Commercial Tenant Compliance Responsibilities: What Is Yours Once You Have the Keys
- As the employer in the premises you are the responsible person for fire safety in your demise, including the fire risk assessment.
- The electrical installation and gas appliances in your demise are yours to maintain, evidenced by an EICR and a gas safety record.
- Portable equipment and the water outlets you control are yours too: PAT testing and a legionella assessment for the systems within the demise.
- Your landlord keeps the structure, common parts and shared plant. Ask for their certificates and give them yours.
Taking a commercial lease moves more than the rent onto your desk. The moment your staff are working in the unit you are the employer in it, and the fire, electrical, gas and water safety law is written around the employer. The landlord owns the building; you control the space. Control is what the law follows. This guide sets out what is yours, what stays with the landlord and how to be sure.
Fire safety: you are the responsible person
Under the Fire Safety Order the responsible person for a workplace is the employer. That is you, for the space you occupy. You need a recorded fire risk assessment for your demise, extinguishers serviced annually, any alarm and emergency lighting within your space maintained, escape routes kept clear and staff trained. The landlord covers the common parts and should give you the information you need about the building's fire strategy. Start with the fire risk assessment.
Electrical: the installation and the appliances
Regulation 4 of the Electricity at Work Regulations puts the duty to maintain electrical systems on the employer. In practice the fixed wiring in your demise, from your distribution board onwards, is yours to inspect, typically every five years with an EICR. Everything you plug in is covered by the same duty and handled through PAT testing at risk-based intervals. If the landlord supplied the installation, ask for the last EICR at the start of the term and keep it.
Gas: appliances in your space
If there is a boiler, water heater or catering equipment in your demise, regulation 35 of the Gas Safety Regulations makes you, as employer, responsible for keeping it safe. An annual inspection by a Gas Safe registered engineer with commercial categories, recorded on a CP17 or CP42, is the recognised standard. Central plant that serves the whole building usually stays with the landlord. See commercial gas safety.
Water: legionella in your demise
The legionella duty follows control of the water system. If your unit has its own hot water, showers or little-used outlets, the risk assessment for those is yours. The landlord covers shared tanks, calorifiers and risers. In a small office with a single kitchen and toilets the assessment is short, but it has to exist. See legionella risk assessment.
Check the unit you occupy
Seven questions about your premises and we list every duty that sits with you, with a quote for each.
Asbestos: your fit-out, their fabric
In a pre-2000 building the duty to manage asbestos sits with whoever has the maintenance obligation. Under most leases that means the landlord for the structure and you for your fit-out and any alterations you make. Before any works in your demise, ask the landlord for the asbestos register, and commission a refurbishment survey of the areas you will disturb. See asbestos surveys.
The general duty and the paperwork
Behind the specific duties sits the employer's general duty under the Health and Safety at Work Act to assess and manage risks to staff and visitors, which HSE expects to be recorded for any business with five or more employees. Keep every certificate and report together, give the landlord copies of what they ask for, and get copies of theirs. At lease end those records also feed the dilapidations conversation, because a well-maintained unit is easier to hand back.
Checking the unit you occupy
The free compliance check asks seven questions about your premises and lists every duty that applies, tagged as legal or recommended. Untick anything the landlord covers and get a quote for the rest.
Sources & further reading
- GOV.UK: workplace fire safety, your responsibilities — the employer as responsible person
- Electricity at Work Regulations 1989, regulation 4 — duties on employers for electrical systems
- Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, regulation 35 — the employer’s gas maintenance duty
- HSE: managing risks and risk assessment at work — the employer’s general duty
External links open in a new tab. ComSurv is a matching service, not a firm of surveyors, and is not affiliated with these organisations. This article is general information, not legal, surveying or valuation advice; take advice on your specific situation.
