Commercial Landlord's or Tenant's Responsibility - Council Inspection

When you lease a property out to a commercial tenant (daycare centre) and a few years down the track the council does an inspection of the daycare business and want hand wash basins hot and cold taps to be replaced with flick mixer taps because their staff were caught not washing their hands and Council saying this is still a requirement under the Food Standards Code and it will require action before the next routine inspection (12 months). It is anticipated that you will use this time to effectively prepare and plan for a suitable time for kitchen renovations. Should a kitchen renovation be at the tenant's cost or landlord's cost? I would think this should be tenant's because they are running the business and it's a council requirement of their business which must be newly come into law as it wasn't ever required by council for the past 5-10 years. Any thoughts?

 

If they are using food safety standards , Im suprised they dont already have to have taps that can be activated by using the elbow , arm or the back of the hand.

 

The Council just mentioned this now in their inspection. Maybe it wasn't a requirement before? And if it's a new requirement shouldn't it be the tenant's responsibility and cost to change the fitout as the landlord has provided the property for rent as is for many years like this before and the daycare business has been running like this for many years already like this?

 

what does your lease contract say?

 

• Who owns the fitout?
• Who bears the risk?
• Without the above info, (or a copy of the lease), it is hard to say who has the responsibility.
• Did the tenant have to submit plans to council to register the usage? ie DA for the use?
• Was it previously a childcare business before this operator?
• What was in the DA from the original fitout?
• Does the building comply with the regulations for a commercial building and is it the tenant's decision that their business model requires the preparation/serving of food on premises?
• Can the business operate without food prep/service?

 

We bought the property before with a tenant (daycare centre) . That tenant sold the business to the new (current) tenant and we terminated the old lease & signed a new lease with this new (current) tenant. I believe we would own the fitout. I don't believe the lease covers about who bears the risk from a council's change in code. No DA done by the tenant.

 

Im pretty sure its been a standard requirement for food handing facilities for many many years.
Maybe no one pickup up on it.
A cafe near us was recently fined 10 k for not having correct hand washing facilities .

 

What did the old lease say about the fitout/who did the works? Was there an incentive? Are there any clawback provisions in the lease (eg. if assigned before the end of the first term?). The tenant sold the business - what did they sell (Goodwill, FFE, the children, the licence)?

On what basis was the lease terminated eg surrender & regrant for a longer term? New lease on different terms?

Why, based on the previous information, why would you believe that you would own the fitout? Do you accept the liability to maintain or modify the fitout? If so, then you would be required to undertake the upgrades.

The current tenant would not have submitted a DA unless they did work, the previous tenant would have submitted (with owners consent, in most cases).

 

Even if the lease included for the fitout then the need for the tenant to be compliant at all times isnt the owners issue. A lease that warrants compliance would be nuts. What if council wants ramps, disabled rails and braille signs ?? Or exhaust filters and extraction ? Or some new fire requirement. Compliance for that business is at their own cost. Ditto providing hot+cold running water, soap and facilities to dry hands which are also council requirements. And loo paper for WCs. And for clean work surfaces for food prep, fridges etc.

Perhaps at best as owner you give consent to their request (indicating that facilities are either restored or retained on lease termination) and approve workmanship is to an acceptable standard ie by a lic plumber.

 

The cafe business owner (tenant), not the property owner leasing the premises to them, correct?