- Will I have to close?
- No. Cleans are booked overnight, after your last service, and finished before morning prep. If no night slot is free before your deadline, we tell you straight away.
- Will they accept it?
- The certificate and full post-clean report from a VHR-registered contractor, ready to forward to your landlord or managing agent.
- How much?
- London kitchens typically pay £495–£1,200 for a small café, takeaway or pub and £1,200–£2,500 for a restaurant, plus VAT (market ranges, September 2026). A photo gets you a price for yours.
- Who does the work?
- An independent VHR-registered TR19® contractor. Nightshift arranges and manages the job, and the contractor issues your certificate.
- Will I get chased by five companies?
- No. You send one message. Your details go only to the contractor doing your clean.
Why is my landlord asking for a TR19 certificate?
Usually for one of four reasons:
- The building's insurance. Many commercial leases include a tenant's insurance covenant: you agree not to put the landlord's buildings insurance at risk, and to follow the insurer's requirements. Kitchen policies often require the ducting cleaned by a specialist at least once a year. What insurers require.
- Their own fire safety duties. Under the Fire Safety Order, everyone with control of part of a building, including a landlord or managing agent responsible for common parts, has duties for the parts they control. Where premises are shared, each must co-operate and co-ordinate with the others (article 22).
- Other people in the building. A duct that runs past flats or offices is their risk too. In May 2026, London Fire Brigade attended a fire at a Lee Green restaurant with homes above, “caused by a build up of grease in the ducting”.
- A change of hands. Taking an assignment, renewing the lease or handing the site back. Solicitors list “Extraction system servicing and cleaning (TR19 Certificate)” among the compliance records a buyer of a hospitality business should check.
What should I send them?
The certificate and the full report behind it. Send all of it. This list follows what London Fire Brigade's guidance says a post-clean report should include:
| Item | Why they want it |
|---|---|
| Completion certificate | The summary they file. |
| What was cleaned, and whether it was the whole system | A canopy-only clean won't satisfy the building's insurer. |
| Grease readings before and after | Shows the clean met TR19® Grease, not just that someone visited. |
| Before-and-after photos | Evidence they can check without going up on the roof. |
| Schematic with access panels and anything not cleaned | Shows exactly what the certificate covers, including risers in their part of the building. |
| Recommendations and next due date | So they know when to ask again. |
| The contractor's details and VHR registration | Your certificate names the contractor who did the work. |
| COSHH data for any chemicals used | London Fire Brigade lists it as part of the report. |
Check it says TR19 Grease. TR19 Air is BESA's specification for general ventilation ductwork, and a certificate for that won't answer a question about a kitchen extract. What's in a TR19 report.
Landlord or tenant: who's responsible for cleaning the extract?
Your lease decides. Look for three kinds of clause: repair and maintenance (is the extract part of what you lease and maintain?), insurance (must you follow the insurer's requirements?) and compliance with law (must you comply with fire safety legislation?).
The Fire Safety Order follows the lease. Anyone with an obligation under a tenancy to maintain or repair premises, including anything in them, is treated as having control to the extent of that obligation (article 5). If the lease makes the extract yours to maintain, the fire safety duty for it is yours too.
This is general information, not legal advice. Check your own policy or lease, or ask your broker or solicitor.
The duct runs through the building or past flats. Who cleans that part?
Sometimes the duct runs through parts of the building the landlord or managing agent controls: a shared riser, a food hall's ductwork, the roof. London Fire Brigade's guidance says the responsible persons should co-operate so that all interior surfaces of the ductwork are cleaned at the same time, and not on different days/dates. It also puts the job of arranging access to any part of the duct in someone else's premises on the owner or occupier.
So ask the agent for roof or riser access and a date, and tell us about it when you send the photo. One overnight clean of the whole run gives everyone the same certificate. How risers and long runs are cleaned.
How often will they expect it?
At least as often as your lease, the building's insurer or TR19® requires, whichever is shortest. London Fire Brigade's guidance calls for “annual cleaning as a minimum, unless the fire risk assessment recommends otherwise”, and busy kitchens need it every 3 or 6 months. Find your interval.
Taking over or handing back a site?
Taking over: ask the outgoing tenant for the last certificate and report. If there isn't one, assume the system is overdue, and check your new insurance, because some policies set a deadline to clean after the policy starts.
Handing back: book the clean before the landlord's end-of-lease inspection, so the certificate is in the file when they check.
Can it be done before their deadline?
Send a photo of the canopy and the deadline on WhatsApp. Cleans are booked overnight, so you don't lose a service, and you get the certificate and report to forward on. Managers looking after several sites can email instead.
Sources
- legislation.gov.uk, The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (articles 5, 9, 17, 22, 25, 30, 31, 35).
- London Fire Brigade, Fire Safety Guidance Note GN86: Catering kitchen extract systems (Rev 3, 1 May 2022).
- London Fire Brigade, Fire at a restaurant, Lee Green (10 May 2026).
- Boyes Turner, Acquiring a hospitality business: key legal considerations (30 April 2026).
All sources read on 27 October 2026.