Dilapidations advice to landlords and tenants

Dilapidations involves the assessment of breaches of lease covenants that relate to the condition of the property during the terms of the tenancy or when the lease ends.

We have many years of experience working for either the landlord or the tenant to ensure our client obtains the best outcome possible. We analyse the lease documents and inspect the building in order to accurately assess any claim. We have an excellent track record of positively negotiating on behalf of our clients.

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Featured Case Study

We were approached by a client who had held a lease for 20 years on a 1,000 sq. ft. retail unit in Bury. The dilapidations claim they were facing from the landlord was for £17,000.

We reviewed the lease documents and carried out a site inspection. Our approach was then to consider each item of the claim individually and establish:

if the work required by the landlord was the tenant’s responsibility under the terms of the lease, e.g. the landlord had asked the tenant to reinstate alterations which had clearly been in place prior to lease commencement;
if the element was in worse condition than that anticipated by the lease, e.g. considering the age, character and location of the building the condition of the suspended ceiling was acceptable;
whether the financial compensation requested by the landlord was realistic, e.g. the landlord had over valued some of the work required.

In addition, Section 18(1) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927 needs to be considered. This Act makes it compulsory for a landlord to consider their actual financial loss resulting from the tenant’s breaches of covenant, e.g. the landlord’s actual financial loss may be less than the cost of doing the work.

Our client was prepared to carry out some of the work in order to reduce the claim. We were able to advise which remedial work would be the most cost effective and time beneficial which resulted in our client doing some redecoration.

We responded to the Scott Schedule and pragmatically negotiated with the landlord’s surveyor. In the end, we saved our client £14,500 as the final settlement was agreed at £2,500.