Standards, staff & systems
The duty to keep a commercial kitchen - and its extract - clean is set in three overlapping places: the lease, fire safety law, and your insurance policy.
The short answer
Ask who is responsible for keeping a commercial kitchen clean - especially the extraction system - and there is no single tidy answer. Responsibility is set across three overlapping places: the lease and its covenants, fire safety law and its "responsible person", and the insurance policy and its conditions. In most restaurant leases the practical answer lands on the occupier, but you cannot assume it - you have to read all three, because they can each pin a duty on you.
Where the duty is written
The lease is the first place to look. In England and Wales the split of repair and maintenance is whatever the lease says. Many commercial catering leases carry an explicit covenant to maintain the extraction system to the TR19 standard. A full repairing and insuring (FRI) lease - common for restaurant units - typically shifts repair and maintenance of the demised premises onto the tenant. At the end of the term the TR19 clean and certificate usually fall to the tenant under dilapidations, unless the lease says otherwise, and managing agents routinely ask for a certificate and photo report at handover.
Fire safety law applies whatever the lease says. Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the "responsible person" - usually the employer or occupier in control of the premises - must carry out a fire risk assessment and reduce the risk. Grease build-up in the extract is one of the most significant fire risks in a kitchen, so cleaning it to TR19 and keeping the certificates is how the responsible person discharges that duty.
The insurance policy is the third, and the one people miss. Most food-business property and business-interruption policies now carry an express warranty that the extract is cleaned to TR19 at a stated frequency. That condition sits in the policy whether or not the lease mentions it - and it can bind the tenant directly.
Why it is not just paperwork
These three duties overlap, and the consequences of ignoring them stack up. Miss a lease covenant to maintain the extract and you are in breach - exposed to enforcement, and potentially to reinstatement costs at the end of the term. Fail the responsible-person duty and you are exposed under fire safety law. And if a fire claim is made and you cannot produce valid, dated TR19 certificates at the required intervals, the insurer may decline the claim in whole or in part - even if the fire did not start in the extract.
TR19 itself, worth noting, is a BESA technical standard, not an Act of Parliament. But because the lease, the fire risk assessment and the insurer all reference it as the benchmark, it functions in practice like a requirement. The certificate is the single document that satisfies all three at once, which is why it is worth holding regardless of who you think should be paying.
The limit
Working out who is responsible is essential, and it is not the finish line. Knowing the answer is necessary but not sufficient, because allocating a duty on paper does not clean a single metre of ductwork. The lease covenant, the responsible-person duty and the insurer's warranty all say the extract must be maintained to TR19 - but the named party still has to commission the clean and hold the certificate. An unmet covenant is a breach and an invalid-insurance exposure, not a clean system. Read all three, establish where the duty sits, and then act on it: book the TR19 clean and file the certificate. This is general information, not legal advice - check your own lease and policy wording, and take professional advice on anything unclear.
Questions
It depends on the lease. Many catering leases - especially FRI leases - put maintenance of the extract on the tenant, and at end of term the TR19 clean often falls to the tenant under dilapidations unless the lease says otherwise.
TR19 is a BESA technical standard, not legislation. But leases, fire risk assessments and insurance policies routinely reference it as the benchmark, so in practice it functions as a requirement.
Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 the responsible person - usually the occupier or employer in control - must risk-assess and reduce fire risk, which for a kitchen includes grease in the extract.
It can. Most food-business policies carry an express warranty that the extract is cleaned to TR19 at a stated frequency. Without valid dated certificates, a fire claim may be declined in whole or in part.
The party responsible for the extract under the lease should hold the certificates. They satisfy the lease covenant, the fire risk assessment and the insurer at the same time, so keep them regardless of who pays.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
We clean the extraction system to TR19 and issue the dated certificate that satisfies your lease, your fire risk assessment and your insurer. Call or email for a survey.