Compliance with laws and regulations can be complex. Much of it has to do with awareness, knowing that there is something to comply with. As a business owner, it is on you. In a recent round of inspections to do asset inventory and compliance, I found businesses with no functioning emergency lights, fire extinguishers that had not been checked monthly, not inspected in 2 years, and fire doors with non-device associated hold opens propping the doors open. An electrical contractor had 12 uncovered outlets and switches and an open panel, no railing on their mezzanine and the stairs to the mezzanine, and NO fire extinguishers. Found a facility with missing smoke detectors, and the lighting control panel not functioning so they flipped breakers every day to operate the lights. Some of this goes to uninformed owners, and some goes to understaffed City Fire Departments not doing commercial inspections annually. Either way, the condition of many of our commercial spaces is severely out of compliance, and even unsafe. Business owners need to be educated. You can imagine that if that is the compliance condition, what the physical condition due to lack of maintenance, is of their building assets. Business owners get into Triple Net Leases to save money on the monthly rent, having no idea that they have to maintain the assets (and what that really means), inspect and test Life Safety devices on their dime. All of that being said, what about compliance with Clean Building Performance Standards that have been enacted in multiple states? Building owners were notified, but have they informed the Triple Net Lease holders of the deadlines? The building owner is responsible to the State, but the lease says the tenant is financially responsible. In my experience, tenants are unaware. Owning a business is tough, owners are focussed on keeping the business going, they don’t know about everything that needs to go on from a compliance perspective, and WHEN the City Fire Department does an inspection, they get hit heavy with non-compliance items. Since small business can not afford, nor do the need a full time Facilities Manager, they need to have a Facilities Consultant providing them guidance in these areas. Giving them a written Preventative Maintenance program for their specific assets, a list of compliance requirements, updates on new regulations like Clean Building Performance Standards. Helping them put out RFP/Qs for maintenance and inspection contracts, and selecting qualified contractors so they get what is in their best interests, not what is most profitable for the contractor.
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