I was wondering if anyone knows about this. I work for a non-profit in New York City. Today we had the city contract people in our office, just making sure our records on clients are good. They also look at things like fire estinguishers, etc. We have some flood lights above our Fire Exit signs and the city person tested them and they were blown out. We asked the building manager about it and he says that it is our responsibility to make sure they work. It turns out that they needed a certain battery. We had to get someone to go out and buy six batteries and the total was over $140.00. Also the person had to stay late to put them in each exit light. The city person is coming back tomorrow and they must all work. Our commercial lease does not say that we are responsible for maintaining these exit lights and having to buy light bulbs and batteries. We also rent space at another site and that building landlord replaces those items for us (a different address and a different landlord). Does anyone know who would be responsible for such things? Thank you.
Unfortunately, this would be determined by the type of lease you have and the language in your lease.
If you have a full service lease, this might be the landlord’s responsibility. (If your landlord replaces light bulbs and cleans your office and inspects your fire extinguishers without billing you extra, you probably have a full service lease.)
The lease language would not necessarily reference the emergency lighting in particular; however, the lease might say that the tenant is responsible for all interior maintenance of the leased premises. They could say that such language would make the emergency lights your problem.
FYI, in almost all of my buildings the tenant maintains any thing that is outside of base building standard. If our standard emergency lights are fluorescent tube fixtures with battery back-ups, a tenant that decided to install a cheaper wall mounted "fish eye" light with battery would be required to maintain that non-standard light.
Unfortunately, this would be determined by the type of lease you have and the language in your lease.
If you have a full service lease, this might be the landlord’s responsibility. (If your landlord replaces light bulbs and cleans your office and inspects your fire extinguishers without billing you extra, you probably have a full service lease.)
The lease language would not necessarily reference the emergency lighting in particular; however, the lease might say that the tenant is responsible for all interior maintenance of the leased premises. They could say that such language would make the emergency lights your problem.
FYI, in almost all of my buildings the tenant maintains any thing that is outside of base building standard. If our standard emergency lights are fluorescent tube fixtures with battery back-ups, a tenant that decided to install a cheaper wall mounted "fish eye" light with battery would be required to maintain that non-standard light.
References :
10 years commercial property management
What does your lease say? That will be the governing document. Without seeing the lease, I would say that if the lights are within your leased premises, they are your responsibility; if they are in a common area that several tenants use, they are the landlord’s responsibility. But you should check the lease.
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