What Building Owners Must Do Under Subpart C That Contractors Won't Do for You

Under 40 CFR Part 84 Subpart C, the compliance burden falls on the equipment owner or operator — not on the HVAC contractor you hire to service your systems. This guide covers the specific duties that are yours alone, what to verify after every service call, and how to avoid the gaps where most owners fall out of compliance.

Why This Distinction Matters

A common assumption among building owners is that their HVAC contractor "takes care of" regulatory compliance as part of the service agreement. In practice, the regulation draws a clear line. Under 40 CFR § 84.102, the "owner or operator" is defined as any person who owns, leases, operates, or controls covered equipment. The contractor is classified as a "technician" — someone who services the equipment but does not carry the compliance obligations that go with ownership.

The EPA's enforcement history confirms this distinction. Penalties in the hundreds of thousands of dollars have been assessed against equipment owners — including Safeway ($600,000), Trader Joe's ($500,000), and Costco ($335,000) — for failures in leak rate tracking and recordkeeping, even when contractors performed all physical maintenance. See our enforcement cases article for the full case record.

The Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) explicitly recommends that equipment owners take direct responsibility for compliance rather than assuming contractors will handle it.

Obligations That Rest Solely on the Owner

The following duties under Subpart C cannot be delegated to your HVAC contractor. Even if your contractor provides data or performs calculations as a courtesy, the regulatory responsibility — and liability — remains with you.

1. Calculating Leak Rates After Every Refrigerant Addition

Under § 84.106(b), the owner or operator must calculate the leak rate each time refrigerant is added to an appliance. You choose between the annualized method or rolling average method — and once you choose, you must apply the same method to all equipment at your facility.

Your contractor will typically record how much refrigerant they added during a service call. But the calculation itself — comparing the result against the applicable threshold (20% for commercial refrigeration, 30% for industrial process, 10% for comfort cooling) — is your responsibility. If you are not performing this calculation, you are out of compliance every time refrigerant is added.

2. Deciding to Repair, Retrofit, or Retire

When a leak rate exceeds the applicable threshold, the owner must decide the course of action. Under § 84.106, you have three options:

  • Repair the leak within 30 days of discovery (or 120 days if the equipment requires an industrial process shutdown)
  • Retrofit the appliance to use a different refrigerant, with a plan submitted within 30 days and completed within 12 months
  • Retire the appliance under the same timeline as retrofit

Your contractor may recommend a course of action, but the decision and the regulatory deadline belong to you. If repairs are not completed within the applicable window, the owner is in violation — not the contractor.

3. Installing Automatic Leak Detection (ALD) Systems

Under § 84.108, owners of commercial refrigeration and industrial process equipment containing 1,500 or more pounds of refrigerant must install and maintain automatic leak detection systems. The deadlines are:

  • Equipment installed on or after January 1, 2026: within 30 days of installation
  • Equipment installed between January 1, 2017 and January 1, 2026: by January 1, 2027

Your contractor may install the system, but the obligation to have it installed, calibrated annually, and maintained with 3-year records is on the owner.

4. Maintaining Three Years of Compliance Records

Under § 84.106(l), the owner or operator must maintain records for at least three years. This includes:

  • Equipment baseline data (owner ID, location, full charge, installation date)
  • Every service event (date, refrigerant type and quantity, technician and contractor identification)
  • Every leak rate calculation (method, result, threshold comparison)
  • Repair and verification test records (dates, results, follow-up actions)
  • ALD installation, calibration, and alert records

Your contractor is required to provide you with service documentation upon conclusion of their work — but organizing, storing, and producing these records during an audit is entirely your responsibility.

5. Reporting to the EPA

Two reporting obligations fall directly on the owner:

  • Chronic leaker report: If any appliance leaks 125% or more of its full charge within a calendar year, the owner must submit a report to the EPA by March 1 of the following year, describing efforts to identify and repair the leaks.
  • Retrofit/retirement relief: If you believe a repaired appliance no longer exceeds the leak rate threshold, you may petition the EPA electronically for relief from the retrofit/retirement requirement.

Your contractor has no obligation to file these reports on your behalf. Missing the March 1 deadline is a separate violation.

6. Conducting Follow-Up Leak Inspections

After a leak rate threshold is exceeded and repairs are made, the owner must ensure ongoing inspections continue. For systems with 500 or more pounds of refrigerant, quarterly inspections are required. For smaller systems, annual inspections apply. These must continue until four consecutive quarters (or one full year) show compliance. Scheduling and verifying that these inspections occur is an owner duty.

What Your Contractor Is Required to Do

Contractors are not exempt from the regulation — they have their own obligations. Understanding what your contractor is legally required to do helps you verify that you are receiving the data and service quality that compliance demands.

Contractor ObligationRegulatory Basis
Hold EPA Section 608 certification (40 CFR § 82.161)§ 84.102 (definition of certified technician)
Conduct leak inspections using appropriate methods§ 84.106
Perform repairs using certified technicians§ 84.106
Provide service documentation to the owner upon conclusion of work§ 84.106
Properly recover refrigerants (no venting)§ 84.104

The critical item is the documentation requirement. Your contractor must give you records of what they did — how much refrigerant was added or removed, the date, the refrigerant type, and their technician identification. Without this data, you cannot fulfill your own obligations to calculate leak rates and maintain records.

What to Verify After Every Service Call

Each time a contractor services your refrigerant-containing equipment, confirm the following before considering the job complete:

  1. You received written service documentation that includes the date, refrigerant type, quantity added or removed, the technician's name, and their EPA certification number.
  2. You recalculated the leak rate for any unit that received refrigerant. Use the leak rate calculator to determine whether the unit exceeds the applicable threshold.
  3. If the leak rate exceeds the threshold, you started the repair clock. You have 30 days (or 120 days for industrial process shutdowns) to complete repairs. Document the date the threshold was exceeded.
  4. The service record was added to your compliance file — whether that is a binder, a spreadsheet, or a compliance tracking platform.
  5. If repairs were performed, verification testing is scheduled. An initial verification test must confirm the leak was repaired, followed by a follow-up test to confirm it holds.

Managing These Obligations at Scale

For a facility with one or two regulated units, a well-organized spreadsheet may suffice. But as the number of units grows — across multiple buildings, locations, or equipment types — the manual approach becomes a liability in itself. The compliance failures in the Safeway (659 stores), Trader Joe's (453 stores), and Southeastern Grocers (576 stores) cases all involved large equipment fleets where tracking broke down.

Dedicated refrigerant compliance platforms address this by centralizing equipment records, automating leak rate calculations when service data is entered, and generating the documentation needed for audits and EPA reports.

RefriTrak is one such platform, built specifically for Subpart C compliance. It provides automated leak rate calculations using the EPA's annualized and rolling average formulas, QR code scanning so technicians can log service data in the field, compliance deadline alerts for repair windows and reporting dates, and audit-ready record export. At $15/month per seat with all features included, it is designed for facilities that need to track compliance across multiple units without building a custom system.

Other platforms in this space include FMHero, Fexa Trakref, and SafetyCulture, each with different strengths depending on your facility size and existing tooling. The important thing is that you have a system — the regulation does not care whether your records are in software or on paper, only that they exist, are accurate, and are retained for three years.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I contractually require my contractor to handle leak rate calculations for me?

You can contractually require your contractor to perform calculations, and many contractors offer this as part of their service. However, the regulatory liability remains with the owner. If the calculations are wrong or missing, the EPA will hold you responsible, not your contractor. See our guide to HVAC service contract requirements for recommended contract language.

I lease the building. Am I the "owner or operator"?

Under § 84.102, the definition of "owner or operator" includes any person who "owns, leases, operates, or controls" covered equipment. If your lease gives you operational control of the HVAC or refrigeration systems, you are likely the responsible party. Review your lease to determine who controls equipment maintenance decisions — that person has the compliance obligation.

What if my contractor refuses to provide service documentation?

Under § 84.106, persons adding or removing refrigerant are required to provide documentation to the owner or operator. If your contractor is not providing this, they are out of compliance with their own obligations — and you are unable to meet yours. This should be addressed in your service contract, and non-compliance should be grounds for termination of the agreement.

Do these obligations apply to residential property owners?

Subpart C applies to equipment containing 15 or more pounds of a regulated refrigerant with a GWP above 53. Most residential HVAC systems contain less than 15 pounds of refrigerant. However, some larger residential systems — particularly in multi-family buildings — may meet the threshold. Check the nameplate charge on your equipment.

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