Before you sign the lease: the electrical checklist.
The electrics of a commercial unit are part of the price, whether you check them or not. Ten minutes with this list before signing tells you whether you are inheriting an installation or a project.
The five checks that matter.
- Supply capacity. What is the incoming supply, and is it single or three phase? A cafe full of kitchen equipment or a unit full of machinery can outgrow a small supply on day one, and supply upgrades take time you do not have after opening.
- The distribution board. Open the cupboard. A modern, labelled board with spare ways means your fit out has room to grow. A dated board with every way full means your fit-out budget starts with a board.
- The paperwork. Ask for the current EICR. If the landlord cannot produce one, price the risk that the wiring behind the walls matches the age of the board in front of them.
- Data and containment. Look up. Existing tray, trunking and floor boxes are money already spent. A bare shell means the cabling for desks, tills and wifi is all yours to add.
- Lighting and emergency lighting. Old fluorescent fittings are a running cost and often a compliance job. Emergency lighting on the escape routes is a legal requirement, not a nice-to-have, and its condition is inspectable in minutes.
Read the lease with the electrics in mind.
Two clauses decide who pays for what you found. The repairing obligation says whether the installation’s condition is your problem from day one, which makes the EICR your evidence for negotiating. And the yielding-up clause says what you must strip out and reinstate at the end, which should shape how you build the fit out at the start.
Sequence the fit out properly.
The electrical package wants to be designed alongside the layout, not after the furniture plan is signed. Desk clusters, meeting rooms, kitchens and tills all fix where the power and data must land. Design to completion by one firm means the survey, the design, the installation and the handover certificates arrive as one package, with one name responsible.
Asked about this.
What should a landlord provide electrically on a commercial lease?
At minimum, a current satisfactory EICR for the installation. Beyond that it is negotiation, which is exactly why you want the condition surveyed before signing rather than discovered after.
Do I need three phase for my business?
It depends on the equipment. Commercial kitchens, workshops and units with substantial machinery or air conditioning often do. The survey answers it from your actual kit list rather than a guess.
How early should the electrical fit out be planned?
Alongside the space plan. Power and data positions follow the layout, so designing them together avoids the classic fit out where the desks arrive and the sockets are in the wrong walls.