By Jeff Hughes, Managing Forensic Expert, (El Segundo, CA)
A single-family rental home in Los Angeles County. A grill was brought indoors to warm tortillas because the
unit had no heater. One tenant died; the other was left with permanent kidney damage, heart damage, and
cognitive impairment. The question at the center of the case was whether there was a working carbon
monoxide alarm in that unit on the night it mattered.
The incident happened on January 7, 2023. California law requires CO alarms in rental units under Health
and Safety Code Section 17926.1 and the 2019 California Residential Building Code. The landlord claimed
alarms were installed before the incident. Aperture was retained to test that claim against the physical
evidence.
WHAT THE INSPECTION FOUND.
Aperture inspected the unit in March 2024 and found three alarms, none of which supported the landlord’s
timeline. The alarm above the entry door was manufactured in November 2023, ten months after the death.
Two other alarms were manufactured in September 2022, about a month after the tenants moved in. No
bracket marks, screw holes, wall impressions, or junction boxes showed that an earlier alarm had ever been
mounted. All three ran on batteries, not hardwired power, even though hardwired alarms are required once a
building’s occupancy changes under the state code.
Aperture also purchased and tested the specific alarm models the defendants claimed to have installed and
checked what was actually available for purchase in 2022 to see if the claimed timeline was even possible.
WHAT THE PAPERWORK SHOWED.
The lease and move-in checklist never mentioned CO alarms. A receipt from July 2022 showed that alarms
had been purchased, but it didn’t tie that purchase to this unit. A December 2022 text message referenced
buying alarms for “the three houses,” with no delivery record or installation photo to back it up.
THE CODE VIOLATION NOBODY DISCLOSED.
The landlord had converted the single-family home into a duplex without permits, a licensed contractor, or a
design professional. That conversion triggered a code requirement for hardwired alarms that was never met,
and the unit was never registered as a rental with Los Angeles County, so it never went through the inspection
that might have caught the gap.
THE FINDINGS.
No physical or documentary evidence placed a working CO alarm in the unit on the night of the incident. The
defendants’ account did not hold up against manufacturing dates, receipts, or the condition of the walls, and
it sat inside a broader pattern of code and permitting noncompliance. A working alarm would have changed
the outcome.
WHAT THIS CASE ILLUSTRATES.
Unpermitted unit conversions are common in Southern California’s high-demand rental market, and they
routinely skip the safety upgrades that a change in occupancy is supposed to trigger, hardwired alarms being
one of the most frequent gaps. Landlords rarely dispute that an alarm should have been there. They dispute
whether one was, and that is usually where the case turns.
Two facts are worth checking early in any similar matter. A manufacturing date is stamped at the factory and
can’t be altered to fit a story. And the absence of physical installation evidence, no bracket marks, no screw
holes, no wall impressions, is itself evidence. For attorneys evaluating a CO or smoke alarm claim, the
paperwork the landlord produces is only the starting point. The alarm itself, and the wall it was supposedly
attached to, often tell the more reliable story.
Jeff Hughes is a licensed general contractor and certified building inspector who has investigated more than
5,000 construction-related dispute cases across California, including habitability, premises liability, and
building code compliance matters like this one. He is based in Aperture’s El Segundo office and works with
attorneys and adjusters throughout Southern California.
If you have a matter involving landlord liability, missing or defective life safety equipment, or a habitability
dispute, contact Jeff Hughes directly or submit a consultation request through Aperture’s website.
