and window openings to the outside must have functioning locking devices. The stated purpose is the privacy of the occupant and the security of the unit. The section sets no hardware grade, no deadbolt requirement and no keying rule, so the question an Inspector asks is whether each device works.

The Inspector is the Director of Code Administration or a designee under Section 1446.03(b). Under Section 1446.07(c), an inspection that finds a rooming house short of the chapter requires a written statement of deficiencies to the operator and a date for compliance and reinspection. Section 1446.09 adds that the Inspector gives written notice that the license will be suspended unless conditions are corrected within a period the Inspector sets, then reinspects when that period ends.

The lock rule has a counterpart that cuts the other way. Under Section 1446.14, in structures with three or more stories, the exterior stairway or fire escape must be reached through a door which cannot be locked from within, located in a hallway or a room which is not occupied, and that room must be reached from a hall through a door without a locking device or bolt of any kind. Unit doors and windows must lock; the egress door to that stairway or fire escape must not lock from the inside.

Existing rooming houses are not given a pass on locks. Section 1446.21 postpones only the structural-change requirements of Sections 1446.11, 1446.13 and 1446.14 until the owner makes structural or use changes requiring zoning or building permits from the City, and Section 1446.19 is not among them.