Tenant Dilapidations Surveyor Winchester

Standing up to the large corporate firms

We want Winchester tenants to understand this clearly: a dilapidations claim from a large national surveying firm, however formidable it looks, is not beyond challenge. Many claims are prepared by big corporate practices for institutional landlords, and they arrive lengthy, detailed and confidently presented, intended to feel final and non-negotiable. They are nothing of the sort. Much of what they contain can be contested, reduced or removed, and a polished claim is not the same as a correct one. We are not intimidated by the major firms in the slightest. We deal with their schedules regularly, we know their tactics and the items that habitually fall away under proper scrutiny, and we genuinely enjoy holding them to account line by line.

Our clients get a senior chartered surveyor personally testing every element of the claim, matching the landlord’s expertise and deploying it entirely for the tenant. We have saved clients over one million pounds through dilapidations negotiation, much of it by firmly challenging claims that a less experienced adviser might have waved through.

How we defend your dilapidations claim

Our approach is methodical and entirely focused on reducing your liability. We start by reviewing your lease, the repairing, decorating, reinstatement and yielding-up obligations, plus any schedule of condition and alteration licences, to establish what you are genuinely liable for, which on a Winchester period building can be more limited than the landlord suggests. We inspect the property and assess the claim item by item, removing anything that is not your responsibility, that is betterment, that is overstated, or that is defeated by the lease or a schedule of condition. We consider the Section 18 cap, which can limit your liability to the real loss in value to the landlord’s interest, often far less than the works claimed, a point that can be especially significant for older buildings. We then prepare your response and negotiate directly with the landlord’s surveyor to secure a fair settlement. Roof and high-level inspections use drone technology as standard and at no extra cost, which is particularly useful on the tall, complex roofs of the city’s older buildings.

What kind of tenant we help in Winchester

We act for all kinds of commercial occupiers across Winchester, including office tenants in period and listed buildings in the city centre, retail tenants on the High Street and in the Brooks, and industrial and trade occupiers on the Winnall estate and Easton Lane. Whether you are a small independent business facing a first dilapidations claim or a larger occupier leaving a substantial building, you get the same senior, determined representation, delivered by a surveyor who knows the city. If your lease has not yet ended, the sooner you involve us, the more we can do to plan and reduce your exposure.

When to come to us

Approach us as early as possible, ideally before your lease ends, or as soon as a claim or schedule of dilapidations arrives. Dilapidations claims usually follow strict Dilapidations Protocol timetables, and early advice gives us maximum room to protect you. Even so, if a claim has been outstanding for a while or negotiations have stalled, it is rarely too late for us to step in and improve matters. Whatever you do, do not pay a Winchester landlord’s opening claim without having it independently reviewed, because the opening figure is so frequently negotiable.

Common items we challenge in Winchester dilapidations claims

Acting for tenants in a city of older buildings, we know where claims tend to overreach. We regularly challenge demands to restore or replace historic fabric well beyond what the lease requires; full redecoration where the obligation is narrower; reinstatement of alterations that were licensed or that the landlord would rather keep; upgrading of services and finishes that amounts to betterment; and professional fees or loss of rent that are not properly recoverable. In Winchester’s period and listed buildings especially, landlords sometimes seek to fund heritage restoration through a dilapidations claim, and we are careful to hold them to the actual terms of the lease and any schedule of condition rather than their wish-list. Every item reduced or removed is money kept in your business.

Tenant-only, with no conflict of interest

Who you instruct, and whose side they are truly on, matters. 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 wholly and only in your corner. Any concern that a surveyor who also acts for landlords elsewhere might temper their approach simply does not apply to us on your claim. Our entire focus is the minimum you are properly liable for and the most robust evidence-based case for achieving it. That clear alignment with your interests, paired with our willingness to take on the largest landlord-side firms, is what makes the real difference to what you finally pay.

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’.