How we stand apart from the large corporate firms
The big national and City practices do competent work, but their model has real drawbacks for many clients. Your instruction is often handed down to a junior surveyor while a senior name fronts the relationship; fees are heavy, reflecting large overheads and central London offices; and communication can be slow, layered through account managers and support teams. For a single dilapidations claim, that can mean paying corporate rates for junior delivery.
We deliberately work differently. Every client is allocated a chartered building surveyor who handles the matter personally, so the person who inspects your property is the person who negotiates your claim and answers your calls. Our overheads are lean, which means our fees are sensible and transparent, without compromising on the quality of advice. We are responsive and direct, giving you straight answers quickly rather than routing you through layers of administration. And we bring senior, hands-on experience to every instruction, having advised on over 500,000 square feet of commercial space and saved clients more than one million pounds through careful, evidence-led dilapidations negotiation. In short, you get City expertise without the corporate machine.
Real results in Central London
Our experience is not theoretical. We acted for a commercial tenant at Old Jewry in the City of London on a dilapidations matter and, through detailed assessment and robust negotiation, saved our client £158,000 against the landlord’s claim. We have also provided reinstatement and building consultancy advice on commercial property in Belgravia, in the heart of prime Central London. These are the kinds of outcomes that come from senior surveyors applying genuine expertise to the detail of a claim, rather than processing it through a standard template. For a landlord or tenant weighing up who to instruct, that £158,000 saving is the clearest possible illustration of what specialist, motivated advice is worth.
Our Central London dilapidations services
We provide the complete range of dilapidations consultancy for both landlords and tenants, though never both on the same claim. For landlords, we prepare interim and terminal schedules of dilapidations, served in line with the Dilapidations Protocol, and negotiate claims to recover the cost of the tenant’s breaches. For tenants, we prepare dilapidations assessment reports that establish your true liability, scrutinise and challenge overstated landlord claims, and negotiate settlements that reflect what is genuinely recoverable. We also advise at the start of a lease, where a Schedule of Condition can dramatically limit a tenant’s future exposure, and we act as expert witness where a dilapidations dispute proceeds toward litigation. Throughout, our roof and high-level inspections use drone technology as standard and at no additional cost, which is particularly valuable on tall City buildings where access would otherwise be slow and expensive.
How a dilapidations claim works, and how we protect your position
A dilapidations claim turns on evidence and on a correct understanding of the lease. As a tenant, you are generally liable only for genuine breaches of your repairing, decorating and reinstatement covenants, and your liability may be capped by the diminution in the value of the landlord’s interest under Section 18 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927. Landlords’ opening claims frequently overstate the position, including items that are not recoverable, betterment, or works the landlord never intends to carry out. Our job as your surveyor is to test every line of the claim against the lease and the evidence, strip out what is not properly due, and negotiate hard on what remains. For landlords, our role is the mirror image: to build a properly evidenced, defensible schedule that recovers your genuine loss and withstands scrutiny. Either way, the quality of the surveyor’s assessment is what determines the outcome, and in a high-value Central London claim that difference is measured in tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds.
A surveyor who knows Central London’s submarkets
Central London is not one market but many, and dilapidations exposure varies across them. City of London office towers bring high-specification fit-out and demanding reinstatement clauses. The West End and Mayfair mix prime offices with period and listed buildings where repairs require care and, often, consents. Midtown, Holborn and Clerkenwell hold a great deal of converted and characterful commercial stock. Retail and restaurant units across the centre carry their own fit-out and shopfront reinstatement issues. Knowing how claims typically run in each of these submarkets, and what landlords and their surveyors tend to push for, is a real advantage at the negotiating table, and it is the kind of market knowledge that only comes from working here rather than processing files at scale.
Who we help in Central London
We act for a broad range of clients across Central London, including commercial tenants facing a terminal dilapidations claim at lease end; landlords and investors protecting the value of their assets; occupiers planning an exit who want to budget for and minimise their liability; and solicitors and agents seeking a responsive, expert surveyor for their clients. Whether you occupy a single floor or manage a portfolio, you receive the same senior attention.
How quickly can you act on a Central London instruction?
Dilapidations matters are often time-sensitive, particularly as lease expiry approaches or where a claim has already been served and deadlines are running. Because your matter is handled directly by a senior surveyor rather than queued through a corporate workflow, we can usually respond quickly, arrange an inspection promptly, and keep your claim moving. If you are working to a lease expiry date or a Protocol deadline, tell us and we will work to it.
