All equipment and facilities must be properly installed, maintained, and kept in good repair. The owner of any dwelling or dwelling unit must assure compliance with the following standards during human habitation:
(a) Electric service. Where electric service is available from power lines which are not more than 300 feet away, each dwelling, dwelling unit, personal living quarters, transient lodging facility, and all public and common areas must be supplied with electric service, outlets and fixtures which are properly installed, maintained in good and safe working condition, and connected to the source of electric power in a manner consistent with applicable County regulations. The capacity of the services and the number of outlets and fixtures must meet the following requirements:
(1) Every habitable room must have an electric service and outlets or fixtures, or both, capable of providing at least 3 watts per square foot of floor area.
(2) Every habitable room must have at least one floor or wall electric convenience outlet for each 60 square feet of floor area, and in no case less than 2 outlets.
(3) Every water closet compartment, bathroom, laundry room, furnace room and public hall must contain at least one supplied ceiling or wall electric light fixture.
(4) Every cooking area must be supplied with at least one circuit rated for at least 20 ampere service capacity.
(5) Circuit breakers, fuses and other circuit protection devices must:
(A) not exceed the rated capacity of the circuit; and
(B) be sufficient for normal household use.
(6) Each individual room air conditioning unit, regardless of its current rating, must be served by not less than an individual 20-amp circuit using No. 12 copper wire which terminates in a single receptable.
(b) Water and sewer service.
(1) All plumbing fixtures and systems must be installed and maintained as prescribed by applicable County or Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission regulations.
(2) Any dwelling unit on property where Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission water or sewer service is not available and a private water supply and sewage disposal system cannot be legally installed may receive a waiver under conditions set by regulation.
(3) In mobile homes, plumbing systems must be protected from freezing.
(1) Every dwelling unit and personal living quarters building must contain a room or space with the following equipment and facilities to store, prepare, and cook food:
(A) cooking and baking facilities;
(C) a refrigerator and freezer (compartment or separate unit) for perishable food storage. Each refrigerator must be capable of maintaining a temperature below 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Each freezer or freezer unit must be capable of maintaining a temperature between 6 and 12 degrees Fahrenheit;
(D) a kitchen sink in good working condition, properly connected to a hot and cold running water system under pressure and an approved sewer system.
(2) Any cooking equipment which is installed in every individual living unit in a personal living quarters building need not be installed in a shared kitchen. However, an individual living unit must not be equipped with complete cooking facilties.
(3) The owner of a rooming house must post in each occupied rooming unit a sign stating “No Cooking Permitted in This Room” in letters at least inch high.
(d) Bathroom. Each dwelling unit, personal living quarters building, and transient lodging facility must be equipped with a complete bathroom fixture group, consisting of a flush water closet, lavatory basin, and bathtub or shower in good working condition, installed and maintained as prescribed by applicable County or Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission regulations.
(1) The bathroom fixture group must be properly connected to an approved sewage disposal system and an approved hot and cold running water system under pressure, except that the flush water closet must be connected to an approved sewage disposal system and an approved cold running water system under pressure.
(2) The flush water closet, lavatory basin, and bathtub or shower need not be installed in the same room, but the room where any of them is installed must afford privacy to a person in that room. A flush water closet and lavatory must be accessible from each bedroom without passing through another bedroom.
(3) Every personal living quarters building and every transient lodging facility that does not contain a flush water closet, lavatory basin, and bathtub or shower in each individual living unit must contain shared facilities, located in the building and accessible to all occupants from common halls or passageways. At least one flush water closet, lavatory basin, and bathtub or shower must be installed for each 6 occupants or fraction of 6. In a transient lodging facility where rooms are let only to males, flush urinals may be substituted for not more than half the required water closets.
(e) Rubbish and garbage storage. Each dwelling unit, personal living quarters, and transient lodging facility must be supplied with adequate rubbish storage facilities and with adequate garbage disposal facilities or garbage storage containers as required by Chapter 48.
(f) Additional requirements for certain mobile homes. Each mobile home, except a mobile home located in a licensed mobile home park, must be:
(1) placed on a permanent foundation which meets the requirements of Chapter 8; and
(2) securely tied down with ties and ground anchors which meet the requiremetns of Chapter 8. (, § 1.)
Editor’s note—Former § 26-5, “Minimum standards for basic equipment and facilities,” which was derived from Mont. Co. Code 1965, § 91-5; 1972 L.M.C., ch. 12, § 1; 1979 L.M.C., ch. 11, § 2; 1988 L.M.C., ch. 23, § 1; 1997 L.M.C., ch. 1, § 1; former § 26-6, “Minimum standards for light, ventilation and heating,” which was derived from Mont. Co. Code 1965, § 91-6; 1972 L.M.C., ch. 12, § 2; 1972 L.M.C., ch. 16, § 13; 1979 L.M.C., ch. 11, § 3; 1980 L.M.C., ch. 23, § 1; 1997 L.M.C., ch. 1, § 1; and former § 26-7, “Temperature control,” which was derived from 1972 L.M.C., ch. 12, § 3; 1973 L.M.C., ch. 27, § 1; 1988 L.M.C., ch. 23, § 1; and 1997 L.M.C., ch. 1, § 1, were repealed, reenacted with amendments, renumbered §§ 26-6 and 26-7, and retitled pursuant to , § 1.
