Safety Consultant

[Steven Ziemba]

Are there any codes or standards that require the mechanical/utility room in an apartment building to be locked so that individual tenants do not adjust the hot water heater temperature upwards to cause potential scalding to other tenants?

[Brian Hannigan]

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[Jerry Peck]

Are there any codes or standards that require the mechanical/utility room in an apartment building to be locked so that individual tenants do not adjust the hot water heater temperature upwards to cause potential scalding to other tenants?

None that I can think of, and that would not be feasible anyway unless there was maintenance staff on site at all times.

If maintenance staff was on site at all times, then the mechanical rooms could be locked and there would be personnel there to access those rooms should a need arise, and "at all times" means that more than one maintenance person would need to be on site, otherwise, a single maintenance person would not be able to leave the site; it also means 24 hours a door, so that would be at least two maintenance people each shift (minimum of one maintenance person each shift if the maintenance person never left the premises, and most/many do, for lunch, to get supplies, etc.

Think of it as a gated community with guards at the gate - 24 hours a day, every day ... that's a lot of man-hours to pay for.