Compliance & responsibility
Ductwork is the thing handover packs forget - until a new operator, a new owner or a fire officer needs to know what is behind the ceiling and when it was last cleaned.
The short answer
When premises change hands, are refitted or pass to a new operator, the paperwork that travels with them should include the extract system - and often does not. A handover or operation-and-maintenance pack that covers the kitchen equipment but says nothing about the ductwork behind it leaves the next responsible person blind to a fire-safety-critical asset. The route the ducts take, where the access panels are, when the system was last cleaned and to what standard: all of it belongs in the documents, because whoever takes control inherits the duty for it.
What the documents should contain
Start with the as-built drawings showing the extract system's actual route - the horizontal runs, the risers and the discharge - because a new operator cannot maintain what they cannot locate. Add a map of the access panels: where they are, and therefore which sections can be reached and which cannot. Include the most recent TR19 certificate and verification report, so the incoming party knows the current compliance position and whether the last clean was full or partial.
Then the forward-looking pieces: the cleaning schedule and the frequency it was set at, so the new operator knows when the next clean is due rather than discovering it overdue; and any outstanding recommendations from the last clean - missing panels, defects, inaccessible runs - that they will need to act on. Together these turn a blind inheritance into a briefed one, and let the new responsible person continue the compliance history rather than restart it from nothing.
Why the records must travel
This is not just good practice; the direction of travel in building safety is explicitly toward records that follow the building. Under the Fire Safety Order, when ownership or management of premises changes, fire safety records must be shared with the incoming responsible person, so a compliance history is continuous across the building's life rather than lost at every handover. The wider Building Safety Act principle of a golden thread - traceable, transparent information passed on and kept current - points the same way, and the newest standards reinforce it: ventilation should no longer be handed over uncleaned and undocumented.
For the extract system specifically, that means the certificate, the drawings, the access-panel map and the schedule are not the outgoing party's private file - they are records the incoming responsible person needs and is entitled to. A handover that includes them protects everyone: the new operator inherits a known position, the outgoing party evidences that they left the system compliant, and the building keeps an unbroken thread of proof that a fire officer or insurer can follow.
Supplying the ductwork section
The ductwork part of a handover pack is easiest to assemble when the underlying clean is current and properly documented. A full clean to TR19 Grease supplies the certificate, the verification report and the access notes that belong in the pack - so whoever takes on the premises inherits a clear, current position rather than a mystery behind the ceiling.
Questions
They should include the as-built drawings of the extract route, a map of the access panels, the most recent TR19 certificate and report, the cleaning schedule and frequency, and any outstanding recommendations from the last clean.
Because whoever takes control of the premises becomes the responsible person for the system. Without the drawings, access-panel locations and last certificate, they inherit a fire-safety-critical asset blind.
Yes. Under the Fire Safety Order, when ownership or management changes, fire safety records must be shared with the incoming responsible person so the compliance history stays continuous.
A Building Safety Act principle that key information about a building is traceable, transparent and passed on and kept current - which for ductwork means the certificate, drawings and schedule travel with the premises rather than being lost at each handover.
Treat it as a red flag and commission a baseline survey and clean, so you establish a current certificate and your own records rather than inheriting an unknown, undocumented system.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
We can supply the current certificate, drawings and schedule that belong in the ductwork section of it.