Statutory compliance calendar for London commercial buildings

What a statutory compliance calendar is.

A commercial building in England carries a set of recurring legal duties: the electrical installation must be inspected, the emergency lighting tested, the fire alarm serviced, the fire doors checked, the water system monitored, the gas appliances serviced, the lifts thoroughly examined, the air conditioning leak checked and the asbestos register kept current. Each duty has its own regulation, its own British Standard and its own interval.

A compliance calendar puts all of them on one timeline for one building, with the date each is next due, the person or contractor who does it, and the certificate that proves it was done. It is the document an insurer, a landlord, a fire officer or an auditor expects you to be able to produce without ringing anyone.

Most buildings do not have one. They have eight contractors, each holding their own paperwork on their own cycle, and a property manager who finds out what is overdue when somebody asks.

Who is responsible.

The duty cannot be contracted away. A contractor can carry out the test, keep the calendar and chase the certificate, but the legal responsibility stays with the person the regulation names.

• Fire safety: the responsible person under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which in a workplace is the employer and otherwise the person in control of the premises. Fire alarms, emergency lighting, fire doors, extinguishers and the fire risk assessment all sit here.
• Electrical safety: the duty holder under the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989, which is anyone with control over the electrical system. Fixed wire testing and portable appliance testing sit here.
• Legionella: the duty holder under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and COSHH 2002, following the Approved Code of Practice L8, which is the employer or the person in control of the premises.
• Asbestos: the duty holder under regulation 4 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012, which is whoever has the maintenance obligation for the premises, often the landlord or the occupier depending on the lease.
• Gas: the employer or person in control under regulation 35 of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998.
• Lifting equipment: the employer or person with control under the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998.

In a multi-let building the duties are usually split between the landlord for common parts and plant, and each tenant for their demise. The calendar has to say which is which, or the gap between them is where the missed test sits.

How the calendar is run.

The calendar starts with an asset register: every fire door, every emergency luminaire, every distribution board, calorifier, lift, air conditioning unit and gas appliance in the building, with its location and, where it matters, its age. A calendar written without walking the building is a template, and templates miss things.

Each asset is then matched to its obligation and interval from the table below, and the last certificate for each is found or recorded as missing. That first pass is where most surprises are: a test that was done but never filed, a test that was filed but whose remedial actions were never closed, or a test that has simply never been done.

From that point the cycle runs itself. The next visit is booked before the current one closes. The certificate is filed against the building, not against the contractor, so it is still there when the contractor changes. The remedial actions from every report go onto the works schedule with a priority and a price.

• Who reminds whom: the calendar holder gives the responsible person a monthly position of what is due, what is booked and what is overdue. Nobody relies on remembering.
• Where the certificates live: one library per building, indexed by asset, with the report, the remedial list and the close-out evidence together.
• What an auditor sees: the position for the whole building on one page, which is the test of whether the calendar is real.

How to read the table.

The intervals below are the baseline set by the regulation or the British Standard named against each row. A fire risk assessment, an insurer, a manufacturer or the condition of the equipment can shorten an interval. Nothing lengthens one.

Where a row says "common practice" rather than citing a fixed interval, that is deliberate: the law sets the duty but not the frequency, and we say so rather than invent a number.

Common questions

Questions we get asked about compliance calendars.

Guidance reviewed September 2026