How a Schedule of Condition protects you
The protection is simple but powerful. When a landlord serves a dilapidations claim at the end of a lease, your liability is assessed against the condition recorded in the Schedule. Pre-existing defects, wear and weathering captured in the Schedule cannot be laid at your door, because the evidence shows they were there before you took occupation. Without a Schedule, you are in the far weaker position of trying to prove, often years later, that a defect pre-dated your tenancy, usually with no contemporaneous evidence to rely on. The Schedule shifts the argument decisively in your favour and removes the uncertainty. For a modest cost at the start of the lease, you protect yourself against a claim that could run to tens of thousands of pounds at the end of it.
What our Bournemouth Schedule of Condition includes
We carry out a thorough inspection of the property and produce a clear, professionally presented Schedule combining detailed written descriptions with comprehensive, annotated photographs. We record the structure and external fabric, including roofs, elevations, render and windows; the internal condition, including floors, walls, ceilings and finishes; and the services and external areas, as appropriate to the property and your lease. On Bournemouth’s coastal and older buildings we take particular care to document existing weathering, corrosion, cracking and damp, exactly the issues most likely to feature in a future dilapidations claim. Our roof and high-level inspections use drone technology as standard and at no additional cost, ensuring that even the tall or difficult-to-access parts of a building, often the most contentious at lease end, are properly recorded. The finished Schedule is prepared to be annexed to your lease, so it carries full contractual weight.
When to instruct us
The essential point is that a Schedule of Condition must be prepared before you complete on the lease, so it can be annexed to the lease and referred to in the repairing covenant. The best time to instruct us is during lease negotiations, once you have agreed heads of terms but before you sign, so there is time to inspect the property and prepare the Schedule, and for your solicitor to reference it correctly in the lease. If you are negotiating a lease on a Bournemouth commercial property, involve us early so the protection is in place from day one. If you have already been offered a lease and completion is approaching, contact us promptly and we will move quickly.
Why Bournemouth tenants choose us
We combine genuine technical expertise, including with the coastal and period buildings so common in Bournemouth, with a personable, responsive approach. Every client deals directly with a chartered building surveyor, our Schedules are thorough and professionally presented so they carry real evidential weight, and we work to your lease timetable. Because we also handle dilapidations claims, we know precisely what a well-prepared Schedule of Condition needs to contain to protect you effectively when a claim is eventually made, and we prepare every Schedule with that end firmly in mind. We have saved clients over one million pounds through our dilapidations and lease advisory work, and a robust Schedule of Condition is one of the simplest ways we help tenants avoid unnecessary cost.
Schedule of Condition or Commercial Building Survey?
Tenants sometimes ask how a Schedule of Condition differs from a building survey, and whether they need both. They serve different purposes. A Schedule of Condition is a factual record of the property’s condition at lease start, prepared specifically to limit your dilapidations liability, and annexed to the lease. A Commercial Building Survey is a broader assessment of a building’s condition and defects, prepared to inform a purchase or leasing decision. For a tenant taking a lease, the two work well together: the survey helps you understand what you are taking on and negotiate terms, while the Schedule of Condition protects your position at the end of the lease. Where both are instructed together, we can carry them out efficiently and offer a reduced overall fee, and we are always happy to advise on which you need for your particular situation.
Who we prepare Schedules of Condition for in Bournemouth
We act for the full range of commercial tenants across Bournemouth, from small independent businesses taking their first lease to established occupiers and national operators. We prepare Schedules of Condition for office tenants in the town centre and Lansdowne district, retail and leisure occupiers across the centre, Boscombe and Westbourne, and industrial and trade occupiers on the estates around the conurbation. The common thread is that all of them benefit from the same protection: a clear, contemporaneous record of the property’s condition that caps their repairing liability and removes the uncertainty from a future dilapidations claim. Smaller occupiers in particular often do not realise, until it is too late, how large an end-of-lease dilapidations claim can be, and how effectively a modest Schedule of Condition at the outset can limit it. Whatever the size of your business or the property you are taking, we bring the same rigour to protecting your position.
