Illinois Law Requires Carbon Monoxide Detectors

Effective Jan. 1, 2007, the Illinois Carbon Monoxide Alarm Detector Act requires Illinois homeowners and landlords to install carbon monoxide detectors in all buildings containing bedrooms and sleeping facilities. Every dwelling unit (including single-family residences, multiple-family residences, and mixed-use buildings) are required to have at least one approved carbon monoxide alarm in an operating condition within 15 feet of every room used for sleeping purposes. Alarms can be battery-powered, plug-in with battery backup or wired into the AC power line with a secondary battery backup. The alarm can be combined with smoke detecting devices if the combined unit complies with specific standards and the alarm differentiates the hazard.

The owner must supply and install all required alarms. A landlord must ensure that the alarms are operable on the date of initiation of a lease. The tenant is responsible for testing and maintaining the alarm after the lease begins. The landlord is also required to furnish each tenant per dwelling unit with written information regarding alarm testing and maintenance. Willful failure to install or maintain in operating condition any alarm is a Class B criminal misdemeanor.

The Act does exempt certain residential units from the requirement. Those residential units in a building that (1) does not rely on combustion of fossil fuel for heat, ventilation or hot water; (2) is not connected to a garage; and (3) is not sufficiently close to any ventilated source of carbon monoxide to receive carbon monoxide from that source OR a residential unit that is not sufficiently close to any source of carbon monoxide so as to be at risk of receiving carbon monoxide from that source, as determined by the local building commissioner, shall not require carbon monoxide detectors.