Dilapidations

Schedules of dilapidations and Quantified Demands for landlords, and responses for tenants, prepared to the Dilapidations Protocol.

Discuss Your Requirements

Overview

Lease end approaching, a break date to meet, or a claim served on you: each needs a different first step.

Most commercial leases oblige the tenant to repair, decorate and reinstate alterations. Dilapidations is the process of holding a tenant to those obligations, during the term or when the lease ends, and of putting a fair value on any breach.

Why it matters

In dilapidations the paperwork is the claim. Every item has to be tied to the right lease clause or licence, reconciled against any schedule of condition, evidenced and costed. A schedule prepared that way settles; one that overreaches gets argued, and the Protocol expects both sides to act reasonably and proportionately.

Interim Schedules

During the term, to get repairs done while the lease still runs, before they become a larger claim at the end.

Terminal Schedules

At or near lease end, with a Quantified Demand setting out the works, fees, loss of rent and VAT claimed.

Responding for Tenants

Reviewing a landlord’s schedule item by item, testing liability and cost, and negotiating a fair settlement.

What you receive

An analysis of the lease, licences to alter and any schedules of condition.
A schedule with each breach referenced to its clause, the remedy specified and the cost of each item.
A dated photographic record of every item claimed.
A Quantified Demand, or a response to one, served in line with the Dilapidations Protocol.
Negotiation between advisers towards settlement.

Who it is for

Landlords, property companies and estate owners enforcing repairing obligations, and tenants and occupiers facing a claim, on offices, retail and industrial premises across London, the South East and the East of England.

The work is scaled to the holding: a single unit gets the same rigour as a headquarters building, with effort in proportion to what is at stake.

The RICS standard

Dilapidations in England and Wales
RICS professional standard, 7th edition, first published in 2016 as a guidance note and reissued as a professional standard in December 2023

Appointment: RICS Dilapidations Services, under the RICS Short Form of Consultant’s Appointment for Designated Services.

This is the standard RICS members follow when acting in dilapidations. It covers how the surveyor takes instructions, inspects, and prepares each document in a claim, for landlords and tenants alike, during a lease, at a break and at lease end.

It works alongside the Dilapidations Protocol, the pre-action protocol the courts expect both parties to follow before a claim is issued. Together they push both sides towards an early, evidenced settlement rather than litigation.

“advise members on the factors they should take into consideration”
RICS, Dilapidations in England and Wales

Key terms

Schedule of Dilapidations: The itemised list of breaches of the tenant’s repairing and other lease covenants, with the remedial work each requires.
Quantified Demand: The landlord’s costed claim, served with the schedule, setting out the sum sought and how it is made up.
Response: The tenant’s item by item reply to the schedule and Quantified Demand.
Scott Schedule: A single table setting each disputed item with both parties’ positions side by side, used to narrow the dispute.
Diminution valuation: Under section 18(1) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927, damages for disrepair cannot exceed the loss in value of the landlord’s interest. A diminution valuation tests that cap.

How this maps to your RICS appointment

Dilapidations instructions are appointed under the RICS Dilapidations Services schedule, used with the RICS Short Form of Consultant’s Appointment for Designated Services. The headings below follow that schedule, for landlords and for tenants, so the services you see here are the services you tick in your appointment.

Lease end schedule

For the landlord: the Schedule of Dilapidations prepared before or after the lease ends, or an existing schedule brought up to date.

Quantified Demand

The costed claim, evidenced one way where the landlord carries out the remedial works and another where it does not.

During the term

A schedule to support a repairs notice while the lease still runs, or the tenant’s reply to one.

Break options

A schedule for the landlord, or advice to the tenant on the works needed, where a break clause turns on compliance.

Acting for the tenant

The Scott Schedule response at lease end, advice on the works the lease requires, and claims against a landlord.

Settlement

Negotiation between advisers, and support for your case through expert determination, mediation or arbitration if it goes further.

Case studies

£357,000

Evidenced item by item

East London offices, with over 260 photographs and nothing padded, served ready for a meeting between advisers.

Read the case study

£100,000

Proportionate, for a portfolio landlord

A smaller north London holding at the end of a ten year lease, with the same Protocol rigour at a cost that made the claim worth pursuing.