Are New Jersey Hotels and Short-Term Rentals Required to Have CO Detectors?

New Jersey requires carbon monoxide detection in hotels and multiple dwellings under a blanket statutory mandate that applies regardless of construction date. New Jersey Statute § 55:13A-7.17 (P.L. 1999, c.15) requires every unit of dwelling space in a hotel and multiple dwelling to be equipped with one or more CO sensor devices listed to Underwriters Laboratories standard UL 2034, unless it is determined that no potential carbon monoxide hazard exists for that unit. Any such installation or hazard determination must be made in accordance with rules promulgated by the Commissioner of Community Affairs.

The implementing rule is N.J.A.C. 5:10-28.1, a single subchapter of the Regulations for the Maintenance of Hotels and Multiple Dwellings, and it is four sentences long. Paragraph (a)1: "Single station carbon monoxide alarms shall be installed and maintained in the immediate vicinity of the sleeping area in every guestroom or dwelling unit in buildings that contain a fuel-burning appliance or that have an attached garage." Paragraph (b) sets the device standard: manufactured, listed and labelled to UL 2034, installed to the subchapter and to NFPA 720, and permitted to be battery operated, hard-wired or plug-in.

Paragraph (a)2 was rewritten with effect from 7 August 2023 and now does something different from what it used to do. Instead of listing its own alternatives, it says alarms may be installed in accordance with the Uniform Construction Code, N.J.A.C. 5:23, with the local construction code enforcing agency's certificate of approval supplied to the Bureau as proof, and that devices "may be installed in locations, as specified in the Uniform Construction Code, N.J.A.C. 5:23, or the Uniform Fire Code, N.J.A.C. 5:70". So New Jersey's hotel rule now hands the placement question to two other chapters by name, and an operator choosing that route is choosing to be judged by them.

New Jersey's CO sensor requirement under § 55:13A-7.17 covers every unit of dwelling space in any hotel and multiple dwelling statewide, without a construction-date cutoff. The Hotel and Multiple Dwelling Law (N.J.S.A. Title 55, Chapter 13A) defines "hotel" broadly to include any establishment offering sleeping accommodations to transient guests, and "multiple dwelling" to include apartment buildings, rooming houses, and boarding houses. Short-term rental properties operating as part of a multiple dwelling or hotel structure are covered by the same framework. Single-family and two-family homes used as short-term rentals may be subject to residential CO requirements under other applicable state codes and local ordinances. The only exemption under § 55:13A-7.17 is a unit-level determination that no potential CO hazard exists, made in accordance with rules of the Commissioner of Community Affairs.

Hotel owners and short-term rental operators in New Jersey bear the legal obligation to equip every dwelling unit and guestroom with compliant CO sensor devices and to maintain those devices in serviceable condition.

Under N.J.S.A. § 55:13A-7.17, the property owner must ensure CO sensor devices are installed in accordance with rules promulgated by the Commissioner of Community Affairs, or must obtain a formal determination that no potential CO hazard exists for a given unit. The "no hazard" determination is not a self-certification; it must comply with rules set by the Commissioner and cannot be made unilaterally by the owner.

Under N.J.A.C. 5:10-28.1(a)1 the default is a single station alarm in the immediate vicinity of the sleeping area in every guestroom or dwelling unit, wherever the building holds a fuel-burning appliance or has an attached garage. The trigger is the building's, not the room's, so a guest room with nothing burning in it is still covered when the boiler is three floors down.

There is one alternative and it is a choice of forum rather than a lighter standard. Paragraph (a)2 lets the owner install in accordance with the Uniform Construction Code, N.J.A.C. 5:23, and lodge the local construction code enforcing agency's certificate of approval with the Bureau as proof; devices may then sit in the locations specified by the Uniform Construction Code or by the Uniform Fire Code, N.J.A.C. 5:70. This paragraph was rewritten effective 7 August 2023, so an operator working from older guidance is working from a rule that no longer exists.

Owners must also keep alarms manufactured, listed and labelled to UL 2034 and installed to NFPA 720, and under paragraph (c), at the request of a tenant of a multiple dwelling unit in which a deaf or hearing-impaired person resides, provide and install a visual alarm type carbon monoxide detector for that unit.

N.J.A.C. 5:10-28.1 is unusually short, and what it does not say matters as much as what it does.

What it says. Alarms manufactured, listed and labelled to UL 2034, installed in accordance with the subchapter and with NFPA 720, "battery operated, hard-wired or of the plug-in type", placed in the immediate vicinity of the sleeping area in every guestroom or dwelling unit where the building holds a fuel-burning appliance or an attached garage.

What it does not say. There is no distance figure and no sound pressure figure anywhere in the chapter: measured across the whole of N.J.A.C. 5:10 as published through the Register of 7 August 2023, "ten feet" occurs zero times, "85 dBA" zero times, "monitoring station" zero times and "dedicated branch circuit" zero times, against a control of "carbon monoxide alarms" at seven. The only "10 feet" in the chapter is in the definition of adjoining grade elevation. An operator who has been told New Jersey has a ten-foot rule has been given a figure from somewhere else.

Where the detail actually lives. Paragraph (a)2 sends an owner who wants a different placement to the Uniform Construction Code, N.J.A.C. 5:23, or the Uniform Fire Code, N.J.A.C. 5:70, and requires the local construction code enforcing agency's certificate of approval to be filed with the Bureau. Those two chapters set placement in far more detail than the maintenance rule does, and a property that has taken the (a)2 route is measured against them rather than against the sentence above.

The Hotel and Multiple Dwelling Law is enforced by the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA) through its Bureau of Housing Inspection, which conducts periodic inspections of hotels and multiple dwellings statewide. Local enforcing agencies also have authority to inspect and issue violations under the law. Under N.J.S.A. § 55:13A-19, the DCA may issue violation notices and assess penalties for non-compliance, including failure to install or maintain required CO sensor devices. Violations are subject to civil penalty proceedings under the Penalty Enforcement Law of 1999 (P.L. 1999, c.274).

The penalty for a hotel comes from the Hotel and Multiple Dwelling Law itself, and it is not the $100 figure that circulates for New Jersey residential transfers. N.J.S.A. § 55:13A-7.17 is a single unlettered sentence with no penalty inside it. § 55:13A-19(a)(5) makes it unlawful to violate any provision of P.L.1967, c.76 (C.55:13A-1 et seq.), which is the chapter § 55:13A-7.17 sits in, and § 55:13A-19(b) sets the consequence: not less than $50 nor more than $500 for each violation, and not less than $500 nor more than $5,000 for each continuing violation. Where a continuing violation remains unabated after the date the commissioner fixes in an order or notice, each day counts separately. Disabling an installed device has its own hook at § 55:13A-19(a)(3), which reaches rendering ineffective or inoperative any protective equipment installed, or intended to be installed, in a hotel or multiple dwelling. The $100 fine at N.J.S.A. § 52:27D-133.3(e) belongs to a different route, the certificate obtained before a sale, lease or change of occupancy of a dwelling unit, and it is the figure the rental page carries.