Safety remains at the top of the agenda for commercial and home builders, landlords and tenants, with the small but ever-present risk of damage or injury. Managing those risks, ensuring safety standards meet legislative requirements, and the property is satisfactory for users and residents is key.
When managing any rental property, workplace landlords have a crucial responsibility to ensure the safety and well-being of tenants and employees. And maintain those standards over the operational life of the building.
That’s as the 2025 HSE Benchmarking Report notes that half of HSE leaders surveyed claim that safety metrics are stagnant or worsening. This could be due to business stress, worker turnover or other issues all competing against the operational needs of the company.
Whatever the stress, tenants and landlords must comply with multiple safety regulations to protect the workers, occupants and ensure a secure premises that can operate for decades in a safe and well-maintained site across the lifespan of the property to minimise individual risk and landlord liability.
This guide identifies essential safety areas that every workplace landlord should follow, from structural integrity to operational safety management.
Compliance and Safety
The landlord’s primary responsibility is to ensure a workplace, warehouse, or property complies with building regulations and remains structurally safe. Whether it’s a new build with certified documentation or an older structure being repurposed or renovated, landlords must comply with both national and local regulations. This includes areas managed by the owner’s corporation, such as strata, as well as the structure and interior of the property.
This can include arranging checks for the structural integrity of the building and the functional purpose of the layout as suitable for purpose and tenants. Confirming that all electrical, fire, water, gas and other safety checks have been carried out.
Ensuring fire prevention measures and installed measures are functional and regularly tested. And that air quality and ventilation meet legal and business needs. All of these tests need refreshing on a mandated basis.
Buildings also need checking for mould, water cleanliness, sanitation and pest control. Many of these tasks can be outsourced, but the building owner or landlord is responsible for their compliance and remaining up to date.
Even benign-sounding updates like solar power systems, water recycling systems all create additional risks that must be managed between the landlord, installer and the users to ensure the building remains safe.
Who Is Responsible?
The landlord may have overall responsibility, but operationally, the business or commercial tenant using the premises will need to appoint its own people, such as fire safety officers, admin staff tasked with checking electrical testing rosters are maintained and so on.
The same goes for ensuring waste control, pollution control and other day-to-day aspects are efficiently managed by staff, and that any issues are reported to the landlord and authorities in good time.
This can also extend to lighting, safety signage, workplace incident reporting and other health & safety aspects. The operating company also needs to maintain continuity as workers start and leave. That any changes which impact safety standards, such as the use of chemicals, heavy machinery or other transformations meet any legislation and do impact or create new issues, such as noise or water pollution.
Landlord Rights Protection
Landlords can protect themselves against losing money on vacant properties, non-payment of rent or delinquent tenants through rent guarantee (or lease guarantee). This is where a tenant assigns a third party to guarantee the commercial tenant’s obligations under the lease.
Startup firms, small or new businesses are more likely to need to sign a guarantee if they lack the trading history, credit history or revenue stream to satisfy most landlords.
Rent guarantees are popular in the domestic property sector but could become more useful in the commercial sector as the property market and business outlook fluctuate. They will help ensure landlords maintain a regular income, and can support any legal costs if there are complaints or court cases due to tenant actions.
Conclusion
Rental safety standards are both a legal obligation and a major part of commercial property management. Workplace landlords must understand and enforce a broad stream of regulations, manage or conduct inspections, and inform tenants of their rights and obligations to keep the property secure, compliant, and hazard-free.
