Franklin County, KY Fire Regulations: Smoke Detectors (2026)

The Franklin County Fiscal Court places the requirement in § 155.089, note (27)(g), one of the conditions of the short-term rental conditional use. Each short-term rental must provide an evacuation plan and provide smoke detectors in compliance with the Kentucky Residential Code. The county does not restate detector counts or locations; it points to the Kentucky Residential Code, which the county building office also names among the codes it reviews construction against in Chapter 30. Note (27)(i) turns the requirement into an annual check: all short-term rental hosts must submit an annual registration form to the Department of Planning and Building Codes to ensure that all requirements of the conditional use permit are being met, including smoke detectors.

The fee schedule in § 150.03 lists Short term rental annual registration at $250. The same note (27) caps stays at 29 consecutive days for the same occupant and limits occupancy to two times the number of bedrooms plus four individuals, so the detector and evacuation plan duties protect transient guests who do not know the layout. The Board of Zoning Adjustments decides the conditional use under § 155.048 and can revoke the permit for non-compliance with any condition. This requirement covers short-term rentals only; the code text read here does not set a smoke detector rule for other dwellings. It applies in unincorporated Franklin County. Frankfort has its own code.