Tenant

As a tenant, we understand that you may not be fully aware of certain pitfalls prior to lease commencement. While your legal advisors may add, amend, or omit certain lease clauses, we can provide further detail as to which clauses may expose you to liabilities either during your tenancy or at lease end.

Furthermore, we can also liaise with your legal advisors and highlight potential liabilities at the start, during or end of your lease period via our Pre-Lease Survey.

Our Pre-Lease Survey would highlight issues with the building fabric that are apparent at lease commencement or could become an issue during occupation, such as roof repairs. We would review the draft lease and provide our comments and recommendations against relevant lease covenants.

Our findings can be directed back to the Lessor, with any amendments or required actions undertaken prior to signing the lease. The purpose of this survey would be to:

• Reduce your initial outlay on repairs or investigations.

• Provide you an indication of potential issues during your tenancy.

• Make you aware of the salient lease clauses when lease end approaches.

Prior to the signing of your lease, we would always recommend the undertaking of a photographic Schedule of Condition. This document records the description and condition of the premises through photographic evidence prior to you entering into the lease agreement. The purpose is to protect and limit your end of tenancy liabilities with regards to Dilapidations.

This schedule can be reviewed by both the landlord and tenant, with both parties providing their mutual agreement to the content. The document is then appended to the lease and can be used as a reference point for any potential future disputes relating to the condition of the property.

While the content of the schedule provides evidence, it does not guarantee a reduced liability for the tenant. The liability is generally determined by the tenant activities while in occupation. Any deterioration beyond the level exhibited in the schedule, is likely to be included for repair at the end of the tenancy.

Prior to signing a new lease, we would encourage you to confirm with your legal advisors that a Licence for Alteration clause is included. The inclusion of this clause typically permits the tenant to make alteration works (Tenant Alterations) to the premises to suit business purposes.

The condition to such works being permitted, is that they would typically require reinstatement prior to your tenancy termination. Failing reinstatement, the landlord would likely recover their reinstatement through dilapidations at lease end.

As your end of tenancy approaches, attention should turn towards Dilapidations. Depending on the length of your tenancy, we would recommend this is circa 18 months prior to lease expiry. See our Dilapidations: Tenant Guide for further information.

The purpose of the Dilapidations Assessment can be considered two-fold.

The first is to assess your potential dilapidations liability from the landlord’s position. This would provide you with the potential financial implications relating to a financial settlement, enabling you to allocate budgets if your preference is a cash settlement.

The second purpose is to provide you with an indication of the potential breaches associated with the premises. This provides you the opportunity to undertake the works yourselves, limiting financial exposure at lease end. By undertaking the Dilapidations Assessment well in advance of the lease termination, you provide yourselves the time to carry out the works.

Generally, a schedule of dilapidations is served on tenants by the landlord or their surveyor at the end, or just prior to your tenancy termination. Schedules of Dilapidations can be served on the tenant during the lease (interim), but this is not commonplace.

The schedule will likely include claimed breaches according to the lease covenants. We can enter into negotiations with the landlord’s surveyor on your behalf. We would undertake an initial review of the schedule against the lease.

There are a couple of purposes for the initial review. The first is to substantiate whether the claim is fair, or whether some or all of the claim can be defended. The second is to negotiate the costs of the remedies associated with the breaches.

We have the experience to act on your behalf and defend your position against the schedule and can also liaise with your legal team to agree a strategy with progressing the claim.

If you have been served a Schedule of Dilapidations (interim or terminal) and are not aware of what you need to action, please get in touch with our team.

You may have been in your current property for some time and those niggling defects continue to disrupt the business. They may not always be considered a priority if not directly affecting your daily activities, but may lead to something more serious with wider implications.

As a result, if this is not dealt with during your tenancy, a greater liability may become apparent at lease end, when served a schedule of dilapidations.

Allow us to inspect, review and provide you with our recommendations as to whether the defect requires attention or not.