In collaboration with Climatiza, Limpieza de Ductos Panamá and Limpieza de Ductería. Radar Panamá works with these companies, and the analysis follows the same editorial standards. How we work
Last verified: 21 October 2026. Every fact links to its official source.
Contents of this guide
Where the shopping center ends and the shop begins
Who pays for the air conditioning of a shop in a shopping center? It depends on the equipment and on what the lease says. A shopping center usually has systems that serve the whole property, such as corridors, food courts and common areas, and units that serve a single shop. The center’s management runs the first group. The second, depending on each lease, falls to the tenant or the owner.
Panama has no air conditioning standard that divides that responsibility. The research for this article found no specific rule on air conditioning maintenance for shopping centers in the Gaceta Oficial or from the Fire Department. What does exist is Law 93 of 1973 on leases and, as a voluntary technical reference, the ASHRAE preventive maintenance checklist.
Some shopping centers operate under the horizontal property (PH) regime and others belong to a single owner. For the first case, Radar’s guide to air conditioning maintenance in PH buildings explains who decides and how spending on shared systems is approved. This article focuses on the other half: the tenant’s shop.
What to look for in the lease
Law 93 of October 4, 1973 declares the lease of private property for housing, commercial establishments, professional use, and industrial and teaching activities a matter of public order (article 1). The same article lets the Executive Branch exclude certain contracts by decree so that they follow free contracting. The edition consulted points to Executive Decrees 294 of 1994 and 7 of 1995 on those exclusions. For that reason it is worth confirming with legal advice whether a given shop’s lease falls inside or outside the law.
Within the law, the landlord must make the repairs needed to keep the leased property and its installations fit for the use for which it was intended (article 28, item 2), and the costs of those obligations are borne by the owner (article 29). If the contract is excluded, what the parties agreed applies. In either case, what matters in practice is the text of the lease.
| Lease item | What is worth putting in writing | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Covered equipment | Which units, brand and model, and whether the owner or the tenant installed them. | Art. 28, Law 93 |
| Who maintains | Whether preventive maintenance is hired by the tenant, the owner or the center, and how often. | Agreement between the parties |
| Major repairs | Who bears the compressor, board, fan or a full unit replacement, and the point at which the other party is consulted. | Arts. 28 and 29, Law 93 |
| Shared costs | Whether there is a charge for common services and how it is calculated (by area, by meter or flat). | Lease types described by the U.S. Department of Energy |
| Operating hours | How many hours of cooling the center provides and what extending them costs, if there is a central system. | Agreement between the parties |
| Handover | Condition and records of the equipment when the space is received and returned. | ASHRAE checklist, task log |
The U.S. Department of Energy describes three common lease structures. In a triple-net lease, the tenant bears maintenance, insurance, taxes and utilities. In a gross lease, the owner pays maintenance, insurance and taxes, and sometimes utilities, in exchange for a flat fee. Under a pro rata share, each tenant pays a percentage of utilities based on the area it occupies. This is a U.S. framework and serves as a reference: in Panama each lease sets its own terms.
What is checked on the shop’s unit
A shop’s unit may be an indoor unit with a rooftop condenser, a VRF system or a rooftop unit with ducts, depending on the center’s design. The ASHRAE checklist, written for building operations staff and drawing on ANSI/ASHRAE/ACCA Standard 180, is not mandatory in Panama but organizes the work well:
| Frequency | Task per the ASHRAE checklist | What is worth recording in the report |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly | Read filter pressure drop and replace any filter above the manual’s maximum; check seals and housing. | Reading, filter replaced or not, seal condition. |
| Monthly | Inspect drain pans and condensate drains for standing water, biological growth, sediment or rust. | Whether water was standing and what was done. |
| Semiannual | Full inspection of the drain pans in the air-handling equipment. | A photo of each pan. |
| Annual | Deep clean of the cooling coil, checking for fin damage, corrosion and biological loading. | Before and after photos. |
Persistent odors have their own diagnosis in the note on air conditioning that smells damp. To tell a unit fault from a shared-system fault, the guide on what to check when the air does not cool is a useful starting point.
Duct cleaning for shops in shopping centers in Panama
Duct cleaning in a shopping center shop is justified by a specific cause, not by a calendar. The EPA guide to duct cleaning, written for homes and used here only as a reference, says to consider it when there is substantial visible mold inside hard-surface ducts, when ducts are infested with vermin, or when they are clogged with excessive dust and debris or release particles through the registers. The same guide warns that those conditions usually have an underlying cause, such as moisture or poor filtration, that should be fixed first, or the problem will likely return.
Which duct belongs to the shop and which to the center is set by the lease and the building’s design. It may be that the branch entering the shop and its grilles belong to the tenant and the main duct through shared corridors or ceilings to the center, but that should be confirmed in writing before hiring a cleaning.
Climatiza Panamá describes on its duct cleaning page a service with camera inspection before and after, mechanical brushing with filtered suction, cleaning of grilles and diffusers, disinfection with a product suited to ducts, and a report with photos and video. That page lists retail stores among the places it works and states that if the inspection finds a water leak in the building, cleaning will not fix it and the report says so. It does not describe duct repair. The site limpiezadeducteria.com has a page for the retail sector, and limpiezadeductospanama.com explains camera inspection. When to inspect is covered in Radar’s guide to air duct cleaning in Panama.
How to organize maintenance for the shop
A small shop does not need an engineering program, but it does need order. The EPA and NIOSH indoor air quality guide proposes keeping a log of activities and system operation, and offers a free log form and HVAC checklist as a model.
- Gather the lease and the plan. Identify which equipment belongs to the shop and which to the center.
- Take inventory. Brand, model, location and condition of each unit, even as a first draft.
- Decide who contracts. If the lease leaves it to the tenant, request proposals with scope per visit, frequency and a written report; if it leaves it to the owner, request the schedule in writing.
- File every visit. Date, tasks done, findings and photos, per unit.
- Escalate what is not the shop’s. If the fault comes from the shared system, report it to management in writing with a date and a photo.
Climatiza Panamá, a company based in Panama City, describes on its maintenance page preventive maintenance contracts at three levels (Básico, Prioritario and Integral) with scheduled visits and a written report per visit, and an asset survey as the first step to learn which equipment exists and in what condition. Among its audiences it lists businesses and shopping center kitchens. For anyone with several shops, the same page says the group is handled under one calendar with a report per location. Its website does not refer to the central plant of a whole shopping center, so this article is limited to the shop’s unit. For how the same ideas apply to street shops and supermarkets, there is the guide to air conditioning maintenance in stores and supermarkets, and the scope and report clauses are developed in the note on the maintenance contract for businesses.
Myths and facts
- Myth: if the shop is in a shopping center, the air is always the center’s responsibility. Fact: the shared system belongs to the center, but the shop’s unit depends on what the lease says.
- Myth: Panama’s leasing law settles any air conditioning dispute. Fact: the law requires the landlord to make necessary repairs, but it allows exclusions by decree and does not mention air conditioning equipment in particular.
- Myth: a standard sets how often a shop’s air conditioning must be maintained. Fact: no specific Panamanian standard was found; ASHRAE offers a voluntary technical reference.
- Myth: if the air is cold, no inspection is needed. Fact: per ASHRAE, most indoor air quality problems in operating buildings are operations and maintenance failures, such as clogged filters, fouled coils or blocked drains.
- Myth: a maintenance contract replaces the shop’s own records. Fact: the history per unit is what makes it possible to discuss a fault with the owner or management.
On its maintenance page, Climatiza Panamá describes three-level contracts, the asset survey and the written report per visit.
Where the service is provided
Climatiza Panamá provides its service in Panama City, San Miguelito, Panamá Oeste and Colón, according to the company’s zones site, which lists what could be covered rather than what is always served. Its maintenance page adds that it serves offices, towers, clinics, hotels and businesses, and that it has clients in the metropolitan area and the beaches. The areas, grouped as on that list, with a link for those that have their own page:
- Distrito de Panamá: corregimientos del centro y la bahía: San Felipe, San Francisco, Bella Vista, Betania, Pueblo Nuevo, Río Abajo, Parque Lefevre, Juan Díaz, Pedregal, Ancón.
- Distrito de Panamá: barrios, avenidas y urbanizaciones: Costa del Este, Punta Pacífica, Obarrio, Marbella, Paitilla, Punta Paitilla, El Cangrejo, Área Bancaria, Calle 50, Vía España, Vía Argentina, Avenida Balboa, Casco Antiguo, Santa María, Coco del Mar, El Carmen, Hato Pintado, Chanis, Costa Sur, Villa Lucre, Albrook, Clayton, Amador.
- Distrito de Panamá: corregimientos del norte y el este: Las Cumbres, Alcalde Díaz, Chilibre, Tocumen, Don Bosco, 24 de Diciembre, Las Mañanitas.
- San Miguelito y su límite con Panamá: San Miguelito, Brisas del Golf, Condado del Rey.
- Panamá Oeste: de Arraiján a las playas: Arraiján, Howard, Panamá Pacífico, La Chorrera, Capira, Chame, Coronado, Gorgona, San Carlos.
- Colón: Colón, Zona Libre de Colón.
Shops inside shopping centers in Panama are served by Climatiza Panamá, with air conditioning maintenance and duct cleaning.
The full list of areas is on limpiezadeductospanama.com, a site from the same company. Availability is confirmed on contact, with the address and the type of place; if a shop’s address is not listed, the page itself says to write with the location. For a shop in a center in Albrook, Punta Pacífica or Costa del Este, it helps to send the center’s name, the unit number and the type of equipment.
Frequently asked questions
Who pays for air conditioning maintenance in a shop in a shopping center, the tenant or the management?
It depends on the lease and the equipment. The center bears the shared system, and the shop’s unit falls to the tenant or the owner as agreed; Law 93 of 1973 requires the landlord to make the repairs needed to keep the property and its installations in working order.
How often should air conditioning in a retail shop be maintained?
No frequency is set by Panamanian standard. The voluntary ASHRAE checklist suggests checking filters and drains monthly, inspecting drain pans every six months and deep cleaning the coil each year.
When is duct cleaning advisable for a shop in a shopping center?
No official interval was found in Panama. The EPA guide, written for homes, points to visible mold, vermin or excessive dust in the ducts. Radar’s guide on duct cleaning explains when to inspect them, and in a shop the lease should say whether the ducts belong to the tenant or the center.
Can maintenance be contracted for a shop in a shopping center in Albrook, Punta Pacífica or Costa del Este?
Availability is confirmed with the address and the type of place. Albrook, Punta Pacífica and Costa del Este appear on Climatiza Panamá’s zones list, and the last two have their own page.
How can a shop in a mall reduce the electricity use of its air conditioning?
By keeping filters and coils clean and checking for leaks and blocked drains, tasks that appear on the ASHRAE checklist. When utilities are shared pro rata or flat, the lease should also be checked for how consumption is charged.
Related articles
- Air conditioning maintenance in stores and supermarkets in Panama
- Air conditioning maintenance in horizontal property buildings
- Air conditioning maintenance contract for businesses in Panama
- Office air conditioning not cooling: what to check
- Air conditioning duct cleaning in Panama: when and how to check
Sources
Checked on 21 October 2026. The Law 93 source is in Spanish; the ASHRAE, EPA and Department of Energy sources are in English. Law 93 was read in the SIJUSA edition with Gaceta Oficial notes.
- Law 93 of October 4, 1973 on leases, Gaceta Oficial 17456 (SIJUSA edition).
- ASHRAE, Indoor Air Quality: A Preventive Maintenance Checklist for Facility Operators.
- U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Efficiency in Separate Tenant Spaces, April 2016.
- ENERGY STAR, marketing, leasing and tenant engagement guidance for small and medium buildings.
- EPA and NIOSH, Building Air Quality: A Guide for Building Owners and Facility Managers.
- EPA, Log of Activities and System Operations.
- EPA, HVAC Checklist, Long Form.
- EPA, Should you have the air ducts in your home cleaned?.
- Climatiza Panamá, air duct cleaning, retail sector and camera inspection.
- U.S. Department of Energy (FEMP), Operations and Maintenance Best Practices Guide.
- Climatiza Panamá, air conditioning maintenance and zones list.
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