Fire, insurance & risk
Your policy probably ties cover to documented TR19 cleaning. Here's how a missing certificate can sink a fire claim - and how to keep yours defensible.
The short answer
Most commercial-kitchen insurance policies carry a condition - often buried in the wording - that the extract system is cleaned and maintained to a recognised standard, in practice TR19 Grease. After a fire the insurer asks for the records. If cleaning was overdue, undocumented or not to standard, the condition was not met and the claim can be disputed or refused - sometimes even when the fire started elsewhere.
The buried condition
The requirement is rarely on the front page. Most food-business and commercial property policies include a maintenance condition that names regular professional cleaning of the whole extract system to a recognised standard, documented evidence of each clean with dates and areas covered, and proof that any issues found were put right. Many insurers now specify TR19 Grease directly and set the interval by how heavily the kitchen is used.
Because the condition is contractual, meeting it is not optional. If a fire happens and you cannot show you met it, the insurer has grounds to argue the policy terms were breached - and the burden of proving compliance sits with you, not with them.
When a claim gets refused
When a fire occurs, insurers investigate in detail and ask to see the paperwork: the TR19 certificate, the post-clean verification report with grease readings, before and after photographs, the contractor's recommendations, and evidence you acted on them. Two points catch operators out. A claim can be challenged even if the fire did not start in the extract system, because fire spread through a grease-laden duct can be put down to inadequate maintenance. And it can be challenged even if you did employ a cleaning contractor, if the work cannot be shown to be compliant.
Insurers also check whether areas flagged as inaccessible or uncleaned in an earlier report were ever dealt with. A certificate from a contractor without recognised accreditation may simply not be accepted. As one industry expert witness puts it, expecting an insurer to carry the risk of un-evidenced fire-risk control is like leaving your keys in the ignition and expecting them to pay if the car is stolen.
Making cover defensible
The certificate is the mechanism through which compliance - and therefore cover - is proven. To keep a claim defensible, hold the full package for every clean: the TR19 certificate, the verification report and readings, paired photographs, the recommendations, and a record of what you did about them. Use an accredited contractor so the certificate carries weight, and match the cleaning interval to your policy's requirement, not to habit.
The best time to check all this is before renewal, not after a fire. Reviewing your last report against your policy wording now is far cheaper than discovering a gap when you are trying to claim for hundreds of thousands of pounds of damage.
Questions
Often not. Most commercial-kitchen policies require the extract system to be cleaned to a recognised standard and documented. Without certificates and records the insurer can argue the policy condition was breached and dispute the claim.
Yes. Fire spread through a grease-laden duct can be attributed to inadequate maintenance, so a missing or overdue cleaning record can affect a claim even when the fire began elsewhere.
Not automatically. Insurers look for evidence the work was compliant, not just that a visit happened. An un-accredited certificate or a canopy-only clean may not satisfy the policy condition.
For each clean: the TR19 certificate, the post-clean verification report with grease readings, before-and-after photos, the contractor's recommendations, and a record of the action you took on them.
Before renewal, not after a fire. Reviewing your latest report against your policy wording lets you fix any gap while it is still cheap to fix.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
We issue accredited certificates with readings and photos - the evidence your insurer will ask for.