CO Detector Requirements in Oregon: Landlord Duties and Transfers

Last verified: August 24, 2026

Oregon carbon monoxide detector laws combine statute, administrative rule, and residential code pathways. ORS sections 105.836 through 105.842 establish statewide legal requirements tied to dwellings with a carbon monoxide source, while State Fire Marshal rules in OAR 837-047 define applicability, testing expectations, transfer and rental timing, and operational duties.

The Oregon Residential Specialty Code Section R315 supplies technical placement, interconnection, listing, and power requirements for new and permit-triggered construction contexts. That number belongs to Oregon's own code rather than to the model code it is built from, and the distinction has started to matter: the 2024 International Residential Code moved carbon monoxide alarms from Section R315 to Section R311 and reassigned R315 to sleeping lofts. Oregon publishes the Residential Specialty Code on its own cycle, so its numbering follows the model only when the state adopts a newer edition. Confirm the current edition and its section number with the Building Codes Division before relying on R315, and treat any national guidance citing that number as edition-dependent rather than settled. This creates broad statewide coverage across homes, rentals, and lodging settings that meet the rule's dwelling definitions.

Oregon compliance should be managed as an event-based workflow for sale, lease, permit, and occupancy milestones with documented section citations and correction records. Operators should store transaction and rental event timestamps with alarm verification evidence.

In 60 Seconds

CO detector requirements for Oregon
Applies to homes?	Yes
Applies to rentals?	Yes
Applies to hotels/STRs?	Yes
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. Oregon is on the reorganised section too, and it added a statutory floor underneath it. The Building Codes Division adopts the Oregon Structural Specialty Code under OAR 918-460-0010. The 2025 edition is the one in force, and the Division states it is "based on the 2024 International Building Code (IBC), International Fire Code (IFC) and International Existing Building Code (IEBC)". Its construction provisions took effect on 1 October 2025 with a six-month phase-in in which the 2022 or the 2025 code could be used, and became mandatory on 1 April 2026, so the choice a district had is closed and only the 2025 code answers now. Within it, code change F102-21 reorganised Section 915 to be based on the carbon monoxide source, removing the references to Group I-1, I-2, I-4, R and Group E classrooms and requiring detection in buildings that contain a CO source, contain or are supplied with a CO-producing forced-air furnace, have an attached private garage, or have a CO-producing vehicle used within the building. Section 915.1 excepts only Group S, Group F and Group U occupancies that are not normally occupied. An Oregon school with a fuel-burning source is therefore covered and an all-electric one is outside the trigger. Two Oregon-specific points sit on top. The Oregon amendment adds the statutory requirement that all Group R occupancies need detection regardless of any CO source, which is a floor for lodging rather than for schools. And the Oregon Fire Code carries its carbon monoxide provisions at Section 908.7 rather than 915, so a search built on 915 alone comes back empty and proves nothing; ask the local fire official which numbering and which cycle they enforce. One thing the reorganisation did not do, and it is worth stating because the paragraph above invites the opposite reading. Group E left the trigger list at 915.1.1 and did not leave Section 915. In the 2024 text the Group E subsection at 915.2.3 requires "a carbon monoxide system that uses carbon monoxide detectors" to be installed in Group E occupancies, with alarm signals from those detectors automatically transmitted to an on-site location staffed by school personnel. That is a system rather than the listed alarms a 2021-edition state can use, so an Oregon district and a district one state line away are not buying the same thing. The 2021 exception for a Group E occupant load of 30 or less has no confirmed counterpart in the 2024 text either, which is worth a call to the building official before a small school budgets on the strength of it.

Workplaces: it depends, and the test is one you can apply to the building itself. The reorganised Section 915 reaches an Oregon workplace on the same source test that reaches its schools. The adoption matrix for the 2025 Oregon Structural Specialty Code, adopted under OAR 918-460-0010, approves code change F102-21, which removed the occupancy list from Section 915 and requires detection in buildings that contain a carbon monoxide source, contain or are supplied with a CO-producing forced-air furnace, have an attached private garage, or have a CO-producing vehicle used within the building, with an exception at 915.1 only for Group S, Group F and Group U occupancies that are not normally occupied. So a normally occupied office, shop or workshop with a fuel-burning appliance is inside it and an unoccupied warehouse is not. Note that ORS 476.725(4) bars every city and county in Oregon from enacting or enforcing a local ordinance on the design, inspection, testing, maintenance, placement or location of carbon monoxide alarms, so this is the whole answer and no municipality can add to it.

When Are CO Alarms Required?

Buildings with fuel-burning appliances
Buildings with attached garages
New construction
Home sales or property transfers
When building permits are required
At commencement of a new rental or lease agreement for a dwelling with a carbon monoxide source under OAR 837-047.
At conveyance or transfer events for covered dwellings with a carbon monoxide source under ORS and OAR pathways.

Where to Install CO Alarms

Outside each separate sleeping area in the immediate vicinity of bedrooms under ORSC Section R315.
On each story or level of the dwelling unit as required by ORSC Section R315.
In existing-dwelling pathways, OAR 837-047 includes sleeping-area proximity and bedroom-door-distance language for covered units.

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

Device Requirements

Single-station alarms listed to UL 2034 under ORSC Section R315.
Combination smoke and carbon monoxide alarms listed to both UL 217 and UL 2034 where combination units are used.
Carbon monoxide detection systems listed to UL 2075 with NFPA 720 pathway references where system alternatives are permitted.
Interconnection and power-source requirements follow ORSC Section R315 and OAR 837-047 provisions.

Landlord and Tenant Responsibilities

Landlord: Landlords must provide required working alarms at the start of covered rental agreements and maintain code-compliant installation under OAR 837-047. Provision: OAR 837-047.

Tenant: Tenants must test alarms at required intervals, report deficiencies, and avoid removing or disabling required devices under OAR 837-047. Provision: OAR 837-047.

Oregon uses definitions in OAR 837-047 to determine when lodging-type occupancies are treated as covered dwellings.

Full Oregon landlord and tenant carbon monoxide duties, with citations

Enforcement

Enforced by: Oregon State Fire Marshal for rule adoption and administration, with local building and code authorities handling local inspection and enforcement workflow.

Enforcement typically occurs:

At sale and transfer events for covered dwellings under ORS and OAR requirements.
At rental commencement and during permit or inspection checkpoints for covered properties.

What a Tenant Can Do in Oregon

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

"Via general law" means the Oregon 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.

Tenant remedies for a defective carbon monoxide alarm in Oregon, with the citation or the body of law searched for each.
Rent withholding	Via general lawORS 90.370. A counterclaim, capped by the court's jurisdictional limit and conditioned on the landlord having had prior knowledge of the facts behind the claim. Either party may ask the court to order the accrued and accruing rent paid in, and Hawaii is the only other state in the fifty-one where both sides can ask. In Michigan, Pennsylvania and Washington the escrow opens on a government certification instead, and the tenant cannot start it alone. A tenant no longer in possession keeps the counterclaim without paying anything in.
Repair and deduct	Via general lawORS 90.365. Uncapped, and it reaches an alarm by the route set out in the scope note rather than by naming one. Where the landlord intentionally or negligently fails to supply an essential service the tenant may procure reasonable amounts of it and deduct the actual and reasonable cost from the rent, with no ceiling stated. Where the failure makes the unit unsafe or unfit to occupy the tenant may instead take substitute housing and recover its cost above the rent.
Right to end the lease	Via general lawORS 90.360. The written notice fixes the termination date and the length depends on what was breached: 30 days for ordinary noncompliance, 7 where an essential service is involved, and 7 for a week-to-week tenancy. ORS 90.365 adds a faster exit where the failure poses an imminent and serious threat to the tenant's health, safety or property, allowing termination on not less than 48 hours to remedy.
Notice the tenant must give	Via general lawORS 90.360; ORS 90.365. No waiting period runs against the tenant before serving, and no delivery method is prescribed. What the notice has to do is characterise the breach correctly, because calling a dead alarm an essential-service failure rather than ordinary noncompliance is what shortens the landlord's window from 30 days to 7, and describing an imminent serious threat is what opens the 48-hour route.
Landlord cure period	Via general law, 7 daysORS 90.360. Seven days is recorded because a qualifying carbon monoxide alarm is an essential service under ORS 90.100 and that is the tier such a breach falls into. Ordinary noncompliance runs 30 days, and a failure posing an imminent and serious threat can be cut to 48 hours under 90.365. One limit sits alongside all three: under 90.360 damages are unavailable where the landlord neither knew nor reasonably should have known of the condition, which is what the tenant's written notice is for.

Applies to every row above:Oregon is the clean opposite of Colorado and Arkansas, and the reason is one line in an enumerated list. ORS 90.320(1)(k) makes a carbon monoxide alarm a habitability requirement wherever the dwelling unit contains a carbon monoxide source or sits in a structure that does. Colorado's uninhabitability list omits alarms and Arkansas's six standards name none, so in both states the remedies never reach a detector. In Oregon the list reaches it, and then a second provision compounds the effect: the definition of essential service at ORS 90.100 covers any habitability obligation imposed by 90.320 whose lack creates a serious threat to health, safety or property. A dead alarm in a unit with a fuel-burning appliance is therefore not merely a habitability breach but an essential-service failure, which unlocks the faster clock and the uncapped deduction below.

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

What Oregon Requires in Lodging

The Oregon carbon monoxide requirement reaches hotels and short-term rentals.

Hotels already standing: covered too. The Oregon requirement reaches an existing hotel and not only one being built.

Operator duty: Covered lodging operators must comply when properties fall within OAR dwelling definitions and include carbon monoxide source conditions.

Full Oregon hotel and short-term rental requirements

Penalties for Non-Compliance

ORS 105.840 allows an aggrieved purchaser or transferee to recover the greater of actual damages or $250 per residential unit, plus reasonable attorney fees, for covered sale noncompliance.

ORS 105.840.

Additional Notes

Oregon requirements should be documented by event type, especially sale, lease start, permit, and occupancy transitions.
Operators should keep statute and code citations together to support enforcement and transaction review.

Local Rules That Differ From State Law

We checked the municipal codes listed below and found no Oregon city rule that differs from the statewide requirement. The state rule is the operative one for those jurisdictions. Smaller municipalities were not all searched, so confirm with your local building or fire official before treating this as complete.

What was checked:Oregon settles this by statute and the answer is unusually clean. ORS 476.725(4) provides that State Fire Marshal rules apply for all governmental subdivisions in the state, and that a governmental subdivision may not enact or enforce any local ordinance, rule or regulation regarding the design, inspection, testing, maintenance, placement or location of carbon monoxide alarms. So an Oregon city cannot set its own standard, and no amount of searching city codes will turn one up. This is the South Carolina case rather than an empty result: the absence is a legal fact. What the search did turn up is more interesting than a row of zeros, because three cities have carbon monoxide sections and every one of them is written to survive that bar. Portland City Code 29.30.245 sits in the Property Maintenance Regulations and requires alarms in existing rental dwelling units that contain a carbon monoxide source, or that connect to a room holding one by a door, ductwork or a ventilation shaft, in each case "in compliance with state Fire Marshal rules and the state building code" and maintained under ORS 90.317. Salem Revised Code 59.220 does the same job in its housing code, requiring an audible alarm in all residential structures containing a carbon monoxide source and reaching enclosed common areas connected to one, with a separate offence of tampering at 59.225. Newport makes it a condition of the short-term rental business licence endorsement at 4.25.030(j), again "in compliance with State Fire Marshal Rules and any applicable requirements of the State Building Code". The pattern is the same three times: adopt the state standard by reference, then attach the city's own enforcement, which is the one thing the pre-emption leaves alone. Two details are worth carrying even though neither is a divergence. Portland's subsection B is a ceiling rather than a floor, and cities rarely write those: all existing dwelling units, including owner-occupied ones, need an alarm under the Residential Specialty Code "only" when a carbon monoxide source is introduced or when interior work requiring a structural permit occurs. And Newport requires a written notice on the premises with instructions for testing the alarms, which is a guest-facing duty nothing else in this dataset imposes. Portland's paragraph D and Newport's testing notice both brush the list of subjects ORS 476.725(4) reserves to the state, and both are framed as restatements of the state rule; if the two ever part company, the state rule is the one that governs. Read on 2026-08-10: Portland, Salem, Ashland, Corvallis, Hillsboro and Newport, all control-tested. Ashland, Corvallis and Hillsboro carry nothing at all. Astoria could not be read and must not be counted clean: its publisher record holds a code product with no published edition behind it, so every search returns zero, the same shape Park City and Malden produced. Eugene and Bend sit behind a publisher that answers a JavaScript challenge to every route. Re-searched on 2026-08-11 in both singular and plural, after the publisher's search engine was found not to match plurals. Ashland, Corvallis and Hillsboro are still empty on every form. Salem and Newport return the same sections quoted above and no others. That matters less here than it would in most states, because Oregon's negative does not rest on the search: ORS 476.725(4) removes the subject from local hands, so the thing a missed ordinance would call into question is the reading of the pre-emption rather than the thoroughness of the sweep. Nothing found on the re-run disturbs that reading, and the three cities that do legislate here are still doing the one thing the statute leaves them, which is enforcement of a standard set elsewhere.

Local sweep last reviewed 2026-08-10.

Official Sources & References

Oregon Revised Statutes chapter 105 carbon monoxide alarm sections , ORS 105.836 through ORS 105.842 including ORS 105.840 remedy language (state code, accessed 2026-02-17)
Statutory framework for scope, sale and transfer obligations, and civil remedy language.
Oregon Administrative Rules OAR 837-047 , OAR 837-047-0100 through 837-047-0160 (fire code, accessed 2026-02-17)
Definitions, applicability, testing, rental timing, and operational obligations.
Oregon Residential Specialty Code summary of amendments , Section R315 carbon monoxide alarms (building code, accessed 2026-02-17)
Placement, listing, interconnection, and power requirements in residential code context.
Oregon State Fire Marshal carbon monoxide alarms page , Public guidance and code reference overview (agency guidance, accessed 2026-02-17)
State guidance page supporting implementation and public-facing compliance context.
Oregon Building Codes Division code interpretation carbon monoxide alarms , Code interpretation on new and existing dwelling scenarios (agency guidance, accessed 2026-02-17)
Implementation guidance used to interpret permit and existing-building scenarios.

Disclaimer: This page explains the law as it stood on August 24, 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

Are carbon monoxide alarms required by Oregon law?

Yes. Oregon uses ORS 105.836 through 105.842 plus OAR 837-047 and ORSC Section R315 to create statewide carbon monoxide alarm obligations for covered dwellings. This is not only a construction rule; transfer and rental timing also matter when a carbon monoxide source is present. Owners should classify occupancy and trigger event before deciding scope. Oregon compliance records should include the exact ORS and OAR sections used for each decision so enforcement and transaction review can be handled quickly.

What penalty exposure exists for Oregon sale noncompliance?

ORS 105.840 provides a specific civil remedy path in covered sale scenarios. An aggrieved purchaser or transferee may recover the greater of actual damages or $250 per residential unit, plus reasonable attorney fees, when statutory alarm obligations are not met. This remedy model means documentation gaps can create direct financial exposure even before broader liability is considered. Oregon sellers and agents should verify alarm compliance early and preserve records before transfer milestones.

In Oregon transfer cases, which alarm location checkpoints should be documented first?

Oregon Residential Specialty Code Section R315 uses sleeping-area proximity and level-based placement requirements, and OAR 837-047 adds operational detail for covered existing-dwelling contexts. Device placement should be mapped room by room and verified against the adopted code language for the project type. Teams should also capture listing, power, and interconnection choices in the same record. Oregon inspection outcomes are easier to defend when placement evidence and section citations are stored together.

In Oregon rentals, which notice-to-repair records should landlords and tenants both sign?

Oregon OAR 837-047 assigns duties on both sides of the rental relationship. Landlords must provide required working alarms at the start of covered agreements, and tenants must test, report deficiencies, and avoid tampering with required devices. This split should be reflected in lease packets, move-in checklists, and maintenance workflows. Oregon operators should keep dated notices and repair records so role performance can be shown during disputes or code enforcement review.

For Oregon all-electric units, which adjacent-source checks are required before exemption?

Not always. Oregon scope is tied to statutory and rule definitions, including whether a covered carbon monoxide source condition exists under ORS and OAR language. Some properties may still require careful review even when utility descriptions look simple at first glance. Owners should avoid blanket assumptions and request clarification from the local authority when needed. Oregon files should include written exemption reasoning tied to the governing section text. Keep that determination with lease and transfer records for audit continuity.

For Oregon teams, which documentation control differs most from Washington procedures?

Oregon compliance combines statute remedies, State Fire Marshal rules, and residential code requirements, while Washington operators may rely on a different state and local implementation mix. Regional teams should keep separate Pacific Northwest checklists rather than one shared template. For side-by-side process design, review Washington CO detector laws and compare trigger timing, remedy pathways, and inspection documentation controls. Oregon teams should preserve statute and rule citations separately in cross-state SOP binders.

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