Grease Trap Service in Multi-Tenant Buildings

In a plaza, food court or mixed-use building, the grease interceptor is often shared, and shared equipment tends to be nobody's priority until it fails. Then it is urgent for everyone at once.

The shared-unit problem

When several kitchens discharge into one interceptor, the unit loads faster and less predictably than any single tenant would expect from their own operation. A new fryer-heavy tenant can change the whole building's interval without anyone recalculating it.

Who is actually responsible

That comes down to your leases rather than anything we can decide. What we see in practice is that the party who schedules the service is the party who prevents the problem — and whoever holds the records is the one who can demonstrate maintenance later.

Cost allocation approaches

• Building-level servicing billed through common costs, which is simplest to schedule.
• Allocation weighted by each tenant's kitchen type and volume.
• Per-tenant service where separate traps exist ahead of the shared unit.
• A mix: shared unit at building level, tenant traps billed individually.

Access and coordination

• Access often runs through one tenant's kitchen or a shared loading area.
• Tenants keep different hours, so one window rarely suits everybody.
• Notice matters — an unannounced truck in the loading zone becomes a complaint.
• Keys, gate codes and after-hours entry need to be sorted before the visit, not during it.

Records that survive turnover

Property staff change, tenants change and contractors change. Service history organised by address and unit, rather than by whoever happened to hold the invoice, is what keeps the file usable years later. We keep records per unit for exactly that reason.

When one tenant is the cause

Measurements make this visible. If loading jumps after a new tenant opens or an existing one changes their menu, the numbers show it, and the interval or the allocation can be adjusted on evidence rather than on suspicion.

A practical setup

• Inventory every trap and interceptor in the building, with capacity and location.
• Put the shared unit on a measured interval at building level.
• Schedule tenant traps around each kitchen's hours.
• Keep one contact for the building and one record set per unit.
• Review the interval whenever the tenant mix changes.