The operator holds the legal duties for leak checking, records and recovery. The contractor must hold individual qualification and company certification and must carry out the work correctly. The duty stays with the operator regardless of any contract.
The definition that matters
The regulations define the operator as the natural or legal person exercising actual power over the technical functioning of the equipment.
The useful test in practice is a set of questions:
- Who decides whether the equipment runs, and can turn it off?
- Who pays for its maintenance, and chooses the contractor?
- Who would decide to repair or replace it?
- Who has access to it?
- Who benefits from its operation?
Whoever most of those point to is the operator. In most cases that is the occupier or the building owner, and in almost no case is it the maintenance contractor.
A landlord who owns plant serving a let building, retains responsibility for its maintenance under the lease, and appoints the contractor, is exercising actual power over its technical functioning – even though the tenant uses the cooling and the contractor does the work. Ownership plus control of maintenance decisions is what counts.
What each party is responsible for
| Duty | Operator | Contractor |
|---|---|---|
| Ensuring leak checks happen at the required frequency | Yes | Carries them out |
| Maintaining records | Yes | Provides the information |
| Holding individual handling qualification | No | Yes |
| Holding company certification | No | Yes |
| Repairing leaks without undue delay | Yes – arranging it | Carrying it out |
| Arranging the re-check after repair | Yes | Carrying it out |
| Fitting automatic leak detection where required | Yes | Installing it |
| Recovery at end of life | Yes – arranging it | Carrying it out |
| Equipment labelling | Yes | Applying at installation |
| Producing records to the regulator | Yes | No |
The pattern is clear: the operator is responsible for ensuring things happen and for holding the records; the contractor is responsible for being competent and doing the work correctly.
Why ‘our contractor handles it’ is not an answer
It is the most common response we hear, and it is understandable – the contractor does handle it, in the sense of carrying out the work. What it does not do is transfer the legal duty.
The practical failures that follow:
- Checks stop happening because nobody on the operator’s side is monitoring whether they are.
- Records live only in the contractor’s system, so a contractor change loses the history.
- Systems get missed because they were never on the contractor’s asset list – cellar cooling and display refrigeration being the classic omissions.
- Nobody checks the contractor’s certification, and it turns out the company certification lapsed or was never held.
- A new system is installed by a different contractor and never added to the schedule.
- The frequency was set wrongly because the CO2e was never calculated.
In every case, the regulator’s question goes to the operator, and the answer that the contractor was supposed to deal with it does not help.
What the operator should actually do
- Know what you haveAn asset register of every system, with refrigerant type and charge. This is the foundation and most sites do not have it.
- Know your obligationsCO2e per system, resulting check frequency, whether leak detection is required.
- Verify your contractor’s certificationIndividual qualifications and company certification. Ask for evidence rather than assuming.
- Hold your own recordsNot only your contractor’s copy.
- Monitor that checks happenA simple calendar with next-due dates. If a check is late, chase it – it is your obligation.
- Act on findingsA reported leak needs repairing without undue delay, and re-checking afterwards.
- Update when things changeNew plant added, plant removed, refrigerant recharged, or a contractor changed.
- Include it in handoversWhen a building, a lease or a management contract changes hands.
Leases and managed buildings
This is where responsibility is genuinely ambiguous and it is worth resolving from the document rather than from custom.
- Read the lease. Responsibility for plant, for its maintenance, and for its replacement can sit in different places, and the lease is what determines it.
- Tenant-installed plant is normally the tenant’s, and the lease may say otherwise on reinstatement.
- Landlord plant serving a demise is normally the landlord’s, even where the tenant uses it.
- Communal and roof plant in a multi-let building is normally the landlord’s or the managing agent’s acting for them.
- Service charge recovery does not change who the operator is, only who pays.
- A managing agent acting for a landlord is usually acting as the operator’s agent rather than being the operator, and that should be explicit in the management agreement.
Where neither landlord nor tenant is clear who the operator is, the likely outcome is that nobody does the checks. That is worse than either party being responsible. Establishing it explicitly – in writing, from the lease – costs nothing and removes the failure mode.
Contractor competence: what to ask
- Do your engineers hold individual F-Gas handling qualifications for the category of work?
- Does the company hold company certification? Employing certified engineers is not sufficient on its own – both are required.
- Can I see evidence of both?
- Will you provide records in a form I can keep, per system?
- Will you calculate CO2e and set the schedule, or do you work to a frequency I give you?
- What happens if you find a leak – who repairs it, in what timescale, and who arranges the re-check?
- Will you tell me about systems not currently on the schedule if you notice them?
A contractor who answers these clearly and without defensiveness is the one you want. One who cannot produce certification evidence is a problem regardless of how good their engineers are.
Unclear who the operator is in your building? Read the lease and establish it in writing. Ambiguity means nobody does the checks.
Questions we get asked about this
Can I transfer F-Gas responsibility to my maintenance contractor?
No. The duty sits with the operator and cannot be contracted away. You can and should appoint a certified contractor to do the work, and the legal responsibility for it happening stays with you.
Who is the operator in a leased building?
It depends on the lease and on who exercises actual control over the equipment’s technical functioning. Read the lease – responsibility for plant, maintenance and replacement can sit in different places.
Is my managing agent the operator?
Usually they act as the operator’s agent rather than being the operator themselves, and that should be explicit in the management agreement. Ambiguity here is common and it is worth resolving.
What certification should my contractor have?
Individual handling qualifications for the engineers and company certification for the business. Both are required – employing qualified engineers is not sufficient on its own. Ask for evidence.
What if a contractor has not been doing the checks?
The regulator’s question still goes to you as operator. Establish what has and has not happened, put the schedule right, and hold your own records going forward so it cannot recur unnoticed.
Does the tenant or the landlord hold the records?
Whoever is the operator. Where plant is landlord-owned and landlord-maintained, that is the landlord, even though the tenant uses the cooling.
Regulations and standards referenced on this page
- Regulation (EU) No 517/2014 on fluorinated greenhouse gases, as retained and amended in GB law — UK Statute Law Database
- Fluorinated gases (F gases): guidance for operators and engineers — Environment Agency / Defra
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