Apartment owners have lost a battle with the Metro Fire Marshal at the Tennessee Court of Appeals, potentially costing millions and causing rents to rise to cover the expense.
The court upheld a Davidson County Chancery Court ruling that the Metro Board of Fire & Building Code Appeals didn’t act arbitrarily and capriciously when it essentially required Burning Tree Apartments to install pull fire alarms.
Burning Tree's ownership, which includes local investor Jimmy Webb, claimed in their appeal to that board that the Metro Fire Marshal began citing the property for not having the alarms after having never cited the property in previous years.
The Burning Tree apartments were built in 1978, predating today's fire code, which was changed in 2000 to require the alarms. Burning Tree was cited in 2004.
This issue has been mounting for years. There are about 20 more appeals sitting at the appeals board and another group in Chancery Court appealing the board’s rulings.
Burning Tree became the test case in the appeals court. Sam Funk, an attorney at Sherrard & Roe, said the group of 30 different properties he represents will meet and consider its options, including trying to appeal to the Tennessee Supreme Court.
“It’s not reasonable,” Webb said in a hearing. “It’s not fair, and it’s essentially not fair in light of the fact that we have been approved for years.”
Webb further noted that the city approved the plans when the apartments were under construction. But the court ruled – its opinion is available here – that Metro not enforcing or ignoring the law doesn’t preclude apartment from complying with the law.
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