Inoperable smoke alarm in a vacant unit: still life-threatening?

A question that comes up whenever a vacant unit is sampled: if nobody lives there, does a dead smoke alarm still count? Under NSPIRE the answer is yes — the standard looks at whether the alarm is present and operable in the inspectable area, not at whether the unit is occupied that week. Vacant units are part of the sample, alarms in them are tested the same way, and a missing or inoperable alarm is recorded as a life-threatening deficiency with the 24-hour correction clock. The fix is cheap and fast, which is exactly why it hurts to lose points on it. Build the alarm test into every turn so a vacant unit is never the one that surprises you. — Admin