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Many laws and legal requirements govern your lease agreement when you are party to a commercial lease. Most of these details will be in your commercial lease agreement, and others in statutory law. A key area that you, as a commercial tenant, should always be aware of is the health and safety legal requirements in a UK commercial lease. Your health and safety, as well as those employees who work for your business, is paramount. In addition, the health and safety of those who visit your business premises is essential. This article will explore three key points for tenants about health and safety legal requirements in a UK commercial lease.
1. Responsibilities
A crucial point for a commercial tenant to understand about the health and safety legal requirements in a commercial lease is that you must know what each party is responsible for. You can do this by checking your lease agreement. It is also advisable to ask your property solicitor when negotiating the commercial lease.
Lease agreements will usually detail the following:
- fire safety is a commercial tenant’s responsibility;
- safety and maintenance of electrical wiring is a landlord’s responsibility, and they must carry out a certified safety check before you lease from them;
- the electrical safety of appliances falls to the person who provides them for the property, which means that the party carrying out a risk assessment;
- gas heating equipment in common areas of a commercial building is the landlord’s responsibility;
- gas water heaters landlords supply tenants are the former’s responsibility to carry out the yearly safety checks; and
- gas appliances, pipe works, and flues in a tenant’s commercial building are their responsibility.
If you lease an older commercial property, for example, before the 1980s, it could contain asbestos, which is dangerous to lung health. If it does, or you suspect it does, a risk assessment will need to take place and action taken as a result. Again, you must check your commercial lease agreement to see if this responsibility falls to you or your commercial landlord. However, a pivotal point to be aware of is that if it is unclear, it is the legal responsibility of whichever party has the ‘greatest degree of control’ of the commercial building.
This cheat sheet outlines what you should be aware of in your lease agreement.
2. Risk Assessments
Health and safety legal requirements in commercial leases for a commercial tenant include the need to carry out risk assessments. This applies to fire safety and electrical safety, but the lease agreement will state if fire safety is your responsibility. Risk assessments help ensure that you know where problems could lie. Accordingly, they allow you to rectify these as best you can to keep yourself and others on your commercial property safe.
Risk assessments for fire risks and electrical risks include the following:
- assessing fire risks in your commercial property; and
- assessing the electrical equipment you plan to use in the commercial premises and ensuring none of it has the potential to cause harm or is faulty.
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3. Enforcement
As the tenant, you are responsible for enforcing the health and safety laws. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is the government body responsible for enforcing these laws where people do not abide by them. This includes you as a commercial tenant.
As a business owner, you will likely have employees working for you on your business premises. You have a legal duty to keep them healthy and safe at work. Where your commercial property does not comply with the health and safety legal requirements, you put your employees at risk. If you are negligent and allow an accident to occur, the HSE may apply strict penalties to you, which can include:
- an unlimited fine; or/and
- two years in prison.
Key Takeaways
As a commercial tenant, you must know the health and safety legal requirements of your commercial lease. You have legal responsibilities for some health and safety issues, including those who work for your business. Your commercial landlord also has legal responsibility in your lease for health and safety issues. This article has explained three key points for tenants about health and safety requirements in a commercial lease. It starts by outlining which party has legal responsibility for which health and safety aspects. The article then explains the risk assessments you have to carry out as a tenant for health and safety, such as those for fire safety and electrical safety. The final point in the article for tenants about health and safety legal requirements in a commercial lease is about enforcing health and safety laws.
If you need help understanding health and safety legal requirements in a UK commercial lease, our experienced leasing lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents for a low monthly fee. So call us today on 0808 196 8584 or visit our membership page.
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