Before you sign a commercial lease in South Florida, find out the unit's service size, voltage and phase, how much panel space is left, and what the landlord's work letter actually covers. Also check whether there are open or expired permits on the space, and how the unit is metered. Those answers decide whether your equipment fits the space as it stands, or whether the build-out needs electrical work that changes the budget and the schedule.
Once the lease is signed, most of your leverage is gone. The questions below are the ones to ask while it is still a negotiation. This is practical electrical guidance, not legal advice. Review lease language with your attorney and broker. For the build-out itself, see our page on commercial remodel and tenant improvement electrical.
1. What service does the unit have?
- Size: the rating of the unit's main breaker or disconnect, in amps.
- Voltage and phase: single-phase 120/240 volts, or three-phase (commonly 208Y/120 volts in smaller commercial units, higher voltages in larger buildings). A lot of commercial equipment is built for one or the other.
- Where the service comes from: its own meter and disconnect, or a feeder from a building distribution panel the landlord controls.
Many small South Florida retail and office units are single-phase. If your equipment needs three-phase, find out now. Our guide to three-phase power explains how to tell what a space has, and what the options are if it does not.
2. Is there panel space, and what condition is it in?
- How many spare breaker spaces are there, and are breakers still available for that panel?
- Signs of trouble: discoloration, heat, corrosion, missing covers or knockouts, handwritten or missing panel schedules.
- The age of the panel and when it was last maintained.
- Whether previous tenants left abandoned circuits and equipment connections that should be removed.
3. Will your equipment list fit?
This is the question the other answers feed into. Make a list of everything you will plug in or hardwire, with nameplate voltage, phase and amps or kW. Then have an electrician compare it with what the unit can deliver. Our page on tenant and business equipment power covers how that check works. The result is usually one of three things:
- It fits, with new dedicated circuits.
- It fits if the existing panel is reorganized or a subpanel is added.
- It does not fit without a service increase, which involves the utility and can take the longest of anything in the build-out.
If it is the third, you want to know before you agree to a rent start date.
4. What does the landlord's work letter cover?
The work letter (or exhibit) defines what the landlord delivers and what you build. Electrically, pin down:
- The delivery condition: cold shell, vanilla shell or turnkey. Each means different things to different landlords. Our guide to vanilla shell versus turnkey electrical covers what is typically included.
- Whether the landlord's scope includes the service and panel sized to your use, or only a panel at whatever size is there.
- How the tenant improvement allowance can be spent. See TI allowance and electrical work.
- Building standards: required fixture types, approved contractors, work-hours rules, and the landlord's review of your drawings.
- Who pays for any utility work needed for a service increase.
5. Are there open or expired permits on the space?
An open permit is work that was permitted but never finaled. A previous tenant's unfinished build-out can leave one behind. It can complicate your own permit and your final inspection, and it is much easier to make it the landlord's problem before you sign. How to check depends on who has jurisdiction:
- Unincorporated Miami-Dade: use Miami-Dade County's permit search. You can also search the county's code compliance records for building code enforcement cases.
- City of Miami: the city's permit history search runs through its iBuild portal. You can search by process number, permit number, folio or address.
- Broward: Broward County's permit search lets you search by address, folio or parcel ID without an account. The county's permits cover unincorporated Broward and the cities it contracts with, as the county's Building Code Division explains.
- Other cities in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach: many run their own building departments. Check with the city's building department directly.
Ask the landlord in writing for the permit history, and for confirmation that any open permits will be closed before delivery. Our page on commercial electrical permits explains how jurisdiction works across the three counties.
6. What is the status of emergency and exit lighting?
- Do the exit signs and emergency lights work, and are there test records?
- Will your layout need more? Moving walls changes the exit path.
- If the building has a fire alarm system, who handles changes? That is fire alarm contractor work, usually coordinated through the landlord.
Our life-safety electrical page covers emergency and exit lighting.
7. How is the HVAC powered, and is it big enough?
- Is the rooftop or split unit on your panel and meter, or the building's?
- If you need more cooling (a kitchen, a server closet, a gym), can the service carry added tonnage?
- Who maintains the unit, and who replaces it at end of life? In coastal South Florida, rooftop equipment and its disconnects corrode faster than inland.
8. How is the unit metered?
- Individually metered (your own utility account) or master-metered, with the landlord billing you back?
- If submetered, how is the reading taken and how are common-area loads kept off your bill?
- Are any of your loads, such as exterior sign power or parking lights, on the building's meter, or the other way round?
9. Who maintains what?
Put the electrical maintenance split in writing: the service equipment and main distribution, the unit panel, exterior and parking lighting, sign power, and surge protection. Also agree what happens after a storm outage. Landlords and tenants often each assume the other one is responsible for the equipment between the meter and the panel.
A short pre-lease checklist
| Ask for | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Photo of the main disconnect and panel labels | Service size, voltage, phase and spare spaces |
| Your equipment list, with nameplate data | Whether the space can carry your business |
| The work letter's electrical scope | What the landlord delivers versus what you pay for |
| Permit history for the unit | Open or expired permits that can hold up your permit |
| Metering arrangement | Who pays for what, and how it is measured |
Get the electrical answers before you sign
A pre-lease walk-through with an electrician is one of the most useful pieces of due diligence in a commercial lease. KRW Electric (Florida license EC13012832) reviews spaces for tenants across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach. We check the service, panel and equipment fit, and tell you plainly what the build-out will involve. Learn more about tenant improvement electrical work, then send us the details, or call (305) 359-7312.
Reviewed by Kyle White, KRW Electric Company LLC — licensed electrical contractor EC13012832.
