The Basic Business License inspection, item by item

Smoke alarms on every level, in the vicinity of sleeping rooms, and inside every sleeping room. Not within 36 inches of the blade tip of a ceiling fan, not in the horizontal path from a door to a bathroom containing a shower or tub, and not in the path of a supply register.

Why: The placement rules are not fussiness. Steam from a bathroom and airflow from a register set off nuisance alarms, the occupant takes the battery out, and the home is then unprotected. A fan disperses smoke before it reaches the sensor.

A carbon monoxide detector in the immediate vicinity of all sleeping rooms, where there is a fuel-burning appliance or an attached garage.

Why: Carbon monoxide has no smell and kills people while they are asleep. The condition matters: no fuel-burning appliance and no attached garage means no source, which is why this one is not universal the way smoke alarms are.

All exit and security doors open from the inside without a key, special knowledge or effort.

Why: This is the one landlords fail by trying to be helpful. A double-cylinder deadbolt that needs a key on the inside is a trap in a fire, and so is a security gate nobody can release in the dark. Security that cannot be undone from the inside is not security.

Sleeping rooms have adequate emergency escape or rescue openings, reachable without a key or tool: minimum 5.7 square feet net clear opening (5.0 at grade level), at least 24 inches high and 20 inches wide, with a finished sill no more than 44 inches above the floor. A window well must be 9 square feet and 36 inches wide with a fixed ladder. Bars, grilles and gates must release from the inside without a key or tool.

Why: The most common first-time failure, and the item that decides whether a basement room is legally a bedroom. "Net clear" means the actual hole when the sash is fully open — not the glass size — and plenty of basement windows miss it by an inch. Measure before you book, not after.

Sleeping rooms are free from gas meters and fuel-burning appliances, or any exception is documented.

Why: A gas leak or combustion fault next to someone asleep is the worst version of that fault. These appliances also need combustion air they cannot draw from a closed bedroom.

There is a visible and readily accessible fire extinguisher.

Why: "Visible and readily accessible" is doing real work in that sentence. One in a locked closet, or behind stored boxes, does not count.

The space meets occupancy requirements: 70 square feet per sleeping room for one person, and 50 square feet for each additional person.

Why: This decides how many people may lawfully live there, which is also what a housing authority is working from when it sizes a voucher. Worth knowing before you advertise a room as a bedroom.

Ceiling height meets the minimum in all habitable spaces — 7 feet, or 6 feet 8 inches in a basement and 6 feet 4 inches under beams.

Why: With item G, this is what separates a finished basement that is a bedroom from one that is storage. Note the warning printed at the top of the form: do not occupy dens, crawlspaces, decks, garages or uninhabitable basements.

The unit meets light and ventilation requirements, and the system is operational.

Why: Every habitable room needs natural light and air, and bathrooms and kitchens need ventilation that actually runs. An extractor fan that hums without moving air is a fail.

The dwelling unit contains the required plumbing fixtures, and they are operational.

Why: A sink, a toilet, a bath or shower and a kitchen sink are part of the definition of a dwelling unit. Missing one and what you have is not a unit you can licence.

Walls, ceilings, doors and windows are free of peeling paint, cracks, holes, dampness and uncleanliness.

Why: Two separate regimes sit behind this one line. Peeling paint in housing built before 1978 is treated as a presumed lead hazard with its own DC rules; dampness means mould. It is also the baseline a tenant points to later if conditions are ever disputed, so photograph it at move-in.

Windows and doors, including their hardware, are in good repair and weather tight, and screens are provided.

Why: Weather-tightness drives both the heating bill and the moisture that causes item I. Screens are a pest-control requirement, not a nicety.

Floors, steps and walking surfaces are sound and reasonably level.

Why: Falls, and what causes them. A floor that gives underfoot is often reporting water damage or a structural problem below it, so this one is worth chasing rather than patching.

Exterior and interior flights of stairs with more than 3 risers have proper handrails, guards and balustrades.

Why: Stairs are where serious injuries in a home actually happen. A handrail catches the fall; a guard stops someone going over the side. A loose rail counts as no rail.

The exterior of the property is maintained — roof, gutters, downspouts, walkways, porches and the like.

Why: Gutters and roof sit upstream of nearly every interior water complaint. Fix these and items I and J mostly stop coming back.

Electrical outlets, switches and fixtures are operational.

Why: A dead outlet is often reporting a fault behind the wall rather than a dead outlet — which is why the inspector tests rather than looks.

The required number of receptacles and electrical fixtures are present.

Why: Deliberately separate from item M: they all work, but are there enough? Too few outlets is how a home ends up with daisy-chained extension cords behind the furniture, which is a fire. The code sets counts per room.

The heating system and AC system are operational.

Why: Heat is not optional in DC — you have to be able to keep the place warm through the winter, and that duty continues long after the inspector leaves. Test it in August, not in October.

The water heating equipment is operational, and the pressure relief valve pipe is installed 6 inches from the floor or pan.

Why: The most technical item on the form and the most misread. A temperature and pressure relief valve with no proper discharge pipe is what turns a water heater into an explosion. The 6-inch rule is so it discharges downward without scalding whoever is standing there. Cheap to fix, easy to fail.

Installed appliances are operational.

Why: If you supplied it, it is part of the tenancy and it is yours to maintain. Anything you do not want to be responsible for is better removed than left in place broken.