Electric Outlets: Get Some Plug Protectors or Get Fined
With surprisingly little fanfare and virtually no notice, a New York City regulation goes into effect early September that requires childproofing the electrical outlets in common areas. Failure to do so will result in violations and fines.
Signed on May 6 and going into effect 120 days later, Local Law 39/2015 requires that co-op and condo boards and rental-building owners install "protective caps, covers, or other safety devices over electrical outlets" in all public areas except those "used exclusively for mechanical equipment or storage purposes." You needn't do anything at all if your cooperative or condominium already has tamper-resistant outlets, which have been required in new and renovated buildings for years under statutes based on the 2008 National Electrical Code.
Why have this new rule? According to the National Fire Protection Association, about 2,400 children suffer severe shock and burns each year from sticking items into the slots of electrical outlets, resulting in an estimated six to twelve child fatalities annually. "Playing on their hands and knees, a child's curiosity will draw them to outlets that are on their level, in which they will insert whatever — keys, pins, paperclips, or their own fingers," the bill's sponsor, council member Andrew Cohen said in May, adding: "While most parents take steps to 'baby-proof' their own homes, the common areas of their buildings are often left unprotected."
If a building inspector finds that a building is not following the rule, it can result in a Class A violation, the most lenient of the New York City Housing Preservation & Development's three classes. It allows 90 days to correct an issue after you've received a violation notice. The penalty is a fine, ranging from $10 to $50, applied per violation, not per outlet.
While the law says public areas used exclusively for storage do not require such protection, at least one management professional, David Baron, president of Metro Management, has instructed his managers to protect the electrical outlets in storage areas used by residents.
"I don't believe the lawmakers realized there are storage rooms that are open to the public," says Baron, as opposed to "a non-public room where you store the buffer or building supplies. To me, with a storage room open to the public, you need to comply" for safety's sake, even though not — according to a city official speaking on background — as a legal requirement.
So what exactly are these protective covers, and where do you find them? They're generally inexpensive plastics discs with prongs that you stick into the plug-in slots of electrical outlets. Home Depot, for instance, has a 30-pack of "GE Plastic Outlet Safety Covers" for $9.67, and a lesser-known brand's 36-pack of "Press Tab Plug Protectors" for $4.48. Another more expensive type is A plastic rectangular box that fits over the entire electrical-outlet plate. One typical model, the LectraLock Décor "2-Screw Type Deep Baby Safety Electrical Outlet Cover" runs $7.19 each.
If you're feeling ambitious and want something that might look a little nicer, you could even replace all your public-area outlets with tamper-resistant receptacles. These have spring-loaded shutters that close off each of the two pairs of plug-in slots. When you insert a plug, the springs are compressed and the shutters for the prongs open. Because both springs must be compressed at the same time, the shutters don't open when a child tries to insert an object into only one opening.
One larger point arises from Local Law 39/2015, however: aside from including it in a press release in May with several other topics, the city has done extremely little to publicize the new rule. "I've been talking to vendors, and even vendors don't know about it," says Baron. "None of the lawyers who service the industry, and I spoke to a several, knew about it." The management industry, he believes, "needs some kind of information clearinghouse" about new legislation, "the way lawyers have a service that lets them know when decisions are handed down."