Tenant Dilapidations Surveyor Central London

Standing up to the large corporate firms and pension funds

We want smaller Central London tenants to hear this clearly. A dilapidations claim from a big-name surveying firm, acting for a pension fund or institutional landlord, is not the unchallengeable document it appears to be. We are not in the least intimidated by the major practices or the institutions behind them. We deal with their claims regularly, we know the tactics, the standard inflations and the items that routinely drop away under proper scrutiny, and we take real satisfaction in holding them to account line by line on behalf of a smaller client. Institutional landlords rely on the assumption that a smaller tenant will not have specialist advice and will pay up rather than push back. The moment you instruct a chartered surveyor who knows how these claims are built, that assumption collapses, and the negotiation shifts onto the evidence and the lease, where it belongs. We have saved clients over one million pounds through dilapidations negotiation, much of it by robustly challenging claims that a smaller tenant, unadvised, might have paid in full.

How we defend your dilapidations claim

Our approach is methodical and aimed squarely at reducing your liability to the minimum properly due. First, we review your lease, including the repairing, decorating, reinstatement and yielding-up covenants, any schedule of condition, and any licences for alterations, to establish what you are genuinely liable for. Next, we inspect the property and work through the landlord’s claim item by item, stripping out anything that is not your responsibility, that represents betterment improving the landlord’s asset, that is overstated, or that falls away because of the lease terms or a schedule of condition. We assess the diminution in value under Section 18 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927, which can cap your liability at the actual loss to the landlord’s interest, frequently far less than the cost of the works being claimed, and a particularly powerful argument where an institutional landlord intends to redevelop or re-let with works of its own. We then prepare your formal response and negotiate directly with the landlord’s surveyor, holding firm on the evidence to reach a fair settlement. Our roof and high-level inspections use drone technology as standard and at no additional cost.

The Central London submarkets we cover

Central London is many markets, and we act for smaller tenants across all of them. In the City and the fringe markets we assist office occupiers facing reinstatement and repair claims on space they are leaving. In the West End, Mayfair and Midtown we act on offices, retail and restaurant units, including in the period and listed buildings common to those areas, where claims can be complicated by heritage considerations. In Clerkenwell, Holborn, Victoria and the surrounding districts we help occupiers of converted and mixed-use commercial premises. Wherever in the centre your premises sit, and whoever your landlord, you receive senior, determined representation from a chartered surveyor focused entirely on your position.

Common items we challenge in Central London dilapidations claims

Long experience acting for tenants means we know exactly where institutional claims tend to overreach. We routinely challenge demands for the full replacement of building elements where the lease requires only repair; for the reinstatement of fit-out and alterations that were approved under licence, or that the landlord would in fact prefer to retain; for redecoration and finishes that go beyond the true obligation; for upgrading that amounts to betterment; and for professional fees and loss of rent that are not properly recoverable. On Central London offices in particular, claims for the strip-out and reinstatement of tenant fit-out are frequently among the largest and most negotiable items, especially where the landlord is likely to refit the space for the next occupier in any event. Every item we remove or reduce is money that stays in your business.

Tenant-only, with no conflict of interest

When you are the smaller party against a major institution, knowing whose side your surveyor is truly on matters enormously. We will not act for your landlord. Under RICS rules a firm cannot act for both parties to the same dilapidations claim, and when we act for a tenant we are wholly and only on your side. Some tenants worry that a surveyor who also takes instructions from large landlords elsewhere might temper their approach; that is never a concern with us on your claim. Our entire focus is the minimum sum you are properly liable for and the strongest evidence-based case for getting there. That single-minded alignment with your interests, combined with our willingness to take on the very largest landlord-side firms and the institutions behind them, is what makes the difference to the final figure you pay.

What it costs, and why it pays for itself

Smaller tenants are often surprised by how cost-effective expert representation is. Our fee for assessing and negotiating a dilapidations claim is typically a small fraction of the reduction we achieve, so the exercise very frequently pays for itself many times over. Fees depend mainly on the size and type of the property and the complexity of the claim, and we are always clear and transparent about them from the outset. For a smaller business facing a five or six figure claim from an institutional landlord, the question is rarely whether expert defence is worthwhile, but how much we can save, and we will give you an honest view of that at the very start, before you commit to anything.

When to come to us

Come to us as early as possible, ideally the moment a claim or a schedule of dilapidations arrives, or even before, if you can see your lease end approaching. Dilapidations claims often run to strict timetables under the Dilapidations Protocol, and early advice gives us the most room to protect you. Even if a claim has been sitting unresolved for some time, or negotiations have stalled, it is rarely too late for us to step in and improve your position. The single most important thing for any smaller Central London tenant is not to simply pay an institutional landlord’s opening claim without having it independently checked, because that opening figure is so often substantially negotiable.

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 will review all the lease documents, the Landlord’s claim and inspect the property. From their we then provide a professional and detailed line by line response to the Landlord and/or their surveyors to start the negotiations of the claim. We will also provide you with our professional recommendations and opinions on where the claim is likely to end up based on this initial review.

For this stage we base our fees 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 £195 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’.