Dilapidations: how much might you really owe?
A schedule of dilapidations is a landlord's list of repair, reinstatement and redecoration works they say you owe at the end of a commercial lease — and the figure is often far higher than what you actually end up paying. This checker helps a commercial tenant see which factors could reduce or cap that claim before you respond.
How it works
Tell the checker where you are — a schedule already received, a lease ending soon, or an interim schedule mid-term — and what your lease actually requires, from full repairing and insuring down to internal decoration only. It points to the parts of the claim most likely to be open to challenge.
A dilapidations claim is rarely the headline number. The works claimed have to be ones your lease genuinely obliges you to do; the cost has to be reasonable; and the damages a landlord can recover are capped by section 18(1) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927 at the amount by which your disrepair has actually reduced the value of the landlord’s interest. If the landlord is redeveloping or reletting in a way that overtakes the works — ‘supersession’ — that can reduce the claim to very little.
Timing matters too. An interim schedule served mid-term is handled differently from a terminal schedule at lease end, and the landlord is expected to follow the Dilapidations Protocol. Responding well, and early, usually settles the figure for far less than first asked.
Treat the result as a starting point, not a valuation. The right response depends on your specific lease and the state of the property, so it is worth having the schedule reviewed against your lease before you reply or pay anything.
Questions about Dilapidations: how much might you really owe?
It depends on your lease, the time left, the landlord's intentions and whether the works are practical to carry out — sometimes doing them is cheaper than paying damages, and sometimes it is not.
The works have to be ones your lease actually requires, the costs have to be reasonable, the section 18 cap applies, and the landlord's own plans for the property may overtake them. Each of these can bring the figure down, often substantially.
There is no fixed statutory deadline, but you should not ignore it — the Dilapidations Protocol expects a reasoned response within a reasonable period, and early engagement almost always settles the claim for less.
We can review the schedule against your lease, work out what is really owed and deal with the landlord for you. We charge by the hour and set out a written estimate at the start, with no charge for that first conversation.
A landlord serves it during a lease (an interim schedule) or at the end (a terminal schedule), and it is based on the repairing, reinstatement and decoration obligations written into your lease.
If the landlord intends to refurbish, alter or redevelop in a way that would undo or replace the works on the schedule, you should not have to pay for works that are about to be torn out anyway.
An interim schedule, served during the term, is about getting the property repaired while the lease continues; a terminal schedule, at or near the end, is usually about money. They are handled differently.
So even where the works would cost a large sum, if the building's value is not reduced by that much — for example because the landlord is redeveloping — the damages they can actually recover may be far lower, or nothing.
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