Health and safety rules and information for tenants

If you’re responsible for letting parts of a shared building, it’s important to lay down some ground rules and to pass on essential health and safety information. Use our template document to get your points across.

Setting some limitations

Anyone who’s managed a shared building knows it’s hard to maintain high standards. Unwanted storage appears in the corridors, external doors are left unsecured, burnt toast sets off the fire alarm, partition walls appear without permission, etc. Typically many of these problems would be prevented if the terms of the lease were adhered to, but the document is often signed by someone remote from day-to-day activities and simply forgotten about a few years down the line.

The way to ensure that the boundaries of behaviour are at the forefront of the tenants’ minds is to issue and enforce your Health and Safety Rules and Information for Tenants.

What’s covered?

Our example document covers a comprehensive range of subjects suited to the average building. It covers:

• legal background
• details of the management team and the division of responsibilities between landlord and tenant
• parking, access and deliveries
• building alterations (the extent they’re permitted and the controls you want over them)
• security
• visitors including children
• storage and waste
• fire safety, cooking and smoking
• emergencies including first aid, gas leaks and power cuts
• asbestos; and
• other hazards in the building.

Follow the instructions in italics to produce your own tailored version.