Baytown, TX Fire Regulations: Smoke Detectors (2026)

The duty attaches to a "multi-family dwelling complex": three or more dwelling units under common ownership or management on the same or adjoining lots, as defined in Sec. 18-681. Owner-occupied units, hotels, motels, nursing homes, jails, junior-college housing and licensed assisted-living facilities are carved out of that definition and fall outside this rule. Registration is annual, due by December 31, and again within 30 days of any change of ownership under Sec. 18-701(a)-(d). The registration form must be verified under oath before the building official and, among 20 required items, must include a certification (item 18) that every dwelling unit is equipped with a smoke detector device in proper working order (Sec.

18-701(e)(18)). The city backstops that paper certification with physical checks: landlord/tenant self-inspections, required at least once a year and at every change of occupancy, must cover smoke detectors as one of the minimum property-maintenance items examined (Sec. 18-711(a)(3)e), and the chief building official's own periodic inspections run no less than once a year (Sec. 18-710(c)). A landlord who registers without a truthful smoke-detector certification, or who operates an unregistered complex, commits an offense under Sec. 18-725(a)(2) and (a)(9), a Class C misdemeanor enforced through Sec.

18-727(a) and punishable as set out in Sec. 1-14. A landlord who is not the property owner escapes liability only by giving the building official the true owner's name, address and phone number under Sec. 18-725(b).