Disasters do not care about your lease term. One widely cited estimate says 40% of small businesses never reopen after a natural disaster, and another 25% close within a year. That alone earns emergency preparedness a spot on your office lease checklist, right next to “parking” and “why does the lobby smell like burnt popcorn.”
Start With The Lease Language
Put emergency preparedness in writing before you sign, because “we’ll figure it out later” often turns into “we can’t get in the building.”
In your checklist, add a lease review item that covers restoration duties, access rules, and who pays for what. If a fire, flood, or major leak hits, you want a clear path to a damage restoration service and a clear timeline for landlord action, vendor access, and after-hours entry.
Ask for (or negotiate) specifics on: casualty clause triggers, landlord repair scope, tenant improvement replacement, rent abatement terms, “business interruption” expectations, and rules for temporary space.
Confirm you can bring in emergency vendors fast, store salvageable items, and document damage.
Also, list every required notice method (email, portal, certified mail). Emergencies love paperwork more than accountants do.
Audit The Building For Safety Features
Your lease checklist should force a practical walkthrough of the building, not a “wow, exposed brick” tour.
Verify life safety basics: fire alarms, sprinklers, emergency lighting, stairwell access, extinguisher placement, and clear exit routes. Ask the landlord for the most recent fire/life safety inspection records and any planned system upgrades.
Add a checklist line for “building emergency systems and training.” OSHA expects employers to set up an emergency action plan with core elements like reporting procedures, evacuation procedures, and accountability after evacuation.
Even if the landlord maintains the building systems, you still need to know how alarms work, where everyone exits, and who meets responders.
Bonus: confirm ADA-accessible egress or refuge procedures. Emergencies do not give extra credit for good intentions.
Pin Down Roles And Contacts
Make your lease checklist produce a contact sheet that stays useful at 2:17 a.m.
Put names, titles, and direct numbers for: property manager, building engineer, security desk, after-hours line, elevator service, fire alarm vendor (if shared), and utility providers. Add your own internal contacts: office lead, IT lead, HR lead, and a backup for each.
In your checklist, require a single “incident lead” role plus alternates, then define who calls 911, who handles headcount, who communicates with staff, and who documents events for insurance.
Also, add a landlord coordination item: where do responders stage, which entrances they use, and which elevators they must avoid. If your building uses access cards, plan a manual override process.
Plan For Utilities And Access
Emergency preparedness fails fast when power, water, HVAC, or internet disappear.
Add lease checklist items that address outage realities: generator coverage (if any), elevator operation during outages, water shutoff responsibility, HVAC shutdown procedures, and after-hours building access during incidents.
Use this guidance as your baseline: businesses should create plans that cover likely emergencies, employee protection, and response steps. Then tie those steps to your specific building: where you shelter, where you evacuate, and how you communicate when cell networks act dramatically.
Negotiate lease terms that allow temporary operational shifts: remote work triggers, short-term alternate space, and permission to bring in mobile connectivity.
If the building closes after an event, clarify how you retrieve essential items and equipment. Your laptop should not become a long-term tenant.
Protect Data And Essential Records
You can replace chairs. You cannot easily replace payroll, contracts, client files, or system access.
Add a checklist section for “critical records and recovery.” Require: encrypted backups, offsite or cloud copies, multi-factor authentication, and a written recovery priority list (systems first, then people, then everything else).
Also, add physical items: where you store hard copies, how you protect them from water, and who can access them during a closure. Emphasize preparation across likely needs during emergencies. Translate that into a simple office rule: keep essentials accessible even if the office becomes inaccessible.
If you run servers onsite (rare, but it happens), confirm cooling and power needs, plus who can enter mechanical rooms. For most offices, focus on internet redundancy, device management, and a clean “grab-and-go” kit: spare laptops, chargers, a hotspot, and printed contact lists.
Yes, printed, because Wi-Fi loves to vanish right when you feel smug.
Run Drills And Keep The Plan Current
A plan that sits in a folder becomes office folklore. Add a lease checklist requirement for practice: evacuation walkthroughs, headcount checks, and a communication test.
Training is a key part of an effective emergency action plan. Keep each drill short and realistic. People will tolerate five minutes. People will not tolerate a 45-minute “interactive seminar” with roleplay.
Set a cadence: quarterly quick checks, annual full review, and an update any time you change floor layout, staff size, or building access rules. Include landlords when their procedures affect yours (stairwell closures, renovation zones, lobby security changes).
Finally, attach your emergency checklist to your lease cycle: review it at renewal, after any incident, and whenever the building issues new rules. Treat it like a fire extinguisher: you hope you never need it, but you still check it before it becomes a decorative red tube.
