Commercial Property Health and Safety

If you are a building contractor, a landlord or a tenant, then you must be aware of your responsibility over the health and safety of your property. This is because as an owner or an overseer of a certain property, the health of the people working in or occupying your property is in your hands. More so, building health and safety is one of the most important issues closely watched by the government, so you have to be prepared to answer of questions and investigations regarding the matter. Failure to comply with law can result to serious prosecutions with a severe penalty. Hence, you should to know the health and safety conditions of your property, as well as your responsibility. The latter task would be easy if you know who falls within the definition of an "employer." You can do this by taking into consideration the two situations on how a commercial property is let.

One, when the property is owned by a freeholder who employs a contractor to do some works. Usually, incidents comprising building health safety are considered as responsibility of the contractor. However, in most cases, the freeholder will also be made to answer if it is found to have failed to take adequate steps to determine the safety practices of the contractor in doing the work.

And second, when the commercial property is sublet to a tenant. In event that a property is rented out to a single tenant who is responsible for all the maintenance and repairs works in the property, that tenant is deemed to be the "employer", and thus, is responsible for the property's health and safety. However, when the property is leased to multiple tenants, in usual case, the landlord is the one responsible for the maintenance and the health and safety of property.

Now, knowing what property ownership implies, we hope that you as an owner, landlord, tenant or contractor will take practical steps to ensuring the health and safety of your property.