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Around 60 people a year die from carbon monoxide poisoning in England and Wales, according to the NHS. It's called the silent killer for a reason — no smell, no colour, no warning, until it's too late. If you're a landlord, that risk sits squarely on your shoulders, and the law backs that up with a set of specific, enforceable rules.
I get asked about this constantly by landlords across Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells and Sevenoaks, usually when they're getting a property ready for a new tenancy or when a letting agent has flagged something during a routine check. So let's go through exactly what's required, room by room, so you're not caught out.
The rules currently in force are the Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (Amendment) Regulations 2022, which came into effect on 1 October 2022. These replaced and extended the original 2015 regulations.
The headline change in 2022 was twofold. First, the rules now apply to social housing landlords as well as private ones — previously it was private rented sector only. Second, and this is the one that catches landlords out, you as the landlord are now responsible for repairing or replacing a faulty alarm once you've been told about it. Under the old rules, that maintenance burden sat more with the tenant. It doesn't any more.
In practical terms, the law requires:
Breach these and a local authority can serve a remedial notice, and if you don't act within 28 days, they can arrange the work themselves and hit you with a penalty of up to £5,000.
This is where I see the most confusion. The regulation applies to any room used as living accommodation that contains a fixed combustion appliance — meaning fixed apparatus that burns fuel of any kind (gas, oil, coal, wood) to produce heat.
That covers:
It does not cover gas cookers. That's the one specific exclusion written into the regulations, and it trips people up because a gas hob is the most obvious "burning gas" appliance in most homes. You don't need a CO alarm in the kitchen purely because there's a gas cooker in it — though if there's also a boiler in there, that changes things.
"Living accommodation" isn't limited to lounges and bedrooms either. It's generally interpreted to include any room a tenant would use, which can extend to bathrooms and hallways in some layouts. If in doubt, I'd rather fit one and be safe than argue the definition with a local authority inspector after the fact.
Yes, if there's a fixed combustion appliance in there. A boiler tucked away in a loft conversion or an attached garage still counts — the regulation follows the appliance, not the room type. I've fitted CO alarms in some genuinely odd spots over the years because that's where a previous owner or installer decided to put the boiler.
The regulations don't specify a brand or a particular model, but they do require the alarm to meet British Standard BS EN 50291-1. Look for that on the packaging — if it's not there, don't fit it.
You've got two practical choices:
Battery-powered. Fine, and often the quickest option for retrofitting into an older property. The government's guidance recommends a sealed, tamper-proof unit with a battery that lasts the life of the alarm — usually 7 to 10 years — rather than one where a tenant can pull the battery out (which does happen, more often than you'd think).
Mains-powered / interlinked. More robust, particularly useful in larger properties or HMOs where you want every alarm to trigger together. This is where I'd normally get involved directly, since it's proper electrical work rather than a stick-it-on-the-wall job.
Either way, the alarm needs replacing at the end of its stated life — check the date stamp on the back, because an expired alarm found during an inspection or after an incident is treated the same as no alarm at all.
Manufacturer guidance varies slightly by model, but the general rule I follow on site is to mount the alarm at head height, roughly 1 to 3 metres from the appliance itself. Don't put it directly above or right next to the appliance — you want it close enough to detect a leak quickly, but not so close that normal appliance operation triggers false alarms.
Avoid dead air spaces — corners where the ceiling meets the wall, or right next to a window or extractor fan, since air movement there can dilute CO concentration before it reaches the sensor. If you want the same detail on smoke alarm placement across a whole property, I've written a full guide on where smoke alarms should be situated, which covers storey-by-storey positioning.
You need to act. Under the 2022 amendment, once you're notified — by phone, email, text, whatever — that an alarm is faulty, you're required to repair or replace it as soon as reasonably practicable. There's no fixed number of days written into the law, but "reasonably practicable" gets interpreted narrowly if it ever goes to a tribunal or a local authority review. I'd treat it the same way I'd treat a reported gas leak: same week, not same month.
Testing the alarm during the tenancy is still the tenant's job — that part hasn't changed. But the moment they flag a fault, the ball's in your court.
Local authorities enforce these regulations, and they can serve a remedial notice if they believe you're in breach. You get 28 days to fix the issue or make representations. Ignore it, or fail to act, and they can:
Beyond the fine, there's a knock-on risk that doesn't get talked about enough: an invalid insurance claim. If a fire or CO incident happens and you can't demonstrate compliance, your buildings insurer may refuse the claim outright. And if you end up in a possession or deposit dispute with a tenant, non-compliance weakens your position considerably.
Not quite — worth knowing if you've got property outside Kent and East Sussex.
England — as above, the 2022 Amendment Regulations.
Wales — governed by the Renting Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) (Wales) Regulations, requiring a CO alarm since December 2022 in any room with a gas, oil or solid fuel appliance. Smoke alarm rules in Wales are actually stricter than England's, requiring mains-powered, interlinked alarms since December 2023.
Scotland — every home, rented or owned, has needed an interlinked alarm system since February 2022, including a CO alarm in any room with a carbon-fuelled appliance.
Northern Ireland — the Private Tenancies Act 2022 and subsequent 2024 regulations require CO alarms in privately rented homes with new or replacement combustion appliances.
If most of your portfolio is in our patch — Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells, Sevenoaks, Crowborough — you're working to the England rules. But if you've inherited a property elsewhere, don't assume the same standard applies.
CO alarm compliance doesn't sit in isolation. It runs alongside your annual Gas Safety Certificate, which covers the appliances themselves, and your Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR), which covers the fixed wiring. None of these substitute for each other — a valid gas safety certificate doesn't mean your CO alarms are compliant, and vice versa. When we carry out an EICR for a rental property, we'll flag missing or expired CO and smoke alarms as part of the visit, because it's a five-minute check and it protects you.
If you're not sure how often an EICR is actually required by law, I've covered the recommended inspection intervals for rented, commercial and domestic properties in a separate article.
If there's genuinely no fixed combustion appliance anywhere in the property — no gas boiler, no gas fire, no wood burner, no oil heating — then the regulation doesn't technically require one. In practice, if there's any solid fuel or oil appliance anywhere, even for hot water, you need an alarm in that room.
No, and this catches people out more than anything else. A smoke alarm detects smoke particles from fire. A CO alarm detects carbon monoxide gas, which is undetectable by smell or sight and can build up without any visible fire at all. You need both, and they serve different rooms under different rules.
You, as the landlord. Supplying, fitting and maintaining compliant alarms is your legal responsibility from the start of the tenancy.
Combination units exist and can work, but check the specification carefully — it needs to meet the CO-specific British Standard (BS EN 50291-1) as well as the smoke alarm standard, not just one or the other.
Yes. Instructing a letting agent to manage compliance doesn't transfer legal responsibility away from you as the property owner. If it goes wrong, the local authority comes to you.
Requirements for short-term and holiday lets vary and aren't always covered by the same tenancy-based regulations, but from a duty-of-care and insurance standpoint, I'd fit exactly the same alarms you'd use in a standard tenancy. It's not worth the risk of an uninsured claim over a £30 alarm.
If you're not 100% sure your alarms, wiring, or consumer unit would hold up to a local authority inspection, don't wait for a tenant complaint or a remedial notice to find out.
We carry out EICRs, alarm compliance checks and full electrical safety work for landlords across Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells, Sevenoaks and Crowborough.
Give us a call on 01892 531 728, WhatsApp us on 07775 561 363, or email karen@brightsparkelectrician.co.uk and we'll get a visit booked in.
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