Compliance & responsibility
The clause that commits you to cleaning the extract system is usually buried in the repairing covenant - and it rarely uses the word 'duct'. Here is how to find and read it.
The short answer
A commercial lease rarely says 'clean the duct every six months' in plain words. The obligation almost always lives inside the repairing and maintenance covenant - the clause requiring you to keep the premises and its services in good and substantial repair and condition. Kitchen extract systems fall under that as a service installation. A growing number of catering leases go further and add an explicit clause requiring the extract system to be maintained to TR19 Grease and cleaned at stated intervals. Both types bind you; the explicit one just removes the argument.
The clauses that matter
The repairing covenant is first. Read whether extract ductwork sits with you as a service installation, and whether the landlord retains structure and shared services - in a multi-let building the vertical riser duct may be theirs while your horizontal run is yours. An explicit compliance clause is second: look for any reference to TR19, kitchen extract cleaning, BESA standards or a named cleaning frequency, because that converts a general duty into a specific, enforceable one.
Audit rights are third. Many modern leases give the landlord the right to inspect the extract system or demand sight of your TR19 certificates - failing to produce them becomes a breach in itself. Dilapidations and reinstatement are fourth, and the most expensive to miss: an end-of-term clause requiring the system returned clean and certified can leave you funding a full remedial clean of years of accumulated grease at the exact moment you are trying to leave.
What a breach actually costs
TR19 Grease is a BESA specification, not legislation - but a lease clause that references it makes it contractually binding on you regardless. Breach the clause and the consequences are civil: the landlord can require the work done, recover the cost, treat it as a breach of covenant, and in serious cases pursue forfeiture. Because the same uncleaned system also breaches the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and can invalidate insurance, one neglected clause tends to trigger three separate exposures at once.
The practical read is simple. If the lease names TR19 or a frequency, meet it exactly and keep every certificate. If it only has a general repairing covenant, the safest interpretation is still to clean the whole system to TR19 on a risk-based schedule, because that is the standard a court, insurer or fire officer will measure 'good repair and condition' against.
Meeting the clause
Whatever your clause says, the way to satisfy it is a documented full-system clean to TR19 Grease with a registered certificate you can hand to the landlord on request. That single document answers a repairing covenant, an explicit TR19 clause and an audit right in one - and builds the history you will need at dilapidations. Keep them from day one of the term, not from the first time you are asked.
Questions
Usually inside the repairing and maintenance covenant, which requires you to keep the premises and its service installations in good repair and condition. Extract ductwork is a service installation. Some leases add an explicit TR19 or cleaning-frequency clause on top.
Yes. TR19 Grease is a BESA specification, not legislation, but referencing it in a lease makes it a contractual obligation the landlord can enforce against you like any other covenant.
A clause letting the landlord inspect the extract system or demand your TR19 certificates. If you cannot produce compliant records when asked, that failure is itself a breach of the lease.
End-of-term clauses often require the system returned clean and certified. That can make you responsible for a full remedial clean of the whole tenancy's grease build-up on exit, so keeping certificates throughout the term is the cheapest protection.
Treat 'good repair and condition' as meaning TR19-compliant cleaning on a risk-based schedule. That is the standard an insurer, fire officer or court will measure the clause against, so meeting it protects you even without an explicit reference.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
Tell us what your lease says about the extract system and we will scope a clean that satisfies it.