Heated debate on sprinkler mandate

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Permalink Reply by Karen Keyes on January 13, 2010 at 9:55am

Not only will this add to the cost of new homes, of which all or some will of course be passed on to the homebuyer, but what about required maintenance or regular inspections of the sprinkler system after the home has been purchased. The homeowner now will be saddled with these costs as well.

Permalink Reply by Cal Icon on February 21, 2011 at 4:22pm

" Comply Or Die " should be the new State motto printed on every license plate.

This is all getting so absurd regulating and mandating every aspect of our lives in our homes on our private property, all under the guise of protecting us from whatever boogyman that industry is pushing legislation to control for the collective good.

Lots of grey areas and problems, let's say for example there was not enough of a water source on the property to adequitly supply a sprinkler 

system.  That would cause the additional cost of constructing a retention pond or large holding tanks, additional wells etc short of condenming or make a lot of properties unsuitable for dwellings or unbuildable.

Cost is an issue, starting at the low end of $1.60 @ sf and up would have buyers cough up an extra $4'000 for average newly constructed homes, 3 to 4 times that for larger homes and retrofits.

Any level of personal, home or property protection in any and all forms, is the responsibility of each individual to decide to have or not.

In a single famley or duplex to fourplex homes it is not necessary to impose any such mandates, this is where free markets decide what is best for the individual.

More single family homes are damaged & destroyed in dollar value by flooding, in the billions every year, significantly more than fires in single family residential homes.

If you move beyond the raw statistics spewed and skewed, examine the actual death by fire case by case, removing all that where not specifically in a detached single family structure, and remove the ones that involve mobile / modular homes, now we are comparing apples to apples. 

While I agree it makes sense to install fire protection systems in public and commercial structures like shopping centers, office buildings, restaurants, public housing etc where there is large numbers of people present. 

The only residential type structures that should have fire protection systems is those that house large numbers of occupants such as large apartment complexes, condominiums, boarding houses, motels, nursing homes and the likes. 

What is next after this is mandating retrofits in existing homes and of course the condemnation of properties that cant comply. Added risk and liability to the homeowners that are found out of compliance by the State, the courts and law suits by busy lawyers, prison for endangerment of children.

Regular mandated fire inspections of private homes by the "authorities" to check compliance etc, who is going to pay for all that new growth in government. The fees, fines and levies of course that will be imposed on all home owners not to mention increased property taxes on the added value. 

You all know the drill, tax credits for compliance and doing it, fines and lawsuits if you don't.

Next will come the elimination of wood stoves, candles and oil lamps being outlawed, mandated fireproof storage cabinets for all flammables in every home, there is no end in site.

The whole idea of government is to make it so expensive to have and to hold private property will become impossible for the average individual . You become a slave to it, a slave to the state for the privilege of funding all there mandates if you choose to own a home. Eventually relegating private property ownership to the very rich only as it's increasingly impossible today for most average people to own and hold private property. 

With every new law, regulation, mandate and tax increase we are pushed further and further into a black hole that creates a dependency on the state and increasing costs to all. 

Poverty has become a crime, to not participate, to just bee and be left alone is not allowed, we are already slaves to the reservation state system of control. We have become a nation of non thinking codependent soulless peoples that only know how do as we are told, think only what we are taught, blaming others for our problems, taking no responsibility for ourselves and hence increasingly codependent on the collective, the State.