California Apartment Association

Battery backup to be required for new automatic garage door installations

Professional automatic garage door opener repair service technician man working on a ladder at a home residential location making adjustments and fixing it while installing it.

Beginning next summer, landlords and other property owners will no longer be able to install automatic garage doors unless they have a battery backup function designed to operate during electrical outages.

Sen. Bill Dodd

While property owners won’t need to proactively install new automatic garage doors, any replacement door installed on or after July 1, 2019, must have the battery backup feature. The bill also provides for a civil penalty of $1,000 for a garage door not installed in compliance with the law.

The requirement comes from SB 969 by Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, and applies to all automatic garage door openers manufactured and sold for use in California for any residential building.

This page contains members-only content!
Sign In To Viewor learn more about joining CAA