Who asks › Property managers
For property managers with restaurant tenants
Your tenant’s kitchen is on your policy too.
Your lease almost certainly requires restaurant tenants to keep the hood cleaned and the suppression, sprinklers and alarm serviced. The question is whether you could produce the records — the signed service reports, the certificates naming you additional insured — on the day your carrier or a plaintiff’s attorney asks.
In June 2025, a Washington appeals court upheld the full denial of a building owner’s fire claim. The owners rented the space to a café. Their own policy required the suppression system serviced every six months and the hood cleaned every quarter; the tenant’s vendors’ records showed three service visits in three years and one cleaning that year. The system put the fire out. It made no difference — the condition sat on the owners’ policy whether or not they were the ones running the kitchen.
Whaley v. Ohio Security Insurance Co., No. 86200-6-I (Wash. Ct. App. June 16, 2025)
Free · 2 minutes · about your portfolio, not a kitchen
Could you produce your tenants’ records today?
Seven questions. You’ll see where your portfolio is exposed and which tenants to ask first.
1How many restaurant tenants do you have?
2Does your lease require restaurant tenants to maintain the hood, suppression, sprinkler and alarm systems?
3For every restaurant tenant, could you produce a current certificate of insurance naming you as additional insured?
4Could you produce a current hood cleaning report for every restaurant tenant?
5Do you know when each tenant’s fire suppression system was last serviced?
6Does your own property policy carry a protective safeguards endorsement covering tenant spaces?
7Who, in your organization, is responsible for tenant compliance records?
Your answers are used two ways: to give you your result, and — anonymously, in totals of ten or more — to improve fire and food safety education. They are never sold and never shared with your name on them.
What the lease asks for, and what you should be able to produce
Every one of these is done by a vendor your tenant hired. Every one leaves a record. Almost none of them reach the property office unless someone asks.
Fire first, because that is the exposure that reaches your policy. Food safety stays with the tenant and the county — you are not on the hook for their cooling logs. You are on the hook for the systems in your building.
The lease clause itself, and what it asks for: The lease asked first →
Send the Risk Assessment to your tenants. Get a roster back.
You answer seven questions about the portfolio. Your tenants each answer for their own kitchen, in three minutes, without an account. You see what came back, tenant by tenant.
Your roster
Sample — what it looks like when they answer
| Tenant | Fire | Food | COI on file | Answered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suite 104 — full service | 2 of 6 | 5 of 8 | No | Yesterday |
| Suite 110 — quick service | 6 of 6 | 8 of 8 | Yes | 3 days ago |
| Pad building — bar and grill | 4 of 6 | 6 of 8 | Yes | Last week |
| Suite 122 — café | — | — | — | Not yet |
What EvidLY does for a property manager
Request, collect, and date every vendor record — without chasing anyone.
- We request the certificate of insurance and the service reports from each tenant’s vendors. They upload through a link — no account, no password.
- Every record is dated and sealed when it arrives, and you get a heads up before one runs out.
- Fire records reported separately from food, the way your carrier reads them.
Pricing for property portfolios is set per conversation. Thirty minutes, and you’ll know whether it fits how you run your buildings. Have your own policy read first — free →
Nobody asks for a record on a good day.
Start with the two-minute Risk Assessment on your portfolio. Or send it straight to your tenants and see what comes back.