Dealing with Local Authority Enforcement – Section 2.27

Failure to comply with smoke and carbon monoxide alarm requirements

The Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (England) Regulations 2015 (principally regulations 4, 5, 6 and 8, as amended by the Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (Amendment) Regulations 2022)

A breach
Maximum penalty – £5,000 for each failure to comply with a remedial notice.

Notes

Each local housing authority must prepare and publish a statement of principles explaining how it will determine the amount of a penalty charge. The amount and any reduction for prompt payment will therefore depend upon the relevant council’s published policy.

Find out more about the obligation to fit the alarms in the FAQ here.

Enforcement procedure

A council cannot normally impose a penalty charge merely because the alarm requirements have been breached. It must first serve the landlord with a remedial notice specifying the work required.

The landlord normally has 28 days from service of the notice to comply. Written representations can be made to the council within that period. The notice is suspended while those representations are considered.

A landlord will not be in breach if they can show that they took all reasonable steps, other than legal proceedings, to comply. If access is refused, landlords should keep detailed records of their attempts to arrange access, including correspondence with the tenant and any contractor.

If the council is satisfied on the balance of probabilities that the landlord has not complied, it may serve a penalty charge notice for up to £5,000. The amount will be determined under the council’s published statement of principles.

Landlords receiving a remedial notice should:

deal with it immediately;
check the deadline and precisely what work is required;
make representations promptly if the notice is incorrect;
retain dated photographs, invoices and correspondence showing compliance; and
send the council written confirmation and evidence when the work has been completed.

A landlord can ask the council to review a penalty charge notice. If the penalty is confirmed or varied, the landlord can appeal to the First-tier Tribunal. The notice itself should explain the applicable procedure and deadlines.

Each separate failure to comply with a remedial notice can result in a further penalty. Previous failures may also lead to a higher penalty under the council’s published policy.

Continuing or repeated breaches

These do not apply to this breach.

Case Law

32 Sutherland Road, Normanton, Derby, DE23 8RW
18 August 2026

Here, the First Tier Tribunal upheld two £1,500 penalties for failure to comply with remedial notices concerning a carbon-monoxide alarm.

The landlords produced evidence that an alarm had been installed during refurbishment in 2023. That did not establish that it remained present when the council inspected in May and July 2024. The tribunal emphasised that:

a bathroom counts as living accommodation for these regulations, so
the bathroom containing the boiler required an alarm;
the landlord’s duty continues throughout the tenancy—it is not confined to checking at commencement; and
even if a tenant removes or misplaces an alarm, that does not extinguish the landlord’s duty.

The council eventually installed the alarm itself.

This case demonstrates that landlords need a system for checking alarms during the tenancy and must respond directly to a remedial notice, with dated evidence demonstrating compliance. An old installation invoice will not prove present compliance.

View the decision.