No. HB 241
Filed under Occupational.
Landlord Obligations and Construction Contracting; Requires landlords to provide & maintain specified cooling equipment for tenants; requires landlord to repair or replace such cooling equipment within specified timeframe; provides construction; provides exceptions; provides applicability; revises definitions of terms "class A air-conditioning contractor" & "mechanical contractor" to include additional services that such contractors may perform.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDLandlords of apartments, condos, and other rentals - not single-family homes or duplexes - must keep habitable rooms at or below 82 degrees when the outdoor heat index hits 90, and fix broken cooling equipment within three business days of written notice.
Single-family homes and duplexes are not covered by this specific requirement, though a landlord there may still owe cooling under general code-compliance duties if local codes require it separately.
Tenants under leases signed before July 1, 2026 do not get the new protection right away - their landlords have until July 1, 2027 to add the required cooling equipment.
Separately, licensed air-conditioning and mechanical contractors gain legal authority to replace and repair existing pool heaters and reconnect them to piping, work the licensing statute did not list before.
AILandlords must provide and maintain cooling equipment able to keep habitable rooms at or below 82 degrees Fahrenheit whenever the outdoor heat index reaches 90 degrees, and must repair or replace failed equipment within 3 business days of written tenant notice.
AIThe cooling-equipment duty is written into the list of reasonable provisions that applies only to landlords of dwelling units other than a single-family home or duplex, so renters of single-family homes and duplexes are not covered by this specific mandate.
AIFor rental agreements already in effect before July 1, 2026, the cooling-equipment mandate does not have to be met right away; covered landlords instead have until July 1, 2027 to comply.
AIA landlord does not have to install cooling equipment where a local historic-preservation ordinance or other code forbids it, but must still add feasible alternative code-compliant equipment, and local governments remain free to enforce stricter habitability standards than this section sets.
AIA landlord is not in violation of the maintenance duty when a tenant unreasonably denies access for repairs, or when cooling equipment fails because of a natural disaster, utility outage, or supply-chain delay beyond the landlord's control and repairs begin within 3 business days.
AIClass A air-conditioning contractors and mechanical contractors may now replace and repair existing package pool heaters and reconnect them to existing pool piping, work not previously listed in their statutory scope, so long as they keep the same make and model and change nothing else in the system.