Guilford County, NC Building Safety: Carbon Monoxide Detectors (2026)

Sec. 15-79(k), part of the Minimum Housing Standards' sanitary-maintenance section, requires carbon monoxide alarms whenever interior alterations, repairs, fuel-fired appliance replacements, or additions requiring a permit occur, or whenever one or more sleeping rooms are added or created, with alarms provided in accordance with the NC State Residential Building Code. It sits immediately after the smoke-alarm mandate in Sec. 15-79(j), which requires every dwelling and dwelling unit to have smoke alarms installed and maintained under the same state code. Neither section requires retrofitting an existing home that isn't undergoing permitted work; the CO-alarm duty attaches to the triggering event, not to ownership or occupancy alone.

Because Sec. 15-74(a) folds Sec. 15-79 into the general fitness standard every dwelling must meet, a landlord who completes triggering work without installing the required alarms is also violating the county's overall habitability requirement, exposing the unit to the same complaint-and-hearing process as any other Article IV deficiency. The Public Officer or an Inspector can confirm compliance during any inspection conducted under Sec. 15-85, which requires the owner or occupant to allow entry at reasonable times with one week's notice.