No smoke alarms are present outside the sleeping areas. In the report's hierarchy this belongs:

Smoke alarms are the single highest-value life-safety item in a house relative to their cost, and that ratio is exactly why they belong at the top of a report rather than in maintenance. Detection is what converts a survivable fire into an escaped one; the alarm outside sleeping areas is the one that wakes people who are unconscious and have no other warning. The temptation to file it under maintenance comes from the price — a device costs very little and installation is trivial — but severity in an inspection report tracks consequence, not cost. Filing a life-safety omission alongside gutter cleaning teaches the client that the two are comparable, which is the opposite of what the report exists to communicate.

Detection outside sleeping areas is the warning that reaches occupants who are asleep, so its absence is a life-safety omission. Severity in a report tracks consequence rather than repair cost, which puts it among the priority items.

Smoke alarms are expected in each sleeping room, outside each separate sleeping area, and on every level including basements, with interconnection and specific power requirements in newer construction. Inspectors report missing or expired alarms as safety items.

Cheap Does Not Mean Minor. Rank by what happens if it is wrong, not by what it costs to fix.

Check the alarm locations against all three requirements — in bedrooms, outside sleeping areas, on each level — and note the age, since units expire around ten years.

• •Ranking findings by repair cost rather than consequence
• •Checking bedrooms while missing the hallway and level requirements
• •Overlooking expired alarms that are present but past their service life