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Kitchen extraction - landlords
If your landlord asks to see your duct cleaning certificates, it is not box-ticking for its own sake. The extract in your kitchen is a fire risk in their building, and they have their own reasons to know it is being controlled. Understanding why they ask shows it is in your interest too.
The short answer
A landlord asks tenants for duct cleaning certificates because the kitchen extract is a fire risk within their building, and they have a legitimate interest in knowing it is being controlled. The certificates prove the extract is cleaned to standard, protecting the building from a fire that could spread through the structure, supporting the landlord's own insurance and fire-safety position, and often satisfying a requirement the lease places on the tenant. It is a reasonable ask that also serves the tenant, whose own compliance the certificates evidence.
The extract is a risk in their building
The starting point is that the kitchen extract, while the tenant operates it, is physically part of the landlord's building and carries a fire risk that affects the whole property. A grease-laden extract is a fire hazard, and a fire in it can spread along the ductwork through the structure - potentially beyond the tenant's kitchen into other parts of the building the landlord owns. So the landlord has a genuine stake in that fire risk being controlled: it is a danger to their asset, not just the tenant's operation.
That is why a landlord asking about duct cleaning is not merely officious - it is a reasonable interest in a fire risk within their property. The landlord cannot see whether the concealed extract is being kept clean, so asking for the certificates is how they verify that the fire risk in their building is being managed. Understanding that the extract is a shared concern - the tenant's to operate and clean, but the landlord's building it endangers - is the key to why the landlord asks. They have a legitimate reason to want proof the risk is controlled.
Protecting their own position
Beyond the direct fire risk, the landlord has their own position to protect, which the certificates support. The landlord's building insurance, like any commercial cover, is concerned with fire risks in the property, and an uncontrolled kitchen extract is exactly the kind of risk that matters to it - so the landlord wants assurance the extract is being cleaned, partly for their own cover. Similarly, the landlord may have fire-safety responsibilities for the building or its common parts, and an uncontrolled extract fire risk in a tenant's kitchen bears on those.
So when a landlord asks for the certificates, they are also protecting their own insurance and fire-safety position in relation to the building. They need to be able to show, for their own purposes, that the fire risks in their property are managed - and the tenant's extract is one of those risks. The certificates give the landlord the evidence that this particular risk is being controlled by the tenant, which supports the landlord's own compliance and cover. It is a legitimate self-interest, entirely reasonable given the extract's place in their building.
Often a lease requirement
Frequently, the landlord asking for certificates is also enforcing a requirement the lease already places on the tenant. Commercial leases commonly make the tenant responsible for maintaining and cleaning the premises, including the kitchen extract, and may specifically require the tenant to keep the extract cleaned and to provide evidence of it. Where that is the case, the landlord asking for the certificates is simply the tenant's lease obligation being applied - the tenant agreed to keep the extract cleaned and evidenced, and the landlord is asking to see the evidence.
So the request often has a contractual basis, not just a general interest. A tenant who signed a lease requiring them to clean and maintain the extract is obliged to do so, and the certificates are how they demonstrate they have. The landlord asking for them is holding the tenant to the agreement - a reasonable thing to do, and one the tenant committed to. Understanding that the lease may already require both the cleaning and the evidence shows the landlord's request is often not a new demand but the enforcement of an existing tenant obligation.
Why it serves you too
The important thing for a tenant to see is that providing these certificates serves the tenant as much as the landlord, because the same certificates are the tenant's own compliance evidence. The extract cleaning the landlord wants proof of is the cleaning that controls the tenant's fire risk and satisfies the tenant's own insurance and fire-safety obligations. So the certificates the landlord asks for are exactly the evidence the tenant needs anyway - for their own cover, their own fire risk assessment, and their own compliance. Providing them to the landlord is not an extra burden but a use of evidence the tenant should hold regardless.
So the landlord's request is aligned with the tenant's own interest, not opposed to it. Keeping the extract cleaned to standard and holding the certificates protects the tenant's business, satisfies their own compliance, and meets the landlord's reasonable request all at once - the same cleaning and the same evidence serving everyone. A tenant who sees the certificates as their own protection, which they happen to share with the landlord, understands the request correctly: it is asking for something the tenant should have anyway, which benefits the tenant as much as it reassures the landlord.
The takeaway
A landlord asks tenants for duct cleaning certificates because the kitchen extract is a fire risk within their building, and they have a legitimate interest in knowing it is controlled - to protect the building from a fire that could spread through it, to support their own insurance and fire-safety position, and often to enforce a requirement the lease already places on the tenant. It is a reasonable request grounded in the extract's place in their property.
And crucially, it serves the tenant too, because the certificates the landlord wants are the tenant's own compliance evidence - the proof of the cleaning that controls the tenant's fire risk and satisfies their own insurance and obligations. So keeping the extract cleaned to standard and holding the certificates meets the landlord's reasonable ask and protects the tenant's own business at the same time. The request is not a burden but an alignment of interests: the same cleaning and the same evidence protecting the tenant, the landlord and the building together.
Questions
Because the kitchen extract is a fire risk within their building - a fire in it can spread through the structure into other parts of their property. They have a legitimate interest in knowing that risk is controlled, and the certificates prove the extract is cleaned to standard.
No - it is a reasonable interest in a fire risk in their property. The landlord cannot see whether the concealed extract is kept clean, so asking for the certificates is how they verify the fire risk in their building is being managed by the tenant who operates it.
The landlord's building insurance cares about fire risks in the property, and they may have fire-safety responsibilities for the building - so they need to show the extract risk is managed. The certificates give them evidence that this risk is being controlled by the tenant.
Often, yes. Commercial leases commonly make the tenant responsible for maintaining and cleaning the extract and may require evidence of it. Where so, the landlord asking is enforcing an existing tenant obligation - the tenant agreed to keep it cleaned and evidenced.
Yes. The same certificates are your own compliance evidence - proof of the cleaning that controls your fire risk and satisfies your own insurance and fire-safety obligations. They are evidence you should hold anyway, so providing them is no extra burden.
No - it is aligned with them. Keeping the extract cleaned and holding the certificates protects your business, satisfies your own compliance, and meets the landlord's reasonable request all at once. The same cleaning and evidence serve everyone.
We clean your extract to standard and provide the certificates that satisfy your landlord and evidence your own compliance - the same proof protecting your business, the landlord and the building.
