Measured Against the Start of the Lease: A Business Park Unit

A fully costed terminal schedule and Quantified Demand for the landlord of a two storey business park unit in Loughton, every item tested against the condition recorded when the lease began.

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The property

A detached two storey steel portal frame unit on a business park in Loughton, Essex, with brick and profiled metal cladding, a profiled metal roof, a loading bay, a car park and a rear service yard. The tenant had carried out a specialist fit out during the lease.

The brief

At the end of a long sublease the landlord needed a fully costed terminal schedule and Quantified Demand, compliant with the RICS dilapidations professional standard and the Pre-Action Protocol, and then representation through the negotiations that followed.

What we did

Document reviewThe head lease, sublease covenants, Licence to Alter and approved plans, the Schedule of Condition from the start of the lease, and the building records.
InspectionA full internal and external inspection with a complete photographic record and a drone survey of the roof.
Baseline testedEach item assessed against the Schedule of Condition, so repair was claimed only where condition had fallen below it, and reinstatement separated from what the Licence allowed.
Costed demandEvery item priced from current published dilapidations rates adjusted for location, with fees, loss of rent and the other heads of loss added.
NegotiationThe tenant’s response answered point by point on Protocol compliance, the construction of the covenants, the statutory cap and quantum.

The standards

The claim followed the RICS dilapidations professional standard and the Pre-Action Protocol for Claims for Damages in relation to the Physical State of Commercial Property, with damages tested against section 18(1) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927.

What we found

Reinstatement of the tenant’s alterations made up the larger share of the cost of works, and some of those alterations had concealed the condition of the original fabric. The roof drainage, cladding, brickwork and external paving had deteriorated beyond the condition recorded at the start of the lease.