Dilapidations Help! – From DilapsHelp.com

What we can do for you

The following is for the landlord / investor and the tenant / lessee.

We offer four levels of service:

• The Advisor Role
• The Expert Role
• The Negotiator Role
• The expert Witness Role

You choose which one is most suitable for your needs.

Advice you can make business decisions upon – Advisor Role for the Leaseholder

As specialist Chartered Surveyors we always recommend that initially you instruct us to advise on the strategy and tactics of a Dilapidations claim. There is no point in looking at the nitty gritty of a claim before you have the overview and your strategic position based upon this. Our understanding of the following will enable us to give you commonsense, realistic advice:

• Business
• Property
• Schedules of Condition
• Schedules of Dilapidations
• The Law of Property Act 1925 (and associated amendments!)
• The Landlord and Tenant Act 1927 (and associated amendments!)
• The Leasehold Property (Repairs) Act 1938 (and associated amendments!)
• The Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (and associated amendments!)
• Section 18 Valuations
• The Property Litigation Association's recommended Protocol

We can offer a devil's advocate type role where we look at ‘what if' scenarios to establish the route that most suits your situation best. There may be many implications, which could be anything from the timing of the Dilapidations claim, to the cost, to VAT implications etc; we can look at all these scenarios in a day and advise you.

We advise, you decide.

Expert Role Acting for the Landlord

This is where we are instructed to prepare a Schedule of Dilapidations and do so in the spirit of the Property Litigation Associations Protocol and in accordance with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Guidance Notes. We prepare a detailed report, bearing in mind your end goal, be it to have the repairs carried out or to agree a financial sum in compensation or gain control of the property again. We give commonsense realistic business Advice.

Expert Role Acting for the Leaseholder

We can comment on the Schedule of Dilapidations that has been served upon you or even the one that is likely to be served upon you. We can go through what can and can't be required under a Schedule of Dilapidations and your lease; it is surprising what the term ‘repair' within the lease does and does not cover. This type of work will involve:

• A visit to the property
• A review of the Schedule of Dilapidations,
• A review of the lease,
• A review of any supporting documents such as Schedules of Conditions served on ‘day one' or appended to the lease
• Side letters and any subsequent agreements for alterations, amendments and improvements to the property

We gather all the above altogether and comment upon the Schedule of Dilapidations that has been served on you and then, if you wish, go through item by item identifying whether it is a valid claim or not, identifying the extent of the claim and identifying a cost. For example, you may, like many, have an asbestos roof and within the Dilapidations Schedule be asked to repair or replace the roof due to defects. In this case we would be able to advise you of what is acceptable as a ‘repair' (this is specific to your property) and whether it is likely that if the claim went to court you would be asked to carry out something more substantial such as replacing the roof. Replacing asbestos roofs are not cheap, even the alternative, which is to encapsulate them, (which basically means to cover them above and below and seal them) can be very expensive and disruptive to your business beneath.

Negotiating for the Landlord

To negotiate on a Schedule of Dilapidations you have to know the rules of the game. It has been likened to a game of poker: you may not necessarily have the best but you can still ‘win' if you play skilfully with the hand that you have.

Negotiating for the Leaseholder / Tenant

Negotiation is normal within these situations and will put you in the best position possible, in line with our brief, and also position you correctly should the claim end up in court.

Dilapidations Negotiation – General Comment

Whether you use us or someone else to deal with your dilapidations it is very important to have an experienced, skilled, and knowledgeable Chartered Surveyor for the negotiations.

In the past we have come across large specialist surveying practices that have delegated the dilapidations claim because it is ‘small' in their eyes, compared with the other business they have got, to an associate or unqualified Chartered Surveyor; this is exactly what we want as we can literally tie them in knots. If you are just about to instruct a large specialist surveying company you should ensure that you have one of the partners carrying out your Dilapidations claim and not delegating it on to a junior member of staff.

We would add that if the dilapidations claim has been exaggerated or incompetently carried out or equally the response to the dilapidations claim has not been reasonable the Civil Procedures Rules (CPR) look very unfavourably on the party that has sought to distort the truth, slow the proceedings down or potentially de-fraud the other party. Therefore, you do need to know what you are doing with regard to dilapidations.

We negotiate, you decide.

Dilapidations – In Court – Expert Witness Role

We are happy and experienced in court work, preparing statements of truth, to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Practical Statement and Guidance Note, ‘surveyors acting as expert witnesses'; we are also fully aware of our legal obligation to comply with the Civil Procedures Rules (CPR), which developed to enable full exchange of information before proceedings are issued and to avoid litigation where possible, and generally to support the affective management of the proceedings where litigation cannot be avoided. We provide commonsense, realistic business advice on your dilapidation's claim, either working for the Landlord or the tenant.

If you want to know more please call www.DilapsHelp.com on 0800 298 5424.