Do tenants need to be notified before the inspection?

What the lease controls

Nearly every commercial lease contains a landlord right-of-entry clause permitting inspection with reasonable notice. Twenty-four hours is the common floor; some leases require forty-eight, and medical, laboratory, cannabis and secured industrial tenants often have additional escort, badging or clean-area requirements. The seller or property manager gives the notice, not the buyer and not us.

What tenants should be told

Keep it simple and factual: the ownership is conducting a routine property condition inspection, an inspector will need brief access to the space, electrical panels and any rooftop equipment serving the suite, and the visit will take fifteen to thirty minutes per space. In a sale, most sellers prefer not to announce the transaction. That is normal, and our inspectors do not discuss the transaction with tenants.

Why access coordination matters more than scheduling

• A suite we cannot enter becomes a report limitation, which lenders flag and which can require a return visit at additional cost.
• Electrical panels are frequently inside tenant spaces or behind tenant storage. Ask that the panel area be cleared.
• Roof hatches are often inside a single tenant's stockroom, so one uncooperative suite can block the roof.
• Restaurant and retail tenants are best inspected before opening; industrial tenants during shift hours when equipment is running.

Tenant interviews

Where the seller permits it, brief tenant conversations are valuable. Occupants know which unit fails in August, where the roof leaks, and which restroom backs up. That firsthand history routinely surfaces conditions that a one-day walk would not.

Multifamily specifics

Residential tenants in California are entitled to written notice, generally twenty-four hours, for entry to make inspections. On multifamily assignments we work from a target sample of units and coordinate with management so notices go out for more units than we need, which keeps the sample intact when some residents are unavailable.