Delaware Code Title 16. Health and Safety § 6631. Smoke detectors required

(a) Each owner of a residential occupancy, used wholly or in part as a home, residence, dwelling or sleeping place for 1 or more persons, either permanent or transient, including but not limited to any 1-family and 2-family dwelling, mobile home, modular home, townhouse;  lodging, rooming or boarding house;  hotel, motel, bed and breakfast facility;  dormitory, apartment or multi-family dwelling;  board and care facility;  or a residential occupancy by any other name, be it rented, leased or owned, shall install, within such occupancy, smoke detection devices and/or smoke detection systems, either photo-electric or ionization types, capable of automatically sensing visible or invisible particles or products of combustion, and which activate an alarm sufficiently audible to warn the occupants of the building of an impending danger of fire or hazard to life.

(b) The requirement for the installation of smoke detecting devices and/or smoke detection systems as provided for in this section shall apply to all new and existing occupancies, buildings and/or structures listed in subsection (a) of this section, regardless of when any such occupancy, building or structure was built.

(c) It shall be the responsibility of the owner of a residential occupancy listed in subsection (a) of this section to install and maintain smoke detection devices as required by this chapter, with the following exception:  Where there is a tenant of a rented or leased occupancy, structure or building required to have smoke detection devices and/or smoke detection systems, as required in this subchapter, and the rental, lease agreement or contract is for a period of 1 month or more, such tenant shall be responsible for the maintenance of any smoke detection devices, with respect to maintaining an operable battery in the smoke detection device, within the individual rented or leased unit.

(d) All smoke detection devices and/or smoke detection systems which are required to be installed under this subchapter shall be installed in accordance with the applicable provisions of the State Fire Prevention Regulations.

(e) When the standards of the State Fire Prevention Regulations and the building codes change with respect to the number and location of smoke detectors in new construction, such standards shall be the minimum to be utilized for determining compliance with this statute for new construction.  A listing of all updated standards and their effective dates shall be maintained in the State Fire Marshal's Office.

(f) It shall not be the duty of a real estate salesperson or broker, licensed under Chapter 29 of Title 24 to verify the compliance of any person or residential occupancy with the provisions of this subchapter.