Does Mississippi Require CO Detectors? County and Local Code Rules

Last verified: August 26, 2026

Mississippi carbon monoxide detector laws are driven primarily by state fire-code adoption plus county and city implementation, not by one statewide residential statute that clearly mandates alarms in every dwelling. State Fire Marshal rules adopt the Mississippi Fire Prevention Code and reference model-code pathways that local jurisdictions may apply or modify.

A documented local example appears in DeSoto County, which publishes IRC Section R315.1 language for sleeping-area placement and related trigger conditions. Because adoption can differ by jurisdiction, owners should confirm the exact code edition and enforcement process with the local authority having jurisdiction before lease-up, sale, or occupancy turnover.

The edition changed on 1 July 2024 and it changed the shape of the answer rather than the section numbers. The State Fire Marshal's office adopted the 2024 International Fire Code and International Building Code from that date, and the Mississippi Fire Code 2024 runs from 1 January 2025. Every earlier Mississippi answer turned on an occupancy list, Group I or R and later Group E, and the 2024 edition has none. Section 915.1.1 now asks four questions about the building instead: does it contain a carbon monoxide source, does it contain or is it supplied by a CO-producing forced-air furnace, does it have an attached private garage, is a CO-producing vehicle used inside it. Section 915.1 excepts only Group S, F and U occupancies that are not normally occupied. What still keeps most Mississippi buildings out is the applicability gate rather than the code, because the Fire Prevention Code reaches state-owned buildings, public assembly buildings, high-rises over seventy-five feet and private correctional facilities, and steps aside for any county or municipality with a code of its own.

Quick Safety Summary

CO detector requirements for Mississippi
Applies to homes?	No
Applies to rentals?	No
Applies to hotels/STRs?	Yes, under a condition
Applies to schools?	Yes, under a condition
Applies to workplaces?	Yes, under a condition

Schools and workplaces

Schools: it depends, and the test is one you can apply to the building itself. The 2024 edition writes a rule for schools that no earlier Mississippi edition had, and the applicability gate that used never to be reached now decides the answer. Section 915.2.3 of the 2024 International Fire Code, which the State Fire Marshal adopted as of 1 July 2024, provides that "a carbon monoxide system that uses carbon monoxide detectors shall be installed in Group E occupancies", and that alarm signals from those detectors "shall be automatically transmitted to an on-site location that is staffed by school personnel". That is a detection system with a supervised signal rather than a shop-bought alarm, and it is a materially more expensive duty than the one most states place on a classroom. It arrives only where the code reaches the building. Rule 7.03.1 applies the Mississippi Fire Prevention Code to buildings owned by the State or a State agency, to buildings utilized for public assembly, to high-rise buildings over seventy-five feet, and to private correctional facilities, with the State Fire Marshal able to reach an existing building where safety to life requires it, and in every limb but the first a county or municipality with a not less stringent fire prevention code displaces the state code. A state university building is inside the first limb. A public school building owned by a school district is not obviously inside it, since a district is a political subdivision rather than a state agency, but a gymnasium, auditorium or cafeteria used for public assembly reaches the second limb on its own. Ask the district and then the municipality. And the trigger is still a trigger. Section 915.1.1 requires the building to hold a CO source, to contain or be supplied by a CO-producing forced-air furnace, to have an attached private garage, or to have a CO-producing vehicle used within it. An all-electric school with no attached garage meets none of them.

Workplaces: it depends, and the test is one you can apply to the building itself. The occupancy list that used to answer this no longer exists in the edition Mississippi enforces, so the question moves from what the building is to what is inside it and who owns it. Section 915.1.1 of the 2024 International Fire Code, adopted by the State Fire Marshal as of 1 July 2024, requires carbon monoxide detection wherever a building contains a CO source, contains or is supplied by a CO-producing forced-air furnace, has an attached private garage, or has a CO-producing vehicle used within it. Section 915.1 excepts only Group S, Group F and Group U occupancies that are not normally occupied, so a warehouse nobody works in is out and a workshop people work in is not. There is no Group B, F, M or S list left to fall outside of, which is what every earlier Mississippi answer turned on. What still keeps most workplaces out is the applicability gate rather than the code. Rule 7.03.1 reaches buildings owned by the State or a State agency, buildings utilized for public assembly, high-rise buildings over seventy-five feet, and private correctional facilities housing state inmates, with a further limb letting the State Fire Marshal reach an existing building where safety to life requires compliance. An ordinary shop or office is none of those unless the state owns it, it is over seventy-five feet, or part of it is used for public assembly. Where a county or municipality has adopted a fire prevention code of not less stringent standards, that code displaces this one and the question has to be put locally.

When Are CO Alarms Required?

Mississippi local adoption commonly follows IRC-style trigger language tied to fuel-burning equipment and attached-garage risk.

Where to Install CO Alarms

DeSoto County published IRC Section R315.1 language that places alarms outside each separate sleeping area in the immediate vicinity of bedrooms.

For detailed placement guidance beyond legal requirements, see where to place carbon monoxide detectors.

Device Requirements

DeSoto County published IRC Section R315.1 framework references listed alarm standards used in common code workflows.
Local jurisdictions may apply model-code installation pathways such as UL 2034 listing and NFPA 720 references where adopted.

Landlord and Tenant Responsibilities

Landlord: Under Miss. Code Ann. § 89-8-23(1)(a) the landlord must, at all times during the tenancy, comply with the requirements of applicable building and housing codes materially affecting health and safety. Where a local jurisdiction has adopted IRC R315 or IFC 915 carbon monoxide provisions, that adoption flows into the landlord's statutory habitability duty under § 89-8-23. Provision: § 89-8-23(1)(a).

Tenant: Under Miss. Code Ann. § 89-8-25 the tenant must comply with code-imposed obligations on occupants and may not deliberately or negligently damage required safety equipment. Routine alarm testing and prompt written notice of defects are practical extensions of that duty. Provision: § 89-8-25.

Mississippi statewide excerpts reviewed here do not provide one complete CO-specific landlord-tenant duty matrix that applies uniformly in every jurisdiction. The § 89-8-23 / § 89-8-25 framework supplies the standard URLTA duty split, but the CO-trigger source is the locally adopted code, not a standalone Mississippi CO statute.
Miss. Code Ann. § 89-8-13 governs the breach-and-termination procedure (notice, cure timelines, remedies) and is the mechanism by which a tenant can escalate an unresolved § 89-8-23 deficiency; it does not itself impose a CO alarm duty.

Enforcement

Enforced by: Mississippi State Fire Marshal framework with local authorities having jurisdiction enforcing adopted local code.

Enforcement typically occurs:

During permitting and inspection workflow where local code requires carbon monoxide alarms.
During local enforcement actions tied to adopted fire or building code requirements.

What a Tenant Can Do in Mississippi

When a carbon monoxide alarm stops working in a rented home in Mississippi, these are the five routes a tenant can take and where each one comes from.

"Via general law" means the Mississippi carbon monoxide statute itself is silent and the remedy comes from the state's landlord-tenant law instead. The remedy is available even though the alarm rule does not contain it.

"No provision found" is a finding rather than a gap in the research: the chapter that would carry that remedy was read and contains nothing either way. What was read is named beside the row.

Tenant remedies for a defective carbon monoxide alarm in Mississippi, with the citation or the body of law searched for each.
Rent withholding	No provision foundSearched: Miss. Code Ann. Title 89, chapter 8, sections 89-8-1 through 89-8-45, read by caption from the chapter index and in full at 89-8-5, 89-8-9, 89-8-11, 89-8-13, 89-8-15, 89-8-17, 89-8-19 and 89-8-23. No escrow, no pay-into-court and no counterclaim section anywhere in the chapter, and the sections added after 2018 at 89-8-31 through 89-8-45 are eviction procedure that adds no tenant money remedy. What 89-8-13(2) offers instead is a door out of the act: the tenant may terminate or "resort to any other remedy at law or in equity not prohibited by this chapter", which points somewhere else rather than granting anything here. The only route to money inside the chapter is the 89-8-15 offset, and that reimburses work already done rather than letting rent be held back. Control on the negative: the same chapter index returned fifteen section captions in full, so the source was alive rather than empty.
Repair and deduct	Via general lawMiss. Code Ann. 89-8-15. A real deduction, rationed by frequency rather than by an annual total. The work must cost no more than one month's rent, and the tenant must be current in rent, must have met the 89-8-25 duties, and must not have used this section in the six months immediately preceding, so a second failure inside half a year leaves the tenant with nothing. Subsection (4) allows the cost to be offset against future rent; subsection (1)(b) is the alternative, reimbursement within forty-five days of receipted bills. Recovery is capped at the usual and customary charge for the work, and subsection (5) denies the tenant any lien on the property. The wait is the expensive part: thirty days from written notice before the tenant may touch anything.
Right to end the lease	Via general lawMiss. Code Ann. 89-8-13(2). Available for material noncompliance with 89-8-23 or with the rental agreement, on a notice specifying the acts and omissions and setting termination not less than fourteen days after receipt. A cure before that date keeps the agreement alive, and a recurrence of substantially the same breach within six months lets the tenant terminate on fourteen days' notice with no further chance to cure. Read alongside it 89-8-19(4), which on its face dispenses with notice to terminate altogether, notwithstanding any other provision of the chapter, where a party has committed a substantial violation materially affecting health or safety. A tenant relying on that against a live carbon monoxide hazard is arguing from the text rather than from settled practice, and should expect the landlord to point at 89-8-13(3) instead.
Notice the tenant must give	Via general lawMiss. Code Ann. 89-8-13(3); Miss. Code Ann. 89-8-15(1). Two notices with different contents and different clocks, and neither makes the tenant wait before serving. The termination notice specifies the acts and omissions constituting the breach and names the date. The repair notice must identify a specific and material defect, and its validity turns on facts about the tenant rather than about the defect: current in rent, and no use of 89-8-15 in the preceding six months. Both may go by email or text message only where the receiving party agreed in writing to be notified that way, which is a trap for a tenant whose entire relationship with the landlord has been conducted by text.
Landlord cure period	Via general law, 14 daysMiss. Code Ann. 89-8-13(3). Fourteen is a ceiling, not a fixed period. The statute gives the landlord "a reasonable time not in excess of fourteen (14) days", so the severity of the defect argues down from fourteen rather than up to it. The two routes then run on different clocks in the direction most states reverse: termination matures at fourteen days, while the repair-and-deduct right at 89-8-15(1) does not arise until thirty days after written notice. In Mississippi the tenant who wants out waits half as long as the tenant who wants the alarm fixed.

Applies to every row above:Mississippi's act announces its URLTA derivation twice, in the chapter title and in the model's tell phrase at 89-8-23(1)(a), applicable building and housing codes materially affecting health and safety. What it did not adopt is the model's remedy architecture. The landlord duty runs to two paragraphs rather than the model's six, neither names a safety device, and the second is about plumbing, heating and cooling. So a carbon monoxide alarm reaches a Mississippi landlord's statutory duty only through paragraph (a), which means only where the local jurisdiction has adopted a code that requires one; there is no statewide Mississippi alarm statute to fall back on. The chapter also has no essential services section, so the position that holds the counterclaim in nine other states in this matrix does not exist here, and no counterclaim appears anywhere else in it either. Everything a Mississippi tenant can do about a dead alarm comes from two sections, 89-8-13 and 89-8-15. Section text was read from FindLaw, which served eight sections of the chapter cleanly; the section map came from an archived September 2020 capture of the 2018 chapter index, covering 89-8-1 through 89-8-29, with 89-8-31 through 89-8-45 identified separately as eviction procedure added since.

Remedies last checked 2026-08-03. Compare Mississippi with the other states.

What Mississippi Requires in Lodging

The Mississippi requirement reaches some lodging and not the rest, and which side a property falls on is something an operator can check rather than guess.

What it turns on for a hotel:Two gates in order, and only the first has anything to do with carbon monoxide equipment. Gate one is whether the Mississippi Fire Prevention Code reaches the building at all, because it does not reach most of them. Rule 7.03.1 of Title 19 Part 7 Chapter 7, restating Miss. Code Ann. 45-11-101(1), applies the code to buildings owned by the State or a State agency, to buildings utilized for public assembly, to high-rise buildings over seventy-five feet permitted after the effective date of 45-11-101 through 45-11-111, and to private correctional facilities housing state inmates, and the State Fire Marshal may reach an existing building where safety to life requires it. In every limb but the first, a county or municipality that has adopted a fire prevention code of not less stringent standards displaces the state code and its enforcement mechanism entirely. So check the height first, then check whether any part of the property is used for public assembly, then ask the county and the municipality what they have adopted. A two-storey highway motel with no assembly use, in a jurisdiction with no code of its own, is outside the state code rather than exempt from it. Gate two is the code itself, and the edition changed on 1 July 2024. The State Fire Marshal's office states that "as of July 1, 2024, the State of Mississippi, Office of the State Fire Marshal has adopted the 2024 addition of the International Fire Code (IFC) and the International Building Code (IBC)", and the Mississippi Fire Code 2024 runs from 1 January 2025. That edition abandons the occupancy list the older ones worked from. Section 915.1.1 now requires detection wherever any of four conditions exists, a building containing a CO source, a building containing or supplied by a CO-producing forced-air furnace, a building with an attached private garage, or a building in which a CO-producing vehicle is used. Section 915.1 excepts only Group S, F and U occupancies that are not normally occupied. A hotel no longer has to be argued into Group R, because Group R has stopped being the test. Placement then splits by room. Section 915.2.2 puts detection inside the sleeping unit, and releases it to a position outside the sleeping area only where the unit and its attached bathroom hold no CO source and are not served by a CO-producing forced-air furnace. Section 915.2.1 puts it outside each separate sleeping area in a dwelling unit, and inside a bedroom where the CO source is in that bedroom or its attached bathroom. An all-electric hotel with no attached garage still meets none of the four conditions and owes nothing.

What it turns on for a short-term rental:Coverage turns on the county, because both statewide doors are shut and one is shut differently than it is for a hotel. Rule 7.03.1 applies the Mississippi Fire Prevention Code to buildings owned by the State or a State agency, buildings used for public assembly, high-rise buildings over seventy-five feet, private correctional facilities housing state inmates, and, at the State Fire Marshal's determination, an existing building where safety to life requires compliance. A hotel can reach the high-rise limb, which is why the lodging advice is to check the height. A house or cabin let to guests reaches none of them, and that does not change with the 2024 edition, because the edition governs what the code requires and Rule 7.03.1 governs whether the code arrives. The second door is the one that does not appear on the hotel side at all. Miss. Code Ann. 89-8-23(1)(a) makes a landlord comply with applicable building and housing codes, which would otherwise carry the local code into the letting, but 89-8-3(2)(d) removes "transient occupancy in a hotel, motel or lodgings" from the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act entirely. The chapter does not define "lodgings", and a property let by the night falls within the ordinary meaning of the word, so a host should not assume the landlord duty reaches them. What is left is whatever the county or municipality has adopted for itself, and a local fire prevention code of equal stringency displaces the state code and its enforcement mechanism altogether. Ask the county, then the municipality, and treat the answer as specific to that jurisdiction rather than to Mississippi.

Hotels already standing: it depends, and on a separate test from the one that decides coverage generally. The same applicability gate decides this, and under the edition now in force the retrofit provision asks exactly what new work asks. Rule 7.03.1 applies the Mississippi Fire Prevention Code to buildings owned by the State or a State agency, to buildings utilized for public assembly, to high-rise buildings over seventy-five feet permitted after the effective date of Miss. Code Ann. 45-11-101 through 45-11-111, and to private correctional facilities housing state inmates, and in every limb but the first it steps aside for a county or municipality with a fire prevention code of not less stringent standards. The State Fire Marshal's office adds a limb of its own for buildings already standing, reaching an existing building where safety to life requires compliance as the Marshal determines. Where the code does arrive it arrives whole, because Rule 7.02.1 adopts the fire code without carving out its existing-buildings chapter. Section 1103.9 of the 2024 edition provides that "carbon monoxide detection shall be installed in existing buildings where any of the conditions identified in Section 915.1.1 exist", with the alarms in the Section 915.2 locations and installed to Section 915.4. There is no occupancy list in it, so the old question of whether a building was Group I or R has stopped mattering; what matters is whether it holds a CO source, is supplied by a CO-producing forced-air furnace, has an attached private garage, or has a CO-producing vehicle used inside it. Two exceptions travel with it, allowing solely battery-operated alarms where the code in force at construction required no detectors, and in dwelling units not served from a commercial power source. So an older Gulf Coast tower over seventy-five feet is inside on any of the four conditions, a two-storey highway motel outside a public-assembly use is not inside at all, and in a city with its own code the answer is that code and not this one.

Penalties for Non-Compliance

No single statewide Mississippi carbon monoxide alarm fine schedule was identified in the cited sources.

Mississippi Fire Prevention Code adoption and local enforcement pathways were identified, but not one statewide fine table.

Additional Notes

Mississippi adopts a residential code and then applies it to a short list of buildings that does not include an ordinary house. Rule 7.02 of the State Fire Marshal's regulation adopts, as part of the Mississippi Fire Prevention Code, the 2012 International Residential Code for One-and-Two Family Dwellings, excepting only Section R313 and Section P2904. Rule 7.03.1 then fixes what that Code applies to, and the list has six entries: buildings owned by the State or State agencies; buildings used for public assembly; high-rise buildings over seventy-five feet; private correctional facilities housing state inmates permitted after 1 July 2004; any building whose plans an interested person asks the State Fire Marshal to review, permitted after 1 July 2004; and private fraternity and sorority houses on state property permitted after 1 July 2005. An ordinary owner-occupied house is in none of them, so no statewide carbon monoxide requirement reaches one. The words "carbon monoxide" appear nowhere in the regulation itself, against 142 occurrences of "Mississippi" and 150 of "fire prevention" in the same reading: the requirement lives in the adopted model codes and travels only as far as Rule 7.03.1 carries them. A county or municipality that adopts its own fire prevention code of no less stringency applies that instead, under Rule 7.02.D.
Mississippi compliance can vary by local adoption choices, so statewide assumptions without county verification are risky.
The safest workflow is jurisdiction-specific review with local code citations stored in each property record.
For lodging the limiting factor is not the code Mississippi adopted but the buildings it chose to apply that code to. The Mississippi Fire Prevention Code, made by the State Fire Marshal under Miss. Code Ann. 45-11-101, is based on the 2012 International Fire Code and also adopts the 2012 International Building Code and the 2012 International Residential Code, excepting only the residential sprinkler provisions at R313 and P2904. Rule 7.03.1 then lists what it reaches: buildings owned by the state or a state agency, buildings used for public assembly, high-rise buildings over seventy-five feet, private correctional facilities, any building whose owner asks the fire marshal to review the plans, and fraternity and sorority houses on state property. An ordinary hotel or short-term rental sits in none of those categories, while a hotel tower above seventy-five feet sits squarely in one. A county or municipality that adopts its own fire prevention code of equal stringency displaces the state code and its enforcement mechanism altogether, which is why a Mississippi answer has to be given jurisdiction by jurisdiction rather than once.
A rented house sits where an owner-occupied one sits under the state code, and Rule 7.03.1 reaches neither. One Mississippi provision can still carry a local rule to a landlord, which is why the answer is about the statewide layer rather than about every Mississippi tenancy. Miss. Code Ann. 89-8-23(1)(a) makes a landlord comply, at all times during the tenancy, with the requirements of applicable building and housing codes materially affecting health and safety. That duty carries whatever the jurisdiction has actually adopted: where a county or municipality has taken up Section R315 of the residential code or the fire code's carbon monoxide provision, the habitability duty carries it to the tenancy, and where nothing has been adopted the duty has nothing to carry. DeSoto County is the worked example on this page, publishing IRC Section R315.1 language for sleeping-area placement. So a Mississippi tenant asks their county what it adopted before asking what the state requires.

Local Rules That Differ From State Law

At least one Mississippi municipality sets CO requirements that go beyond the statewide rule. Where your property sits decides which applies, and the stricter one governs.

Ocean Springs

Ocean Springs puts a carbon monoxide detector in the garage. Its adoption of the International Residential Code at Section 7-1 lists the changes the city made, and among them is an addition to Section R315.3, the locations section, requiring carbon monoxide detectors in all attached garage locations in a one and two family dwelling unit, compliant with the interconnection requirement at R315.5 and taking power as R315.6 directs. That inverts what every other placement rule in this dataset does. The model code, and every state statute this survey has read, sites the alarm where people sleep and treats the attached garage as the reason for the alarm rather than the place for it. Kansas City, Missouri went further the other way and forbade siting an alarm within five feet of a gas appliance. Ocean Springs asks for detection at the source, in the room where the engine runs, wired into the same interconnected set as the alarms in the house, so the alarm sounds indoors while the exhaust is still in the garage. For the classic case of a car left running with the garage door down, that is the difference between a warning and a discovery. The drafting is rough, three sentence fragments where a model amendment would have one sentence, and it does not say how many detectors "all attached garage locations" means in a garage with more than one bay. An owner should ask the building official. The same ordinance also deletes Section R313.2 in its entirety, so Ocean Springs requires no automatic sprinkler system in one and two family dwellings, which is the more common direction of travel and makes the carbon monoxide addition stand out further.

Ocean Springs Code of Ordinances Section 7-1, building codes adopted, revision to International Residential Code Section R315.3 Locations, with the interconnection and power cross-references to R315.5 and R315.6 Checked 2026-08-11.

Pass Christian

Pass Christian will not issue a short-term rental permit until two separate officials sign the same piece of paper. Section 18-144 requires the application to include a statement from the building official and the fire department affirming that the structure is in compliance with all applicable zoning requirements and building and fire codes, and it then lists what that affirmation has to cover: smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, emergency means of egress, fire extinguishers, and ground fault circuit interrupter outlets in wet locations. Two features distinguish it from the ordinary licensing gate. The first is the pairing. Most licensing schemes in this survey name one authority, usually a fire marshal or a building official; here the building side and the fire side both have to affirm, and the applicant cannot proceed on one signature. The second is what the clause bundles in. The same sentence that carries the detectors also requires the affirmation to confirm that all applicable property taxes, fees and other charges have been paid. A carbon monoxide alarm and a tax bill are certified in one breath, by the same document, and an unpaid charge stops the permit exactly as a missing detector would. The wording is not unique to Pass Christian and that is worth knowing. Diamondhead Section 8-82 carries the same sentence verbatim in an identically structured article, so the two towns are running one ordinance between them.

Pass Christian Code of Ordinances Chapter 18 Article V, short-term rental units, Section 18-144, permit required; the same provision appears verbatim at Diamondhead Code of Ordinances Section 8-82 Checked 2026-08-11.

Hattiesburg

Hattiesburg makes the detector an inspection item and then ties the inspection to a number that cannot drift. Section 32-222(c) sets the maximum occupancy of a short-term rental at two people per sleeping room plus four for the dwelling, rising to plus six above 3,250 square feet of conditioned living space, and says the section governs if it conflicts with any other occupancy regulation the city has adopted. The capacity is fixed when the permit issues or renews, and building an extension will not raise it: the owner has to be inspected again and file an amended registration first. The inspection behind that permit is told what to look at, and carbon monoxide detectors are the second item on the list, after smoke detectors and before extinguishers, windows that are not plexiglass, the absence of bars on windows and doors, and the safety of electrical, water, sewer and gas connections. The qualifier "if applicable" means the city adds no standard of its own and defers to whatever the adopted codes require, so the divergence is the checking rather than the rule. Section 32-222(e) then requires the permit holder to keep a registry of the primary guest, produced for the building official on ten days' written notice, which means the city can reconstruct who was in the building on a given night.

Hattiesburg Code of Ordinances Chapter 32 Article X, short-term rental dwellings and apartments, Section 32-222(c)(2) with occupancy at (c)(1) and the guest registry at (e) Checked 2026-08-11.

What was checked:Mississippi's local layer has a shape the other states in this survey do not: one town writes a construction standard and the rest write an affirmation. Under Title 17 Chapter 2 the state Building Codes Council sets discretionary statewide minimum codes and county and municipal authorities adopt one of the last three editions of the International Building or Residential Code and may modify what they adopt, so a Mississippi city that wants a stricter rule has the authority to write one. Only Ocean Springs has. Fourteen municipalities were read on 2026-08-11: Jackson, Gulfport, Southaven, Biloxi, Hattiesburg, Bay St. Louis, Ocean Springs, Oxford, Pass Christian, Diamondhead, Starkville, Natchez, Meridian and Tupelo. Nine carry nothing. Jackson, the capital and largest city, is clean on an index good for 261 buildings and 104 fires. Biloxi answers eight times for short-term rentals and never for carbon monoxide, which is the negative worth having on a coast built on visitors, and Bay St. Louis answers ten times and never. The affirmation is a travelling template, and recognising it is the useful part. Pass Christian Section 18-144 and Diamondhead Section 8-82 carry the same sentence word for word, in identically numbered articles headed short-term rental units in the buildings chapter, and Hattiesburg's Article X is a longer relative of it. Somebody on the Mississippi Gulf Coast wrote a model short-term rental ordinance and several towns adopted it. A reader checking one coast town should expect the same answer in the next.

Local sweep last reviewed 2026-08-11.

Official Sources & References

Mississippi State Fire Marshal's Office, adopted code editions notice , The adoption banner on the office's own landing page (agency guidance, accessed 2026-08-26)
An edition-currency check, run on 2026-08-26, confirming that nothing has moved since the whole record was rebuilt onto the 2024 editions. The office's own page states it in capitals: "AS OF JULY 1, 2024, THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI - OFFICE OF THE STATE FIRE MARSHAL HAS ADOPTED THE 2024 ADDITION OF THE INTERNATIONAL FIRE CODE (IFC) AND THE INTERNATIONAL BUILDING CODE (IBC)." The spelling of "addition" is the office's. The document that disagrees is the office's own rule PDF, which still recites the 2012 editions. That is the order to read these in: the agency's current notice governs, and the filed rule text is the thing lagging behind it, not the other way round. A reading that started with the rule PDF would have concluded that Mississippi never left 2012.
Mississippi Fire Code 2024, adopting the International Fire Code 2024 without amendments , Section 915.1 general and the Group S, F and U exception, Section 915.1.1 where required, Sections 915.2.1 dwelling units, 915.2.2 sleeping units and 915.2.3 Group E occupancies, and Section 1103.9 for existing buildings (fire code, accessed 2026-08-23)
The edition actually in force. The State Fire Marshal's own fire code enforcement page states that "as of July 1, 2024, the State of Mississippi, Office of the State Fire Marshal has adopted the 2024 addition of the International Fire Code (IFC) and the International Building Code (IBC)", and the Mississippi Fire Code 2024 runs from 1 January 2025, adopting without amendments. The Mississippi Fire Code 2018 ran from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2024, so the record's 2012 basis was two editions behind. The rule PDF at mid.ms.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/FM20101reg.pdf still says the code "shall be based upon the 2012 edition"; it is the stale document, and the Marshal's own page is the one to believe. Both were read on 2026-08-23.
Mississippi Code Annotated Section 45-11-101 through 45-11-111 (Mississippi Fire Prevention Code subarticle) , Miss. Code Ann. §§ 45-11-101 through 45-11-111, Mississippi Fire Prevention Code subarticle including §45-11-103 within the subarticle (state code, accessed 2026-05-17)
No standalone statewide CO alarm statute identified as of 2026. Miss. Code Ann. §45-11-101 establishes the Mississippi Fire Prevention Code framework and grants the State Fire Marshal authority to adopt and enforce fire codes; §§45-11-103 through 45-11-111 fill out the adoption, scope, and enforcement details within that subarticle. CO provisions enter through adopted model codes (IFC/IBC) under this authority, with local jurisdictions controlling residential enforcement. Re-verified via Justia chapter listing in Wayback snapshot 2024-11-05.
Mississippi Code Annotated Section 89-8-23 (Duties of landlord under the Mississippi Residential Landlord and Tenant Act) , §89-8-23(1)(a): landlord must comply with the requirements of applicable building and housing codes materially affecting health and safety; companion sections §89-8-25 (tenant duties) and §89-8-13 (breach-and-termination procedure) (state code, accessed 2026-05-17)
Mississippi URLTA compliance duty. §89-8-23 does not itself mandate CO detectors, but its duty-to-comply-with-applicable-codes obligation routes CO requirements from any locally adopted IRC R315 or IFC 915 provision back into the landlord's habitability duty. Verified via law.justia.com mirror through Wayback snapshot 2024-10-13. §89-8-13 was also reviewed and confirmed to govern only breach-notice and termination remedies (Wayback snapshot 2025-03-18).
Mississippi Department of Insurance State Fire Marshal Rules for the Mississippi Fire Prevention Code , Rule 7.02.1 and related adoption language (fire code, accessed 2026-02-17)
Statewide fire-code adoption framework and local-jurisdiction applicability language.
DeSoto County Mississippi order adopting building codes including IRC Section R315.1 , IRC Section R315.1 excerpt in county order (local ordinance, accessed 2026-02-17)
Local published example with residential trigger, placement, and standard references.
Mississippi State Fire Marshal Office (Mississippi Department of Insurance) , State Fire Marshal program landing page (replaces older /divisions/fire-services/ path) (agency guidance, accessed 2026-05-17)
Agency reference for code administration and local enforcement coordination context. Replaced dead URL https://www.mid.ms.gov/divisions/fire-services/, which returned 404 and has no Wayback snapshot.
Mississippi State Fire Marshal, Rules for the Mississippi Fire Prevention Code, Rule 7.02 adoption and Rule 7.03.1 applicability (Miss. Code Ann. 45-11-101 et seq.) , Rule 7.02.1.A and 7.02.1.B, the adopted edition; Rule 7.03.1, the six kinds of building (fire code, accessed 2026-08-23)
SUPERSEDED ON THE EDITION, LIVE ON THE APPLICABILITY. Paragraph 7.02.1.A says the Code "shall be based upon the 2012 edition of the International Fire Code, as revised or amended", and paragraph B adopts the fire code "up to and including the 2012 edition" before enumerating every recognised edition, ending at IFC 2012, IBC 2012 and IRC 2012, the last with Section R313 and Section P2904 excepted. That enumeration is what stops the trailing "as same may be revised or amended" reading as a rolling adoption, which is why this document cannot be used to reach a later edition on its own. It has been overtaken by a separate act rather than by its own words: the State Fire Marshal's office adopted the 2024 International Fire Code and International Building Code as of 1 July 2024, and this PDF has not been reissued. Rule 7.03.1's applicability list is unaffected and is still what decides which buildings the code reaches at all.
International Fire Code 2012, Section 908.7 and Section 1103.9, carbon monoxide alarms, read verbatim , 908.7 with its three-part exception; 1103.9, the existing-buildings provision, on the same terms (fire code, accessed 2026-08-23)
HISTORICAL. This is the edition Mississippi enforced until the State Fire Marshal adopted the 2024 codes on 1 July 2024, and it is kept because a building permitted under it was built to it. up.codes gates the 2012 editions and returned 263 normalised characters for the whole of chapter 9; codes.iccsafe.org refuses. The Public.Resource.Org copy at archive.org serves the full plain text free and account-free, 2,474,731 characters, and both sections read cleanly out of it. Their reach is "Group I or R occupancies" with no Group E limb, which is what the schools answer used to turn on and no longer does. The 2024 edition carries no occupancy list at all.
Miss. Code Ann. 89-8-23(1)(a), landlord duty to comply with applicable building and housing codes materially affecting health and safety (state code, accessed 2026-08-22)

Disclaimer: This page explains the law as it stood on August 26, 2026. It is general information, not legal advice, and reading it creates no attorney-client relationship. Requirements vary by city, county and building type, and statutes and codes are amended: confirm the current text with the issuing authority before acting on it. Each requirement here cites the instrument it comes from, so you can check it at source.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Mississippi have one statewide law requiring CO alarms in every home?

Not as one universal residential statute in the sources cited here. Mississippi uses a State Fire Marshal adoption framework for the Mississippi Fire Prevention Code, and local jurisdictions can implement code language through their own enforcement process. That means one county may publish clear IRC Section R315.1 requirements while another jurisdiction may apply a different pathway. Mississippi owners should request local confirmation before classifying a property as covered or exempt. A written local citation is the most reliable compliance control.

What does DeSoto County show about Mississippi placement rules?

DeSoto County publishes IRC Section R315.1 text, which is useful because it gives a concrete Mississippi example of sleeping-area proximity placement and related trigger language. Operators can use that publication as a model for how local jurisdictions may enforce carbon monoxide alarm duties when statewide text is broad. It also shows why local code edition and adoption status matter in day-to-day decisions. Mississippi property teams should compare each county rule set against DeSoto wording before finalizing installation plans.

How should Mississippi landlords manage compliance when rental duties are local?

Mississippi landlords should run a jurisdiction-specific checklist that starts with local code adoption, then maps trigger conditions, installation records, and test documentation for each unit. Where local authorities use IRC Section R315.1 language, landlords should verify sleeping area placement and keep correction records for inspection follow-up. Even without one statewide landlord matrix, the Mississippi Fire Prevention Code framework still creates enforceable local obligations. Lease files should include local citations and dated maintenance evidence.

Are Mississippi hotels and short-term rentals covered by one uniform CO rule?

The cited Mississippi sources do not establish one uniform statewide hotel and short-term rental carbon monoxide rule that applies identically in every jurisdiction. Instead, practical duties often come from local code adoption and the local authority having jurisdiction. Operators should treat hotel and vacation-rental compliance as a local-code workflow, not a single statewide checkbox. Mississippi management teams should keep property-level evidence for local code edition, inspection outcomes, and corrective actions.

In Mississippi all-electric homes, which adjacent-space risks still trigger alarm duties?

No automatic statewide exemption is confirmed in the cited Mississippi sources. Local code text determines whether an all-electric dwelling is treated outside alarm triggers, and that can depend on details such as attached-garage conditions or neighboring combustion sources. Jurisdictions using IRC Section R315.1 style language may still require analysis before a unit is marked exempt. Mississippi owners should document the local interpretation in writing and retain it in the compliance file.

How does Mississippi compliance compare with Alabama workflows?

Mississippi frequently requires county-level code confirmation before installation decisions, while Alabama portfolios may rely on a different mix of statewide and local pathways depending on occupancy. Regional operators should not reuse one Gulf South template across both states without checking local adoption details and inspection practice. For side-by-side policy work, review Alabama CO detector laws and map differences in trigger language, documentation steps, and enforcement checkpoints. Mississippi teams should preserve county-specific citations in every cross-state SOP.

Practical CO Detector Guides

Beyond legal requirements, these guides help you choose, install, and maintain CO alarms:

Where to place carbon monoxide detectors, room-by-room placement recommendations
CO detector beeping patterns, what different alarms mean
What to do if your detector goes off, emergency response checklist
CO resources and links, official agencies and safety information