Landlord & Tenant
Dilapidations and service charge matters can be a major source of dispute between landlords and tenants, with many tenants feeling as though they are being lumbered with the financial cost of works they ought not to be paying for under their tenancy agreement. Similarly, a landlord may feel that tenants are not taking due responsibility for the upkeep of their property. We are in most cases able to bring about a satisfactory outcome, making beneficial use of our expertise, knowledge, and impartiality.
Commercial landlords and tenants can often find themselves burdened with significant costs, where the covenants and obligations detailed within their lease are not carefully managed or protected. We have a great deal of experience in the preparation of Schedules of Dilapidations for landlords, as well as reciprocal arrangements to negotiate the content of any schedules on behalf of tenants. We cover a range of services including:
- Interim / Terminal Schedules of Dilapidations & Dilapidation Assessments
- Licences for Tenant Alterations
- Photographic Schedules of Condition
- Pre-Lease Surveys
Interim / Terminal Schedules of Dilapidations & Dilapidation Assessments
Whether you are a tenant in a commercial property or a landlord with a single unit or multiple commercial properties, the topic of dilapidations is likely to be an area you are keen to discuss at the end of the lease or in the run up to an expiry or break. We have a wealth of experience in the area of dilapidations working for both landlords and tenants over the past 17 years, across a multitude of property types from offices, to warehouses and retail units.
Our focus is on providing clear advice no matter the scenario and ensuring the negotiation stage of the process is constantly progressed to ensure the best outcome. It is never too early to start thinking about dilapidations and we have a variety of report formats to achieve this dependant on your specific situation.
Licences for Tenant Alterations
Whether you are a tenant or landlord, the benefit of having alterations documented within a licence is invaluable for your reference and future dilapidation matters. Whilst the license itself needs legal input via your legal representative, we can use our technical experience and dilapidations experience to ensure any such alterations are clearly documented and incorporated into the existing building in a manner that does not detrimentally affect the property.
Photographic Schedules of Condition
Whether you are a landlord or a tenant, the consideration of whether to offer the inclusion of a schedule of condition within a lease, or request one as a tenant, is always an area of huge debate and opinion. We ensure firstly on understanding the brief to ensure the document will benefit you as the client. Too often the thought of a schedule of condition is overlooked for other survey report formats, be that a licence for alterations or a package of works being undertaken prior to the lease commencement. In other cases, the benefit of a schedule of condition can be clear and of immense value. Nonetheless, with our experience we can work with you to ensure all these considerations are made at the commencement of the instruction to ensure the best outcome is achieved. The detail within a schedule of condition is the key requirement of the document and our diligence, focus on the key deliverables and quality of the output report is our strength and passion to ensure the best product is delivered.
Pre-Lease Survey
The benefit of a survey prior to taking on the liability of a commercial lease is invaluable. There are a raft of aspects to consider from the building condition, the extent of the demise, the repairing liability, and what condition you may be taking the lease on with regards to existing or previous alterations and what your liability could be at the end of the lease. Many of these aspects are unknown until the end of the lease, but having this information up front in advance and in a clear and informative format is invaluable to allow you to weigh up this crucial decision with all of the facts available covering aspects such as disrepair, dilapidation concerns and future reinstatement aspects.