The property
A steel framed warehouse and office building in Harlow, Essex, with a profiled metal roof and cladding, two storey offices and a later extension, in use as a warehouse with ancillary offices.
The brief
At the end of a commercial lease the landlord needed a terminal Schedule of Dilapidations and Quantified Demand setting out the tenant’s breaches of its repairing, redecoration and reinstatement covenants, prepared in line with the Dilapidations Protocol.
What we did
- Lease reviewThe repairing, redecoration, alterations and yield up clauses read first, so every item could be tied to a covenant.
- Drone and ground inspectionThe property inspected at lease end, with a drone used for the roofs and elevations that could not be reached safely from the ground.
- Evidence chainAnnotated photographs cross referenced to the schedule items, so every claim could be traced to its evidence.
- Schedule and Quantified DemandThe schedule split into repair, redecoration and reinstatement, with preliminaries, fees, loss of rent and the other heads of loss added in the Quantified Demand.
- Statutory capSection 18(1) considered at the outset, so the claim was framed on the right basis from the start.
The standards
The schedule 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 considered against section 18(1) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927.
What we found
The main roof had reached the end of its life and needed replacing. Alterations made during the lease had to be removed, and parts of the original layout reinstated. Cladding, glazing, the warehouse floor and the external works needed repair, and redecoration was overdue under the lease.
Every item traced from the lease clause to the photograph to the price.
The outcome
The schedule and Quantified Demand were served on the tenant. The claim has since settled; the terms are confidential.
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