North DSM News

The Johnston City Council recently issued a moratorium on enforcing rental code requiring landlords to provide tenants with fire extinguishers.

During a Dec. 19 city council meeting, Adam Ostert, a Building Official for the city of Johnston, asked the council to consider a resolution of a moratorium on some aspects of the rental code in the city. Current rental code requires landlords to provide fire extinguishers in each of the dwelling units as well as in the corridors, while previous fire codes only required extinguishers be provided in the corridors.

Staff members asked the city to delay enforcing this code and only enforce the fire code for now to give them time to reword some of the rental code to align with fire codes. 

"So in the fire code, the allowance to put it in the unit is actually to do away with the one in the corridor. So the fire code actually says you have to add the ones in the corridor, but then steps back and says if you put one in each unit, then you don't have to have the one in the corridor. So the fire code and the building code kind of look at it from the standpoint of this is preferred, but if you want, you can go this route." 

The delay would also afford time for landlords of multi-unit apartment buildings who face up to $30,000 in fees to comply with the new code. The new code would not impact single-family homes, only multi-unit properties.

After discussion, the council decided to hold off on enforcing the rental code. They are interested in making the codes require extinguishers in each of the units and potentially do away with the corridor requirement, which would be more of a compromise in the codes.