CO Detector Rules in Tennessee: What Rentals and Hotels Must Do

Last verified: August 24, 2026

Tennessee carbon monoxide detector laws are occupancy-specific at the statewide level. The hardest recent lesson in the state came on February 4, 2026 at Milligan University's Steve Lacy Fieldhouse, where a CO leak in the lower level sent more than 200 students and staff across seven Ballad Health hospitals for evaluation; roughly 300 people were assessed in total. The fieldhouse was equipped with multiple carbon monoxide detectors that did not activate, which is the operational tell that pushes Tennessee owners past simple presence checks toward documented testing, end-of-life replacement, and third-party inspection of alarm systems. The cited statutes make it unlawful to operate covered hotels and covered one-family or two-family rental units with carbon monoxide-emitting features, such as fossil-fuel equipment or fireplaces, without approved alarms installed within 10 feet of each sleeping room.

Tennessee sources also define accepted listing standards and power options, including hardwired, monitored battery, and plug-in pathways when statutory conditions are met. This creates clear statewide duties for rentals and lodging in covered scenarios, while broader all-home applicability remains dependent on occupancy and code context.

Tennessee operators should maintain unit-level installation, testing, and correction records with statute references before occupancy, renewal, or inspection events.

In 60 Seconds

CO detector requirements for Tennessee
Applies to homes?	Not confirmed, check local codes
Applies to rentals?	Yes
Applies to hotels/STRs?	Yes
Applies to schools?	Yes, under a condition
Applies to workplaces?	No

Schools and workplaces

Schools: it depends, and the test is one you can apply to the building itself. The state fire marshal adopts the code that answers this, and the edition is recent enough to carry the classroom limb. TCA 68-120-101 authorises the state fire marshal to promulgate minimum statewide building construction safety standards, and the Division of Fire Prevention has adopted the International Building Code, 2021 edition. Section 915.1.1 of that edition reaches classrooms in Group E occupancies where a condition in Sections 915.1.2 through 915.1.6 exists: a fuel-burning appliance or fireplace in the classroom, a fuel-burning forced-air furnace serving it, such equipment elsewhere in the building with a communicating opening, or an attached private garage. Section 915.2.3 settles where the alarm is answered: the signals go "automatically transmitted to an on-site location that is staffed by school personnel", unless the Group E occupancy has an occupant load of 30 or less. The second instrument is the one to check before treating a Tennessee school as answered on the building code alone. The same list of adopted codes carries NFPA 101, Life Safety Code, 2021 edition, whose chapter 15 governs existing educational occupancies. Section 15.3.4.4.1 puts detectors on the ceilings of rooms containing permanently installed fuel-burning appliances, centrally within occupiable spaces served by the first supply air register from a fuel-burning HVAC system, and centrally within occupiable spaces adjacent to a communicating attached garage or one separated by gypsum panels. Section 15.3.4.4.2 then requires that where a detector goes in on the first of those, "the alarm signal shall be automatically transmitted to an approved on-site location or to an off-premises location in accordance with NFPA 72". Two differences from the building-code route matter to a Tennessee district. Chapter 15 asks the same of an existing school as chapter 14 asks of a new one, so this route does not wait for construction the way Section 1103.9 does. And its transmission limb accepts an off-premises location, which Section 915.2.3 does not: the building code wants an on-site location staffed by school personnel. A building can satisfy one and not the other, and which office is enforcing decides which applies. Two things narrow the building-code route. TCA 68-120-101 lets a local government be exempted from the minimum statewide standards where it enforces its own, so ask which office is applying which code. And the carbon monoxide provisions Tennessee wrote for itself run the other way: TCA 68-120-112 and 68-120-101(a)(10) both measure ten feet from each room used for sleeping purposes, which is a hotel and dwelling rule and has nothing to say about a classroom.

Workplaces: Tennessee places no carbon monoxide detection duty on an office, shop or other workplace. Federal and state occupational rules set an exposure limit for carbon monoxide in air; they do not require a detector to be installed, and this row is about installation. Section 915.1.1 of the 2021 International Building Code, which the Division of Fire Prevention has adopted under TCA 68-120-101, reaches Group I-1, I-2, I-4 and R occupancies and classrooms in Group E occupancies, with no Group B, F, M or S. Tennessee own carbon monoxide provisions are narrower still: TCA 68-120-112 makes it unlawful to own or operate a hotel with a carbon monoxide source without an approved alarm within ten feet of each room used for sleeping, and 68-120-101(a)(10) applies the same ten feet to construction on or after 1 January 2016, both measured from sleeping rooms an office does not have.

When Are CO Alarms Required?

Buildings with fuel-burning appliances
New construction
Fireplace and other features emitting carbon monoxide as a byproduct of combustion are explicit statutory triggers in cited Tennessee materials.
Existing-building and effective-date language in cited bills distinguishes legacy and newer-building pathways.

Where to Install CO Alarms

Approved alarms must be installed within 10 feet of each room used for sleeping in covered Tennessee hotel and rental scenarios.

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

Device Requirements

Devices are listed to nationally recognized laboratory standards including ANSI UL 2034 or ANSI UL 2075 in cited Tennessee sources.
Combination smoke and carbon monoxide devices are allowed when applicable listing standards for both functions are satisfied.
Installation follows NFPA standards or manufacturer directions unless conflicting law language controls.
Allowed power pathways in cited Tennessee materials include hardwired, monitored battery, and qualifying plug-in approaches.

Landlord and Tenant Responsibilities

Landlord: Owners and operators of covered one-family and two-family rental units must provide required approved alarms in statutory trigger scenarios. Provision: Amendments to Tennessee Code section 68-120-112.

Tenant: Occupants must not tamper with or remove required smoke or carbon monoxide alarm devices. Provision: Amendments to Tennessee Code section 68-120-112.

Short-term rental treatment should be confirmed against the exact statutory definitions applicable to the specific property type.

Full Tennessee landlord and tenant carbon monoxide duties, with citations

Enforcement

Enforced by: Local code and fire officials plus statutory enforcement mechanisms for unlawful operation in covered Tennessee contexts.

Enforcement typically occurs:

During inspections and enforcement actions for covered rental and hotel occupancies.
During complaint, incident, or licensing-related review where required alarms are missing or non-operational.

What a Tenant Can Do in Tennessee

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

"Via general law" means the Tennessee 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 Tennessee, with the citation or the body of law searched for each.
Rent withholding	No provision foundSearched: T.C.A. Title 66, Chapter 28, Part 5 (Enforcement and Remedies), sections 66-28-501 through 66-28-523, read for any provision letting a tenant withhold or escrow rent. The act gives damages, injunctive relief and attorney's fees under 66-28-501, and a narrow deduction under 66-28-502 for procuring essential services, and it stops there. No provision grants a withholding or escrow right and none forbids one, so this is silence rather than a bar. Compare South Carolina, which built the same act and wrote an express restriction into its essential-services section.
Repair and deduct	No provision foundSearched: T.C.A. Title 66, Chapter 28, Part 5, sections 66-28-501 through 66-28-523, including the essential-services provision at 66-28-502. The only deduction the chapter allows is under 66-28-502, where a tenant may procure essential services during the landlord's noncompliance and take the actual and reasonable cost off the rent. Essential services are heat, water, hot water, electricity and gas, so a carbon monoxide alarm sits outside the one deduction Tennessee offers, and no general repair-and-deduct provision exists to fall back on.
Right to end the lease	Via general lawT.C.A. 66-28-501. Available on fourteen days' written notice, and the section confirms it from the other end by requiring the landlord to return all prepaid rent and security deposits recoverable under 66-28-301 once the agreement terminates for noncompliance. A tenant who instead proceeds under 66-28-503 for fire or casualty damage gives up 66-28-501 as to that breach.
Notice the tenant must give	Via general lawT.C.A. 66-28-501. Fourteen days' written notice is the gateway to every remedy in the section, damages and injunctive relief included, so a Tennessee tenant cannot sue first and notify later. No minimum form is prescribed beyond writing.
Landlord cure period	Via general law, 14 daysT.C.A. 66-28-501. Fourteen days from the written notice, running as a single clock rather than the severity tiers Arizona and Washington use. Nothing in the section shortens it for a hazard, so a dead carbon monoxide alarm and a broken cabinet door mature on the same day.

Applies to every row above:Read this row as the law of seventeen counties rather than the law of Tennessee. The Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act is a URLTA adoption, but 66-28-102 applies it only in counties with a population of more than 75,000 according to the 2010 federal census: Anderson, Blount, Bradley, Davidson, Hamilton, Knox, Madison, Maury, Montgomery, Rutherford, Sevier, Shelby, Sullivan, Sumner, Washington, Williamson and Wilson. The census year is fixed in the statute, so the list does not move when a county grows. Putnam passed 75,000 in the 2020 count and is still outside the act. Tennessee is the only state in the fifty-one whose landlord-tenant act switches on by county population; Kentucky is the only other partial act and it turns instead on whether a city or county chose to adopt it, which no statute records. A tenant in any other Tennessee county falls back on Title 66 Chapter 7 and the lease, and none of the five values below reaches them. The same section preempts the field where the act does apply, so a covered county cannot add to it either. This is the local-option pattern the playbook warns about, and Tennessee is its clearest case in the fifty-one.

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

What Tennessee Requires in Lodging

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

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

Operator duty: Owners and managers of covered hotels must install and maintain approved alarms within required sleeping-room distance.

Full Tennessee hotel and short-term rental requirements

Penalties for Non-Compliance

The classification is settled and it is in the carbon monoxide section itself rather than in a general enforcement provision. TCA 68-120-112(e)(1): "A violation of this section is a Class C misdemeanor. Each day on which a violation continues constitutes a separate offense under this section." Tennessee fixes what a Class C misdemeanor costs at TCA 40-35-111(e)(3), not greater than thirty days or a fine not to exceed $50, or both, unless another statute says otherwise, and 68-120-112 says nothing otherwise. So the headline figure is small and the per-day clause is what makes it bite: a hotel that leaves a required alarm out for a season is not facing one $50 penalty but one for every day the condition lasted. Subsection (e)(2) routes enforcement through TCA 68-120-106, and (d)(4) preserves any other applicable law or ordinance on top.

TCA 68-120-112(e)(1) for the Class C misdemeanor and the per-day rule, with (e)(2) routing enforcement to TCA 68-120-106. The $50 and thirty-day maxima come from TCA 40-35-111(e)(3), which governs the class unless the defining statute displaces it, and 68-120-112 does not.

Additional Notes

Whether a statewide Tennessee rule reaches an owner-occupied house is not established here, and the useful half of that is knowing why. Both carbon monoxide provisions Tennessee wrote by statute name hotels and nothing else: Section 68-120-112 makes it unlawful to own or operate a hotel with a fossil-fuel-burning heater, appliance or fireplace without an approved alarm within ten feet of each room used for sleeping, and Section 68-120-101(a)(10)(A) does the same for hotel construction begun on or after 1 January 2016, wired to the building supply with secondary battery backup. Neither reaches a dwelling. The instrument that would decide a house is therefore the other half of 68-120-101, whose standards "apply to municipal, county, state and private buildings, including one-family and two-family dwellings, unless otherwise provided by statute", and specifically which edition of the residential code those standards adopt, since a carbon monoxide duty for a house would arrive through that code rather than through the statute. What refused is every Tennessee publishing host: tn.gov resets the connection on the Fire Marshal's adopted-codes pages, publications.tnsosfiles.com answers 403 on the codes rule, and capitol.tn.gov could not be connected to at all. FindLaw does serve the statutes, which is how the hotel-only reading above was established, and it does not carry the adoption rule. What the answer would change for you: it decides whether a Tennessee homeowner building or substantially altering a house owes an alarm at all, and if they do, whether their county is one of those that has exempted itself from the residential standards by the two-thirds vote Section 68-120-101 allows, which decides whether anybody inspects it.
Operators should verify current codified wording with local enforcing authorities before final policy publication.

Local Rules That Differ From State Law

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

Memphis

Memphis counts floors where the statute counts sleeping rooms. Section 5-44-6(C) makes every short-term rental owner install approved carbon monoxide detectors on every habitable floor, and subsection (B) does the same for smoke alarms in all sleeping areas and every room along the escape route. The state rule reaches a covered rental only where the unit has something emitting carbon monoxide, a fuel-burning appliance or a fireplace, and then places the alarm within ten feet of each sleeping room. The Memphis subsection carries no such trigger and no such measurement: it asks for a detector per floor from every registered short-term rental, which in a three-storey house means three where the statute might ask for one. The duty rides on the permit under Chapter 5-44, and Section 5-44-7 revokes that permit after three court findings of violation. Added by Ordinance No. 5856 on 21 March 2023.

Memphis City Code Section 5-44-6(C), Chapter 5-44 Short Term Rental Ordinance, Ord. No. 5856 section 7, 21 March 2023 Checked 2026-08-10.

Knoxville

Knoxville makes the alarm a sworn condition of the permit and then prints a looser number than the statute, which is a trap for anyone who reads only the city form. Section 16-612(2) requires an affidavit of life safety compliance with the application for a short-term rental operating permit, listing a smoke alarm inside each sleeping room and on every storey including basements, a fire extinguisher, and a carbon monoxide detector within fifteen feet of all bedrooms. Every device has to sound on its test button, the affidavit has to state the number, location and working order of each one, and the equipment is subject to verification or inspection. Operating without any of the three is unlawful in itself. Note the distance. Tennessee's statute puts the alarm within ten feet of each room used for sleeping in the units it covers, so an operator who satisfies the fifteen-foot affidavit can still be short of the statute; where both apply the tighter figure is the one that governs. What Knoxville adds is that the duty attaches to every permitted short-term rental, with no fuel-burning trigger to argue about, and that somebody has to swear to it.

Knoxville Code of Ordinances Section 16-612(2)(b), Chapter 16 Article XV Short Term Rental Units, Division 2 Checked 2026-08-10.

What was checked:Seven jurisdictions read on 2026-08-10, chosen to cover both halves of the Tennessee question: the four largest cities, Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville and Chattanooga, and the three towns that hold the state's short-term rental market, Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and Sevierville. Memphis and Knoxville are below. Nashville and Chattanooga carry nothing, and their misses are worth naming because both look like hits in a raw count: Nashville's two carbon monoxide provisions are an air quality permit fee and an ambient standard of 35 parts per million, and eight of Chattanooga's nine are air pollution measurement procedures. A search that counts and does not read would put both cities in the table. The three Smokies towns were the reason to keep going, and none of them is on any publisher this survey uses. They sit instead with the Municipal Technical Advisory Service at the University of Tennessee, which posts every Tennessee municipal code as a single searchable document. Read that way, Gatlinburg answers 310 times for "building" and 152 for "fire" and never once for carbon monoxide, Sevierville 151 and 160 and never, Pigeon Forge 196 and 164 and never. So the three towns that host most of the state's cabin rentals leave the question to the statute, and the two cities that have written something are inland. Smaller Tennessee municipalities were not searched, though the same MTAS route would reach all of them.

Local sweep last reviewed 2026-08-10.

Official Sources & References

Tennessee State Fire Marshal Office, currently adopted codes , The list of adopted codes and editions (state code, accessed 2026-08-24)
The edition control for the Tennessee answers below, read on 2026-08-24 through r.jina.ai. The office lists the International Building, Fire, Existing Building, Fuel Gas, Mechanical, Plumbing, Property Maintenance and commercial Energy Conservation codes at their 2021 editions, the International Residential Code at 2018, the National Electrical Code at 2017, and NFPA 101, Life Safety Code, at its 2021 edition. The rules filed with the Secretary of State became effective 17 April 2025, with plans admissible under the previous codes for a further 120 days to 15 August 2025. A search summary read on the same day asserted the 2024 editions; the office own list and the filing notice both say 2021, so the 2024 reading is rejected. NFPA 101 is the instrument the schools answer above had never named, and it is why that answer now carries a second route.
Tennessee General Assembly HA0282 amending HB1308 and SB0647 , Amendments to Tennessee Code section 68-120-112 (state code, accessed 2026-02-17)
Hotel-oriented carbon monoxide alarm trigger, placement distance, installation, and power option language.
Tennessee General Assembly SB0525 , Amendments to Tennessee Code section 68-102-151 (state code, accessed 2026-02-17)
One-family and two-family rental unit carbon monoxide alarm requirements and definitions.
Tennessee General Assembly HB1020 , Amendments affecting short-term rental treatment in related fire-safety framework (state code, accessed 2026-02-17)
Source used to evaluate how short-term rental units are addressed in applicable Tennessee pathways.
Tennessee Code Annotated, official publisher portal (§ 68-120-112) , 68-120-112 (secondary index, accessed 2026-02-17)
Tennessee contracts exclusively with LexisNexis for official statute publication; no .gov domain hosts codified text. This .gov page links to the state-designated publisher portal.
Milligan University official statement, Carbon Monoxide Incident Update (February 6, 2026) , Steve Lacy Fieldhouse incident chronology, detector-failure disclosure, third-party safety review (secondary index, accessed 2026-05-17)
First-party institutional statement confirming the February 4, 2026 leak, the evacuation of Steve Lacy Fieldhouse, and the disclosure that the installed CO detectors did not alarm. Milligan also commits to a third-party investigation of the alarm-system failure and broader safety-protocol review.
WCYB-TV (Tri-Cities, TN), Milligan University fieldhouse CO leak reporting , Incident-day evacuation and Ballad Health treatment numbers (secondary index, accessed 2026-05-17)
Local-broadcast record corroborating the more-than-200 hospital evaluations across the Ballad Health network (Johnson City Medical Center, Niswonger Children's, Sycamore Shoals, Franklin Woods, Holston Valley, Greeneville Community, Bristol Regional).
Tenn. Code Ann. 68-120-101, statewide building construction safety standards, applicability to one- and two-family dwellings and the two-thirds opt-out, with the hotel carbon monoxide provision at (a)(10) (state code, accessed 2026-08-22)

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 statewide mandatory in Tennessee rentals?

For covered rental scenarios, yes. Tennessee statutory amendments in section 68-102-151 make operation unlawful when one-family or two-family rental units with qualifying carbon monoxide source conditions lack approved alarms within required sleeping-room distance. The compliance control is occupancy and trigger analysis before lease-up, not a generic checklist copied across all building types. Tennessee property files should keep statute citations, installation records, and maintenance actions for each unit. Operators should also retain tenant notice and correction timelines for every documented deficiency.

Where must covered Tennessee alarms be installed?

The cited Tennessee framework for covered hotel and rental scenarios uses a 10-foot placement distance from each room used for sleeping. Installation must follow statutory language together with NFPA or manufacturer directions where applicable. Operators should verify bedroom-by-bedroom placement and record exact device locations in inspection packets. Tennessee teams that keep room-level placement evidence and section references are better positioned for enforcement review and post-incident documentation. This approach supports smoother audit response during turnover.

What penalty posture should Tennessee operators assume?

Cited Tennessee statutes characterize covered noncompliance as unlawful, which creates direct enforcement risk even when one simple statewide fine table is not stated in the bill materials used here. Operators should treat violations as high priority and correct deficiencies quickly. The safest approach is section-linked remediation records, inspection follow-up notes, and legal review of current codified language for each jurisdiction. Tennessee compliance notices should cite sections 68-120-112 and 68-102-151 when relevant.

How should Tennessee hotel managers run ongoing compliance?

Managers should maintain a recurring process for installation verification, testing cadence, deficiency correction, and documentation of alarm operability in covered guestrooms and sleeping contexts. Tennessee sources emphasize approved alarms, required distance placement, and accepted power pathways in statutory language. A property-level log should connect each device to room number, test date, and corrective action history. This workflow reduces enforcement risk and strengthens defensibility during complaints or incident investigations. Teams should keep these logs aligned with section-level citation references.

For Tennessee all-electric units, what trigger review is still required before exemption?

Not always. Tennessee applicability is occupancy-specific and tied to statutory trigger features, so exemption conclusions should be made only after reviewing the exact covered condition language for the property class. Owners should avoid blanket assumptions and request local interpretation where occupancy definitions or source conditions are unclear. Tennessee records should preserve written rationale for exemption decisions and identify the section used to support that outcome. Keep exemption determinations with inspection and turnover documentation.

How does Tennessee compare with Kentucky compliance workflows?

Tennessee uses occupancy-specific statutory pathways for rentals and hotels, while Kentucky operators may follow a different statewide and local implementation mix depending on building class. Regional teams should not merge the two into one default policy template. For cross-state process mapping, review Kentucky CO detector laws and compare trigger conditions, role allocation, and enforcement checkpoints. Tennessee teams should preserve statutory citations separately from Kentucky code notes in all regional SOP documentation.

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