In England, a rented home needs a carbon monoxide alarm in every room used as living accommodation that contains a fixed combustion appliance, such as a gas boiler, an oil boiler or a wood burner. Gas cookers are excluded from the requirement. The duty sits in the Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (England) Regulations 2015, as amended by the 2022 Amendment Regulations. You must also make sure every required alarm is working on the first day of a new tenancy, and repair or replace a faulty alarm as soon as reasonably practicable once a tenant reports it.
Where must a carbon monoxide alarm be fitted in a rented property in England?
A carbon monoxide alarm is required in each room of a rented home in England that is used as living accommodation and contains a fixed combustion appliance. A fixed combustion appliance is any fixed appliance that burns fuel to make heat. That covers gas boilers, oil boilers, solid fuel stoves and wood burners. Gas cookers are the one exclusion in the regulations.
A room used as living accommodation is a room used mainly for living in, or one where someone spends a lot of time. Government guidance confirms that bathrooms and lavatories count. So a bathroom with a gas water heater or a boiler needs its own alarm. A hallway cupboard housing a combi boiler counts too, if that space forms part of a room used as living accommodation.
The trigger is the appliance, not the name of the room. A bedroom with a wood burner needs a carbon monoxide alarm. The bedroom next door, with no fuel-burning appliance in it, does not.
Smoke alarms follow a different test under the same regulations. You need at least one smoke alarm on every storey of the property with a room used as living accommodation.
Does a gas cooker or an all-electric rented home need a CO alarm?
No carbon monoxide alarm is required for a gas cooker in England. The Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (England) Regulations 2015, as amended, exclude gas cookers from the fixed combustion appliance rule. A kitchen with a gas hob and no other fuel-burning appliance therefore falls outside the alarm requirement.
A home heated entirely by electricity has no fixed combustion appliance, so the carbon monoxide alarm duty does not bite. The smoke alarm duty still applies on every storey used as living accommodation. Nothing stops you fitting a CO alarm where none is required. HSE recommends carbon monoxide alarms as a useful second line of defence in any home with fuel-burning appliances.
Ideal Heating goes further than the regulations and advises an alarm in any room containing a fuel-burning appliance, and in rooms that a flue from such an appliance passes through. That is manufacturer advice, not a legal minimum. It is worth following in flats where a flue runs through a hallway or a bedroom.
What are your duties as a landlord on day one of a tenancy and when an alarm fails?
You must make sure every required smoke and carbon monoxide alarm is in working order on the first day of a new tenancy. That means checking each alarm, not simply confirming it is on the wall. The check belongs to the start of the tenancy, so a test weeks before handover does not discharge it.
During the tenancy, the tenant is expected to test the alarms and to tell you when one fails. Once a tenant reports a faulty alarm, you must repair or replace it as soon as reasonably practicable. Pressing the test button and changing a replaceable battery are things a tenant can do safely. Anything involving the boiler casing, the flue or the gas supply is work for a Gas Safe registered engineer.
Keep a simple record of what you tested and when. A dated note with the tenancy start, signed by the tenant at check-in, is the kind of evidence a local housing authority will ask for later.
Hard-wired or battery: which carbon monoxide alarms count, and where should they go?
The regulations do not specify an alarm type, so mains-powered and battery-powered carbon monoxide alarms are both acceptable in a rented home in England. Government guidance says the choice should suit the building and the tenants. It recommends alarms with sealed-for-life batteries over models with replaceable batteries, because a sealed unit cannot be left flat.
Conformity with BS EN 50291 is the standard to look for. HSE advises that a carbon monoxide alarm should meet that standard and carry a British or European approval mark, such as a Kitemark.
On placement, government guidance points to head height, on a wall or a shelf, roughly one to three metres away from the potential source of carbon monoxide. Alarms also carry an expiry date from the maker, so check it when you fit one and diarise the replacement.
Which tenancies are covered, and when did the rules reach social housing?
The carbon monoxide alarm rules apply to specified tenancies in the private rented sector in England and have done since 1 October 2015. The Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (Amendment) Regulations 2022 extended the same duties to landlords who are registered providers of social housing from 1 October 2022. Housing associations and council landlords are now inside the same regime.
The Schedule to the 2015 Regulations lists tenancies that fall outside the rules. They include accommodation shared with the landlord or a member of the landlord's family, long leases of seven years or more, student halls of residence, hostels and refuges, care homes, and hospitals and hospices. If your letting sits near one of those categories, read the Schedule wording itself before assuming you are exempt.
Shared houses bring extra duties on top of the alarm rules. Our guide to gas safety in an HMO sets out what changes when a property is let room by room.
Who enforces the CO alarm rules and what happens if you do not fit one?
The local housing authority enforces the carbon monoxide alarm rules in England. Where it has reasonable grounds to believe a landlord is in breach, it must serve a remedial notice. The notice gives 28 days to put things right, unless it is suspended.
If the landlord does not comply, the authority must arrange for the work to be done, with the occupier's consent. It may also issue a penalty charge notice. Penalties bite per breach, not per landlord and not per property, so a house with several missing alarms is not one single failing.
A landlord who receives a penalty charge notice can ask the authority to review it, then appeal to the First-tier Tribunal. Enforcement of gas safety records runs on a separate track, which we explain in the guide on who enforces the landlord gas safety duty.
Why a carbon monoxide alarm does not replace the annual gas safety check
A carbon monoxide alarm warns you about a problem; it does not prevent one. HSE recommends alarms but states plainly that they are not a substitute for regular maintenance and safety checks by a Gas Safe registered engineer. HSE also reports that around seven people a year die from carbon monoxide produced by gas appliances and flues that were badly installed, poorly maintained or poorly ventilated.
In England, under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 as amended, you must have gas appliances and flues in your rented property checked every 12 months by a Gas Safe registered engineer. Keep the record for two years. Give a copy to existing tenants within 28 days of the check, and to new tenants before they move in.
Early symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning look like food poisoning, a virus, flu or plain tiredness, according to HSE. Headaches, dizziness, breathlessness and nausea are the common signs. If an alarm sounds, get everyone into fresh air, do not use the appliance, and call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999. Anyone feeling unwell needs medical help.
A gas safety check and a boiler service are not the same thing, and tenants often confuse them; our guide on the difference between a gas safety check and a boiler service explains where the line falls. When your annual check is due, you can arrange a landlord gas safety certificate (CP12) with FM Power across London and the surrounding counties.
Sources
- The Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (England) Regulations 2015
- The Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (Amendment) Regulations 2022
- GOV.UK — Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms: guidance for landlords and tenants
- GOV.UK — Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms: guidance for local authorities
- HSE — Carbon monoxide awareness frequently asked questions
- HSE — Gas safety check records and what to keep
- Ideal Heating — Do you have a carbon monoxide detector?