Tenant Services Coordination During Fitout

What You Need to Know

Every tenant fitout touches base building services. Mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, and fire systems all connect back to shared infrastructure. Poor coordination between tenant works and base building systems causes failed inspections, delayed occupation certificates, and costly rework. This memo covers the rules, the lease obligations, and the decisions that keep fitout programs on track.

• Any service that penetrates a fire-rated wall, floor, or ceiling must use a tested fire-stopping system (NCC 2025, Spec 13, S13C7)
• Sprinkler heads must be relocated or added when new partitions change the spray coverage pattern (AS 2118.1:2017; AS 2118.8-1997 for minor modifications)
• Tenant mechanical systems must coordinate with base building controls to prevent heating and cooling conflict (NCC 2025, Part J6)
• Ventilation rates must be recalculated if the fitout changes occupancy type or density (AS 1668.2, Table A1; NCC 2025, F6D6)
• Kitchen and food tenancies need grease traps and trade waste connections approved by the local water authority before fitout starts (AS/NZS 3500)
• All electrical work must comply with AS/NZS 3000, and sub-metering should match the load allocation in the lease

Consider a 500 m² office tenancy in a multi-storey commercial building. The base building provides chilled water fan coil units (FCUs), a sprinkler system, a fire detection network, and an electrical sub-board with a set capacity. The tenant wants to add a server room, a kitchenette, and several new meeting rooms with glass partitions.

The server room needs supplementary cooling. That means either a split DX system with a condenser on the roof, or a metered connection to the base building condenser water loop. Both options need landlord approval, and the condenser water option depends on spare capacity in the base building system. The kitchenette needs a grease trap connection to the sewer, which requires water authority approval and typically takes several weeks. Glass partitions that do not reach the ceiling may still trigger sprinkler relocations if they block the spray pattern.

Each of these changes touches a different base building system. Without a services engineer coordinating all four disciplines from the start, clashes appear late. Late clashes push programs out by weeks. The landlord's building manager will reject fitout plans that risk base building compliance, so get approvals early.