Smoke & Carbon Monoxide Alarms

Updated: 14 October 2024 In addition to being required to install smoke alarms on each storey of their properties, landlords must also install carbon monoxide detectors in any room used as living accommodation which contains a fixed combustion appliance (excluding gas cookers). It is also a requirement that smoke and carbon monoxide alarms be tested and working on the actual day a tenancy commences. Landlords should ensure that they have records to show that these checks have been undertaken at the prescribed time. Landlords must ensure smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms are repaired or replaced once informed and found that they are faulty.

If landlords are providing battery operated alarms, they should make clear to tenants that throughout the tenancy it is the tenant’s responsibility to check the alarm operates correctly and replace batteries as and when necessary. 

The Building Regulations (1991) state that all properties built after June 1992 must be fitted with mains operated interlinked smoke detectors/alarms with at least one detector located on each floor. 

Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO’s) also have specific obligations and irrespective of age are required to supply mains operated interlinked smoke alarm systems as above.