Tenant Dilapidations Surveyor Basingstoke

Standing up to the large corporate firms

We want Basingstoke tenants to understand this: an intimidating claim from a major national surveying firm is not the final word it pretends to be. Many dilapidations claims, especially on the larger institutional-owned units around the town, are prepared by big corporate practices, and they arrive long, detailed and confidently presented, engineered to feel non-negotiable. They are not. A great deal of what they contain can be challenged, reduced or struck out, and a large, polished claim is not necessarily an accurate one. We are not intimidated by the big firms at all. We handle their schedules regularly, we know the standard inflations and tactics, and we relish holding them to account item by item. Our tenants get a senior chartered surveyor personally contesting every element of the claim, matching the landlord’s expertise and applying it wholly for the tenant. We have saved clients over one million pounds through dilapidations negotiation, a great deal of it by robustly challenging claims that a less confident adviser might simply have accepted, and on Basingstoke’s large units the sums at stake make that determination especially worthwhile.

How we defend your dilapidations claim

Our approach is thorough and focused entirely on reducing your liability to the minimum properly due. We begin by reviewing your lease, including the repairing, decorating, reinstatement and yielding-up covenants, along with any schedule of condition and alteration licences, to establish your genuine liability. We then inspect the property and assess the landlord’s claim item by item, removing anything that is not your responsibility, that represents betterment, that is overstated, or that falls away under the lease or a schedule of condition. We consider the Section 18 cap, which can limit your liability to the actual loss in value to the landlord’s interest, often far below the cost of the works claimed, a point that can be highly significant on a large building. We then prepare your response and negotiate directly with the landlord’s surveyor to drive the figure down to a fair settlement. Our roof and high-level inspections use drone technology as standard and at no additional cost, which is especially valuable on the extensive roofs of Basingstoke’s industrial units.

What kind of tenant we help in Basingstoke

We act for commercial occupiers of all kinds across Basingstoke, including office tenants at Basing View and across the town centre, industrial, warehouse and distribution occupiers along the M3 corridor and on the Daneshill and Houndmills estates, and retail and trade-counter tenants throughout the town. Whether you are a small business facing a first claim or a national operator exiting a large distribution unit, you receive the same senior, determined representation. If your lease has not yet ended, involving us early gives us the best chance to plan, budget and reduce your exposure before a claim is made, which on a large unit can mean very significant savings.

When to come to us

Come to us as early as possible, ideally before the lease ends, or the moment a schedule of dilapidations or claim arrives. These claims usually follow strict Dilapidations Protocol timescales, and early advice gives us the greatest scope to protect you. Even if a claim has been sitting unresolved for some time, or negotiations have stalled, it is seldom too late for us to step in and improve your position. The one thing we would urge any Basingstoke tenant not to do is to pay an opening claim without having it independently checked, because on a large unit in particular, that opening figure is so often heavily negotiable.

Common items we challenge in Basingstoke dilapidations claims

Extensive experience acting for tenants means we know where Basingstoke claims, particularly on large units, tend to overreach. We routinely challenge claims for full roof and cladding replacement where repair is all the lease requires, which on big industrial roofs can involve very large sums; redecoration beyond the genuine obligation; reinstatement of alterations that were licensed or that the landlord would prefer to keep; service, floor and finish upgrades amounting to betterment; and professional fees or loss of rent that are not properly recoverable. On the M3-corridor distribution units we pay particular attention to inflated claims for roofs, floor slabs, yards and loading doors, where the largest overstatements usually sit. Every item we reduce or remove is money retained by your business.

Tenant-only, with no conflict of interest

When the sums are large, knowing whose side your surveyor is truly on matters all the more. We will not act for your landlord. RICS rules prevent a firm from acting for both parties to the same dilapidations claim, and when we act for a tenant we are entirely and only on your side. If you have ever worried that a surveyor who also takes landlord work elsewhere might pull their punches, that is never a concern with us on your claim. Our sole focus is the minimum you are genuinely liable for and the strongest evidence-led case for getting there. That undivided alignment with your interests, combined with our willingness to take on the very largest landlord-side firms, is what shapes the final figure, and on Basingstoke’s large units, the savings can be considerable.

Our fees are usually structured in two stages.

1. The initial review and response
2. Negotiation to settlement

Stage 1 – Initial review and response

For the initial review and response stage we base these on a fixed amount based on the property size, as per the table below.

Stage 2 – Negotiations

For this stage we typically offer incentivised fees which are linked to the amount of saving we achieve, calculated from the Landlord’s original claim and the subsequently agreed settlement figure. We typically apply a percentage of between 5% and 10% depending on the size and complexity of the claim and in some cases for large claims we can agree a fee cap.

We can also offer our fees on an hourly rate of £175 per hour (plus VAT).

All our fees are fully inclusive of travel, office and disbursement costs in order to carry out our services, with no ‘hidden extras’.