East Suffolk Council
Smoke and Carbon Monoxide alarms
As of the 1 October 2015 landlords must ensure that any rented property has an appropriate number of smoke or carbon monoxide alarms.
In practice, this means that there should be a minimum of one smoke alarm on each floor of the property. A battery-operated smoke alarm is acceptable however we would recommend an alarm with a 10-year integral battery as a minimum.
If your property has a solid fuel burning appliance (e.g. wood burner or open fire) a carbon monoxide detector should be installed within the same room.
We would also recommend that these standards be applied to all residential properties.
Your landlord should check that your alarms work at the beginning of your tenancy, however after this, it falls to the tenant to carry out these checks. It is recommended by the Fire and Rescue Service that you test your smoke alarms weekly.
What if I don’t have an alarm?
If there are no or an insufficient number of smoke alarms or Carbon Monoxide Detectors in the property, as required by the regulations or they were not working at the start of a tenancy or licence, the Council must then take action to ensure your landlord remedies the situation.