Does Texas Require CO Detectors? Child Care and Local Codes
Last verified: August 26, 2026
Texas carbon monoxide detector laws do not create a blanket statewide requirement for all homes. The main statewide mandate is Human Resources Code Section 42.060, which requires detectors in licensed child-care operations.
For most homes, rentals, and hotels, obligations come from local adoption of building and fire codes such as IRC R315 or IFC provisions. Owners should verify the code edition in the specific city or county, document inspection outcomes, and treat CO alarms as a baseline safety control even where not explicitly mandated.
This approach reduces liability exposure and keeps portfolios aligned with changing local code adoption.
Key Takeaways
| Applies to homes? | No |
|---|---|
| Applies to rentals? | No |
| Applies to hotels/STRs? | Yes, under a condition |
| Applies to schools? | Not established here |
| Applies to workplaces? | No |
Schools and workplaces
Schools: not established here. Texas points at a school facility standard rather than writing one into the code, and that standard was not read. Three instruments were checked. Tex. Loc. Gov't Code 214.216(a) makes the International Building Code as it existed on 1 May 2012 the municipal commercial building code, and Section 908.7 of that edition requires alarms in Group I or R occupancies where the building holds a fuel-burning appliance or has an attached garage, with no Group E limb at all, so the building-code route reaches no classroom. Texas Human Resources Code 42.060 does require carbon monoxide detectors in each day-care centre, group day-care home and family home in accordance with department rules, which is a real duty over a building used for the care of children. But it then exempts a day-care centre located in a school facility that is subject to the school facility standards adopted by the commissioner of education under Section 46.008 of the Education Code, or similar safety standards adopted by a local school district board. So Texas own statute routes the school question to Education Code 46.008, and the standards adopted under it were not read here. What the answer would change: if those standards require carbon monoxide detection, a Texas school carries a duty that neither the building code nor the day-care statute supplies, and this row reads true or conditional; if they do not, a Texas school building has no carbon monoxide requirement while the day-care centre down the road does. Treat this as an open question rather than as an exemption.
Workplaces: Texas 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 908.7 of the 2012 International Building Code, which Tex. Loc. Gov't Code 214.216(a) makes the municipal commercial building code for the state, requires single-station carbon monoxide alarms in Group I or R occupancies where the building contains a fuel-burning appliance or has an attached garage, and names no Group B, F, M or S. That is so even though the statute itself classes a workplace as commercial: 214.211(5) defines commercial as a building occupied for a public purpose or economic gain, and 214.216(b) applies the code to all commercial buildings in a municipality, so an office is inside the code and outside the carbon monoxide section. Texas Human Resources Code 42.060 reaches day-care centres and homes.
When Are CO Alarms Required?
- Child-care facilities/operations regulated under Texas Human Resources Code Chapter 42 must have carbon monoxide detectors (see §42.060).
- Local jurisdictions that adopt the IRC/IFC (often including IRC R315) may require CO alarms in dwellings-verify the local code for the property location.
Where to Install CO Alarms
- For regulated child-care operations: placement/coverage per HHSC/DFPS child-care licensing standards and manufacturer's instructions.
- For residences: placement (if required) is determined by locally adopted building/fire codes and manufacturer's instructions.
For detailed placement guidance beyond legal requirements, see where to place carbon monoxide detectors.
Device Requirements
- Carbon monoxide detector(s) required for certain child-care operations under Texas Human Resources Code §42.060; technical specifications are implemented via licensing standards.
Landlord and Tenant Responsibilities
Landlord: Texas writes no statewide residential carbon monoxide installation duty for a landlord, and neither the homes nor the rentals answer on this page is yes. What a Texas tenant can point at comes from the local code or from the lease. Read for this answer: Tex. Prop. Code chapter 92 and Tex. Loc. Gov't Code 214.216, read for a statewide residential carbon monoxide installation duty.
Tenant: Texas writes no statewide residential carbon monoxide duty for a tenant, because it writes none for the dwelling at all. What the field carried until 2026-08-21 was manufacturer-instruction advice with no provision behind it, which is not a recorded duty. Whatever a Texas tenant owes comes from the lease or from a local code. Read for this answer: Tex. Prop. Code chapter 92 and Tex. Loc. Gov't Code 214.216, read for a statewide residential carbon monoxide duty on an occupant.
- Texas requirements shown here are statewide; local requirements can be stricter and may be the controlling rule in practice.
CO Detector Placement Check 2 min
Verify whether your CO alarms are installed in the recommended locations for your home layout.
Enforcement
Enforced by: HHSC/DFPS Child Care Regulation (for Human Resources Code §42.060); local building/fire officials for locally adopted codes.
Enforcement typically occurs:
- During child-care licensing inspections (for covered operations).
- During local plan review / permitting / inspections where local building codes are enforced.
- Residential CO-alarm rules can vary materially by city/county because Texas does not have a single statewide residential building code adoption.
What a Tenant Can Do in Texas
When a carbon monoxide alarm stops working in a rented home in Texas, these are the five routes a tenant can take and where each one comes from.
"Via general law" means the Texas 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.
| Rent withholding | NoTex. Prop. Code 92.058. The remedy list in 92.056(e) does not include withholding, and 92.058 treats it as a violation of the subchapter rather than an omission from it. Once the landlord has given written notice of the illegality of withholding and of the penalties, a tenant who withholds in bad faith is liable for a civil penalty of one month's rent plus $500 and the landlord's attorney's fees. The landlord carries a clear and convincing burden on both the notice and the bad faith, so this is a limit with a real evidentiary gate, not an automatic forfeiture. Texas is the only state in the fifty-one that prices withholding against the tenant. Four records deny the remedy, Alabama, North Carolina, Texas and Wyoming, and Texas is the only one of them that attaches a sum to doing it anyway. |
|---|---|
| Repair and deduct | Via general lawTex. Prop. Code 92.0561. Capped at one month's rent or $500, whichever is greater. The direction is the part worth having: a greater-of cap holds its floor when a month's rent falls below $500, where a lesser-of cap does not. Seven other states write it the same way round, Arizona, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri, Nevada and Virginia, and two write it the other way, Delaware and Illinois. The ceiling itself is mid-table; Massachusetts, Hawaii, Utah and Virginia all allow more. Where rent is subsidised, the cap uses the fair market rent rather than the tenant's share. At least one of the required notices must state that the tenant intends to repair or remedy the condition. |
| Right to end the lease | Via general lawTex. Prop. Code 92.056(e). Available on the same footing as the other remedies once the landlord has failed to make a diligent effort within a reasonable time. It is an election rather than an escalation: a tenant who terminates gives up repair-and-deduct and some of the judicial remedies, so the choice has to be made rather than accumulated. |
| Notice the tenant must give | Via general lawTex. Prop. Code 92.056(b). No waiting period, but a two-notice structure unless the tenant plans it well. The tenant gives notice, and after a reasonable time must give a second written notice, unless the first went by certified mail, return receipt requested, or by another tracked delivery method, which collapses the requirement to one. Choosing the delivery method at the start therefore saves a full cycle. |
| Landlord cure period | Via general law, 7 daysTex. Prop. Code 92.056(d). Seven days, as a rebuttable presumption rather than a fixed deadline. It can be rebutted in either direction on the date the notice was received, the severity and nature of the condition, and the availability of materials, labour and utilities, which is the opening for arguing that a live CO hazard needed a same-day response. |
Applies to every row above:Texas has no statewide CO alarm mandate for ordinary rentals, and Chapter 92's own device subchapter covers smoke alarms rather than CO, so a carbon monoxide problem reaches this framework only through 92.052, the duty to repair a condition that materially affects the physical health or safety of an ordinary tenant, plus whatever code the city has adopted. One condition governs the whole row and is easy to miss: under 92.056(b) every remedy below requires that the tenant was not delinquent in rent when notice was given. Read together with the withholding column, that makes Texas a pay-to-play state. A tenant who stops paying to force a repair loses the remedies and acquires a penalty.
What Texas Requires in Lodging
The Texas 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:Whether the hotel sits inside a city limit decides it. Tex. Loc. Gov't Code 214.216(a) adopts the International Building Code, as it existed on May 1, 2012, as the municipal commercial building code for the state, and 214.216(b) applies it to all commercial buildings in a municipality. Section 214.211 does the occupancy work in the statute's own words: subsection (3) writes a facility used for the accommodation of transient guests out of "residential", and subsection (5) defines "commercial" as a building occupied for a public purpose or economic gain, so a hotel is commercial rather than residential. IBC 2012 Section 908.7 then requires single-station carbon monoxide alarms in Group I or R occupancies in a building that contains a fuel-burning appliance or has an attached garage, and IBC 2012 Section 310.3 puts transient hotels and motels in R-1. Outside every municipality the chapter reaches nothing, and inside one 214.216(c)(1) lets the city adopt a local amendment that removes a code requirement, by ordinance after a public hearing under 214.216(f). Ask the city whether it has amended Section 908.7, and if the property is unincorporated the chapter never arrives.
What it turns on for a short-term rental:Whether the property sits inside a city limit decides it, and the answer lands in the same place as the hotel answer by a route no host would guess. Texas sorts buildings into two boxes and lets the guests decide which one a house goes in. Tex. Loc. Gov't Code 214.211(3) defines "residential" as having the character of a detached one- or two-family dwelling, or a multiple single-family dwelling of not more than three stories with separate means of egress, "and that does not have the character of a facility used for the accommodation of transient guests". Letting the house by the night gives it exactly that character, so it drops out of the residential box, and 214.211(5) catches it in the other one: "commercial" is a building for the use or occupation of people for a public purpose or economic gain. The consequence is that 214.212, which adopts the International Residential Code as the municipal residential building code, is not the instrument that applies. 214.216 is, adopting the International Building Code as it existed on 1 May 2012 as the municipal commercial building code and applying it to all commercial buildings in a municipality. From there the requirement is the same one a hotel meets: IBC 2012 Section 908.7 asks for single-station carbon monoxide alarms in Group I or R occupancies in a building containing a fuel-burning appliance or with an attached garage, and a dwelling let to transient guests is a Group R occupancy on any reading of Section 310. The two limits are also the same. Outside every municipality the subchapter reaches nothing at all, so an unincorporated cabin has no state requirement to meet. Inside one, 214.216(c)(1) lets the city adopt a local amendment removing a code requirement by ordinance after a public hearing under 214.216(f), so ask whether it has amended Section 908.7. The practical warning is the one the definition creates: a host who reads that Texas adopted the residential code for houses will look up the wrong code, because the moment the house takes paying guests the statute stops calling it residential.
Hotels already standing: it depends, and on a separate test from the one that decides coverage generally. Texas reaches an existing hotel when work is done to it. Tex. Loc. Gov't Code 214.216(b) applies the 2012 International Building Code to all commercial buildings in a municipality "and to any alteration, remodeling, enlargement, or repair of those commercial buildings", which attaches the duty to the work rather than to the standing building. Section 214.215 adds that a municipality adopting a building code other than the International Residential Code must also adopt either prescriptive rehabilitation provisions or the rehabilitation code accompanying its building code, and 214.215(a) defines rehabilitation as the alteration, remodeling, enlargement or repair of an existing structure. Nothing in Subchapter G imposes a retrofit date on a hotel that is simply left alone, and the municipal condition on the lodging answer carries over here in full.
Operator duty: Texas has no carbon monoxide statute written for lodging, and a hotel operator inside a city limit still has a duty, because the state adopts a code that carries one. Tex. Loc. Gov't Code 214.216(a) makes the International Building Code, as it existed on 1 May 2012, the municipal commercial building code for the state, and 214.216(b) applies it to all commercial buildings in a municipality and to any alteration, remodeling, enlargement or repair of them. The statute sorts the occupancy itself: 214.211(3) writes a facility used for the accommodation of transient guests out of "residential" and 214.211(5) defines "commercial" as a building occupied for a public purpose or economic gain, so a hotel is commercial. IBC 2012 Section 908.7 then requires single-station carbon monoxide alarms in Group I or R occupancies where the building contains a fuel-burning appliance or has an attached garage, and Section 310.3 places transient hotels and motels in Group R-1. Two things can still remove it. A property outside every municipality is beyond the chapter's reach, and a city may adopt a local amendment striking a code requirement under 214.216(c)(1), by ordinance after a public hearing under 214.216(f). Ask the city whether it has amended Section 908.7 before treating the requirement as absent.
Penalties for Non-Compliance
Texas states the consequence in the licensing chapter that carries the requirement rather than beside the requirement itself. The carbon monoxide duty for a covered child-care operation is in Human Resources Code 42.060, and Chapter 42 supplies the sanction at 42.078: the commission may impose an administrative sanction or an administrative penalty on a facility or family home that violates the chapter or a rule adopted under it. The maximum is graduated by the size of the operation. For a residential child-care facility it runs from 00 where twenty or fewer children are served to 00 above one hundred, and for the day-care category from 0 to 50 across the same bands, with the actual figure set by the seriousness of the violation, the history of previous ones and the amount needed to deter a repeat. Non-monetary sanctions such as a corrective action plan come first unless the standard breached is one the commission has designated high risk. Outside child care the picture is different and thinner: where a city has made carbon monoxide alarms a requirement of its commercial building code, the consequence is whatever that municipality attaches to a code violation, and Texas states nothing statewide.
Tex. Hum. Res. Code 42.060 for the child-care requirement and 42.078 for the administrative penalty, including the graduated maximums at 42.078(b) and (c) and the ordering rule at 42.078(a-1) and (a-2). Municipal code violations are a local matter with no statewide figure.
Additional Notes
- If you want Texas residential rules at the property level, the correct approach is to cite the local adopted IRC/IFC (or local ordinance) for the specific city/county.
Official Sources & References
- Texas Local Government Code Section 214.216, International Building Code , 214.216(a), the adopting sentence and its fixed date (state code, accessed 2026-08-26)
An edition-currency check, run on 2026-08-26 against the Legislature's own statutes site, and Texas is the one shape where an old-looking edition is the correct one. 214.216(a) reads: "To protect the public health, safety, and welfare, the International Building Code, as it existed on May 1, 2012, is adopted as a municipal commercial building code in this state." That is a statutory freeze rather than an adoption by cycle. The edition cannot drift when the code council publishes a new one, because the statute names a date rather than a code year, and only the Legislature can move it. So the ordinary question this check asks - has the state adopted a newer edition - has no purchase here, and the right question is whether the statute itself has been amended. A code catalogue serves a Texas IBC 2024 view with a window opening 1 April 2026. It belongs to a different instrument, a municipality's own adoption under the local amendment power in 214.216(c), and it does not move the state floor. - Texas Human Resources Code § 42.060, Carbon Monoxide Detectors , §42.060 (state code, accessed 2026-02-16)
State statute requiring carbon monoxide detectors for certain child-care operations regulated under Chapter 42. - NCSL, Carbon Monoxide Detector Installation Statutes (Texas row) , Texas (secondary index, accessed 2026-02-16)
Reputable cross-state index indicating Texas statewide statute coverage is limited (e.g., child-care) rather than a broad residential mandate. - Texas Human Resources Code Chapter 42 - Child-Care Regulation , Chapter 42 (state code, accessed 2026-02-17)
Parent chapter for Section 42.060 and child-care licensing enforcement structure. - Tex. Loc. Gov't Code Chapter 214, Subchapter G, Building and Rehabilitation Codes , Section 214.216 adopting the IBC as the municipal commercial building code; Section 214.211 definitions; Section 214.215 rehabilitation (state code, accessed 2026-08-05)
The instrument behind both Texas values, and it was decided on this statute without the record citing it. 214.216(a) adopts the International Building Code as it existed on 1 May 2012 as the municipal commercial building code for the state, and 214.216(b) applies it to all commercial buildings in a municipality and to any alteration, remodeling, enlargement or repair of them. 214.211(3) writes a facility used for the accommodation of transient guests out of residential and 214.211(5) puts it in commercial, so the statute does its own occupancy work. 214.216(c)(1) lets a municipality strike a code requirement by ordinance. Read at 174,402 bytes, control 214.216 at 3; statutes.capitol.texas.gov itself returns HTTP 000 to automated requests.
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 Texas have a statewide CO alarm mandate for private homes?
What does Texas Human Resources Code Section 42.060 require?
How should Texas landlords handle CO alarms in rentals?
Are all-electric homes automatically exempt in Texas?
Which local codes usually trigger Texas CO alarm requirements?
How do Texas rules compare with California statewide requirements?
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