Turning part of a leased factory into cold storage changes three things at once: the building’s electrical load, the facility’s fire profile, and the monthly operating cost model. Cold storage runs around the clock, so every vague agreement on power, fire safety and maintenance is magnified over time. This article helps an FDI tenant identify the conditions to lock with the landlord and the fire authorities before installing a refrigeration system.
Unlike ordinary storage, cold storage is a living technical system inside someone else’s building: compressors run continuously, insulation panels cover the area, and the goods inside depend absolutely on temperature. Its risks therefore sit not on installation day but on every operating day afterwards. The locking file for this step comprises a load survey, an assessment of insulation materials against fire requirements, and an agreement dividing operating responsibilities with the landlord.
Legal basis in force for this topic (checked on 20 October 2026)
The fire frame applying to cold storage inside a factory is the Law on Fire Prevention, Fighting and Rescue 55/2024/QH15 (in force from 1 July 2025) together with its guiding Decree 105/2025/ND-CP, as amended by Decree 347/2026/ND-CP (in force from 15 September 2026); establishments under fire-safety management must maintain safety conditions throughout operation, undergo fire-design appraisal where required, and pass fire acceptance before the works enter operation. Converting part of a factory into cold storage changes the facility’s fire-risk character, so the factory’s existing fire file must be re-tested from the start.
For compulsory fire and explosion insurance, the current frame sits inside Decree 105/2025/ND-CP; Decree 23/2018/ND-CP, which once governed this content, expired on 6 September 2023, so every citation of the old decree in a factory file must be updated when the tenant builds its cold-storage file. Inside the lease, the 2015 Civil Code lets the parties allocate fire-compliance costs, but the facility head’s administrative responsibility before the fire police does not change with that allocation.
The specific legal point of cold storage inside a leased factory is the overlap between the tenant’s renovation rights and the duty to maintain safety conditions for the whole facility: the cold store occupies only part of the area, yet a fire incident from its insulation panels or electrical system will be handled as an incident of the entire facility. The agreement with the landlord must therefore allocate clearly who invests in the additional alarm and suppression systems for the cold-storage zone, who operates them day to day, and who answers when the refrigeration system causes an incident affecting the rest of the factory.
Analysis by practical question
What conditions are needed to build cold storage inside a leased factory? Four conditions must be checked before deciding: whether the factory’s power capacity can carry a continuously running refrigeration load; whether floors and structure can bear concentrated frozen-goods loads; whether the intended insulation materials meet fire requirements; and whether the landlord consents in writing to converting part of the area into cold storage. Missing any one condition usually kills a cold-storage project at acceptance, or in its first operating month. The tenant should minute a survey of all four conditions together with the landlord before signing any annex.
Is the power supply sufficient for the refrigeration load? This question must be answered with data, not verbal assurances: the tenant needs the factory’s existing capacity records, actual load charts and reserve capacity, set against the refrigeration system’s design load with a continuous-operation factor. If total load exceeds the existing supply capability, upgrading the substation or connection point must enter the project from the start, with an allocation of who invests. An underpowered cold store does not merely spoil goods; it creates electrical overload risk — the most common ignition source in cold stores.
How does fire protection for cold storage differ from ordinary storage? The core difference lies in insulation materials and continuous operation: insulation panels with the wrong core material are combustible, electrical systems that never rest raise incident risk, and cold-room doors plus high-stacked goods directly affect escape and firefighting. Cold storage therefore usually requires a fresh assessment of alarm and suppression solutions for the installed zone, and may require fire-design appraisal for the renovated part under the Decree 105/2025/ND-CP frame. Treating a cold store as an ordinary store plus refrigeration is the most dangerous design mistake in this category.
How much is the monthly electricity cost of a cold store? Cold-storage electricity cost depends on volume, storage temperature, goods in-out frequency and insulation quality, so any figure estimated before a survey is only a reference. The correct budgeting method asks the refrigeration designer to compute energy consumption under the tenant’s actual operating scenario, then apply the production electricity tariff at budgeting time. The tenant must also add backup-power and maintenance costs, because one hour without cooling can cost more than many months of saved electricity.
Will the landlord allow cold storage? Cold storage changes electrical load, the fire file and the use character of part of the works, so the landlord is fully entitled to allow or refuse it, and the tenant cannot proceed unilaterally. To win approval, the tenant should present a concise file: the technical plan, an impact assessment on the facility’s power and fire systems, a restoration undertaking for hand-back, and an allocation of operating responsibilities. The consent must be recorded in a lease annex, not left as a verbal exchange with a building manager.
A safe implementation sequence
- Fix the budget and a weekly timetable for cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements, separating domestic payments, items dependent on authorities, and a contingency for supplementary rounds on cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements.
- Draft the main document of cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements with performance-checking mechanisms and breach consequences, then pre-check the cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements draft with the counterparty or receiving authority to remove formal defects.
- Lock the base facts of cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements: current legal papers, the latest financial figures and every commitment still in force, assembled into a dated fact snapshot for cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements.
- Perform the binding step of cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements — signing, filing or handover — only when the conditions precedent of cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements are confirmed in writing, and minute that very act of performance for cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements.
- Close the cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements file set immediately after completion: originals, certified copies, notarised translations where applicable, and an index serving later audits and disputes over cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements.
- Record the basis of every important decision in cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements — who decided, on which instrument, at what time — as a decision log attached to the cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements file.
Common mistakes
- Forgetting the duties that keep running after cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements: periodic reports, renewals, maintenance fees and document retention for cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements continue for years after completion day.
- Using vague phrases in the cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements documents — meeting standards, ensuring quality, restoring original condition — without attaching a standard, a list or a specific acceptance record for cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements.
- Signing the binding document on cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements before obtaining every third-party consent, then discovering that consent for cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements is unavailable or available only at a very high price.
- Letting the authorised signatories for cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements — the legal representative, the chief accountant — leave mid-stream, leaving the supplementary filings of cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements with nobody validly able to sign them.
Practical conclusion: Investors who handle cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements well treat cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements as a project with an owner, a budget and its own deadlines, not as an administrative afterthought at the end of the cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements transaction. The cost of early advice on cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements is almost always lower than the cost of late correction on cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements, especially when the defect surfaces only at post-audit or after the counterparty has changed its case officer.
Frequently asked questions
What is the very first thing to verify for this step in the context of cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements?
On this question, the common error in cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements is answering from experience at once; the sound method for cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements is checking, in order, the root text, the contract still in force and the documents of this very case. The central basis for this point is Decree 105/2025/ND-CP, as amended by Decree 347/2026/ND-CP — inside the cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements file, that citation must be read together with the conditions and sequence the instrument imposes, not as isolated sentences about cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements. When handling cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements, count the timetable backwards from the project’s hardest deadline and leave room for at least one supplementary round on cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements, instead of planning cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements on the most favourable scenario.
Which documents decide whether this step can proceed in the context of cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements?
On this question, the common error in cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements is answering from experience at once; the sound method for cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements is checking, in order, the root text, the contract still in force and the documents of this very case. The legal footing for answering this question is Decree 105/2025/ND-CP, as amended by Decree 347/2026/ND-CP; the enterprise should require the drafter to state that basis expressly in the cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements submission instead of a generic according-to-regulations formula for cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements. Inside cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements, appoint one single owner to track progress weekly and keep every exchange about cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements in a retrievable written form.
What happens if this step is done in the wrong order in the context of cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements?
Returning to this question inside the cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements file, the first task is to separate what the law prescribes, what the existing contract prescribes, and what is merely working habit between the parties on cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements. Within cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements, Decree 105/2025/ND-CP, as amended by Decree 347/2026/ND-CP is the basis the handling authority and the counterparty check first on this question, so every internal document touching cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements must stay consistent with that basis. Before signing or filing inside cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements, one pre-check round with the very party that will receive the cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements file usually removes most formal defects, the commonest reason cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements files are returned.
How should the cost and timing of this step be controlled in the context of cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements?
Handling this question correctly in cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements requires recording the basis of the decision at the moment it is taken, instead of reconstructing the reasoning for cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements months later when participants’ memories have diverged. Applying Decree 105/2025/ND-CP, as amended by Decree 347/2026/ND-CP to the facts of cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements shows that the answer to this question depends on the concrete facts already locked for cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements, not on how a similar case was once handled elsewhere. Inside cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements, appoint one single owner to track progress weekly and keep every exchange about cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements in a retrievable written form.
Which consents or approvals must be secured before signing in the context of cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements?
When clients raise this question, experienced counsel asks back for three facts of the cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements file before answering: the current legal status behind cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements, the commitments still in existence, and the deadline that governs cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements. The legal footing for answering this question is Decree 105/2025/ND-CP, as amended by Decree 347/2026/ND-CP; the enterprise should require the drafter to state that basis expressly in the cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements submission instead of a generic according-to-regulations formula for cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements. Every third-party consent that cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements needs should be obtained in writing before the main binding document of cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements is signed, because consent sought afterwards is always dearer and sometimes unobtainable for cold storage inside leased factories technical fire protection and operating cost requirements.
This article has been quality-reviewed by the FLAW AI Legal Council