Durham, NC Building Safety: Carbon Monoxide Detectors (2026)

City Code § 10-234(l), "Fire and safety standards," folds carbon monoxide protection into Durham's general Housing Code rather than treating it as a stand-alone chapter. Subsection (l)(8) requires "a minimum of one operable carbon monoxide alarm per habitable level" in any dwelling unit with a fossil-fuel burning heater, appliance, or fireplace, and separately in any unit with an attached garage: covering the two main carbon monoxide sources the code identifies. The requirement sits alongside the article's other fire-and-safety rules: working smoke detectors in every sleeping room, maintained fire extinguishing equipment, and a ban on gasoline stoves and portable kerosene cookers.

Article VI applies to "all housing irrespective of when such housing was constructed, altered or repaired" under § 10-232(a), so the alarm duty reaches existing housing stock, not just new construction. Enforcement runs through the same administrator process as the rest of the Housing Code: the housing administrator or an inspector can enter a dwelling under § 10-239(c) to examine and survey conditions, and a missing or nonfunctional alarm becomes part of the fitness determination that can lead to a written complaint, hearing, and repair order.

Because the article makes owners responsible for maintaining required safety equipment and does not exempt owner-occupied housing from § 10-234, the carbon monoxide alarm duty applies whether the unit is rented or owner-occupied, unlike the smoke-detector battery rule in § 10-234(l)(3), which specifically assigns battery responsibility between landlord and tenant under state law.