The state legislature has passed a safety measure that requires North Carolina rental homes to reduce or eliminate the space between elevator doors and the “landing” door inside a home. That space would have to be less than four inches wide. This would apply to short-term vacation rental homes. The bill now goes to Gov. Roy Cooper for approval.
The bill is called Weston’s Law, filed in memory of a seven-year-old boy, Weston Androw of Ohio, who died last summer in the Outer Banks after he was trapped between an elevator car and elevator shaft inside a beach rental house in Corolla.
Senate Bill 777 got unanimous support from both chambers of the legislature with the final approval coming from the N.C. House Wednesday evening. It directs short-term rental property owners to put safety guards between an elevator and the elevator shaft of their homes. Once they make the changes to elevators they must send record of the changes to the N.C. Department of Insurance and allow an annual inspection. The changes will also be enforced through the inspection process during construction. If property owners do not make the changes, the elevator must be turned off.