Terminal Schedule of Dilapidations for a Mixed Retail & Residential Property

Project Overview

When a commercial lease came to an end on a three-storey property in Smethwick, a ground-floor shop with two flats above, the landlord needed to recover the cost of putting right the tenant’s accumulated breaches of the lease. AXIOS Building Consultants was appointed to inspect the premises and prepare a terminal Schedule of Dilapidations: the formal, costed statement of what the tenant should have repaired, decorated and reinstated but had not.

A terminal schedule is how a landlord quantifies and recovers dilapidations at lease end. It sets each breach against the specific covenants of the lease, describes the remedial work required, and prices it, giving both parties a clear, evidenced basis for negotiation under the Dilapidations Protocol. AXIOS prepared the schedule from a full inspection of the whole demise and served it in the format the Protocol requires.

The AXIOS Role

AXIOS acted for the landlord from inspection through to a served, Protocol-compliant claim:

• Inspected the entire demise: the shop and rear store, the two self-contained flats, and the external envelope front and rear
• Identified each breach of the tenant’s repairing, decorating, reinstatement and statutory-compliance covenants
• Referenced every item to the specific lease clauses under which the obligation arises
• Set out the remedial works required and costed them across repair, redecoration and reinstatement
• Compiled a full photographic appendix cross-referenced to the schedule
• Prepared the landlord’s claim summary, including preliminaries, professional allowances and the Section 18(1) and VAT considerations
• Served the schedule under the Pre-Action Dilapidations Protocol, with the surveyor’s endorsement and an offer to meet on the tenant’s response

The Property

The premises are a traditional three-storey mid-terrace building of solid brickwork with a rendered front elevation, pitched and flat roofs and timber-framed windows. At ground floor is a retail unit with a rear store; above are two self-contained residential flats, one to first floor and one to second. The building had been left vacant at lease end, allowing the whole demise (shop, flats, roofs and both elevations) to be inspected and recorded.

Anatomy of the Claim

The schedule ran to more than sixty separate items, grouped by location and by the nature of the breach. Across the external envelope it recorded damaged and misaligned rainwater goods, decayed timber fascias, soffits and window frames, cracked and failed render, damaged shopfront glazing and roller shutters, a redundant illuminated sign left in situ, and a mineral-felt flat roof in poor condition with water ingress to the rooms below. To the rear it recorded vegetation-choked gutters, missing rainwater goods, a poorly formed lean-to and a debris-filled yard. Internally, across the shop and both flats, it captured worn and soiled floor and ceiling finishes, extensive redecoration, damaged and missing fire doors and ironmongery, and a catalogue of poor and unsafe electrical work: scorched sockets, exposed wiring and missing fittings. A final compliance section addressed the absence of electrical, emergency-lighting, fire-alarm and asbestos certification at lease end. Each item was tied to the relevant lease clause and priced under the appropriate head, repair, redecoration or reinstatement.

The Dilapidations Process

Because the claim engages the Dilapidations Protocol, the schedule was structured to be served and then responded to. It sets out the surveyor’s formal endorsement that the works are reasonably required and the costs reasonable; it invites the tenant to respond, item by item, within the Protocol’s timescale; and it offers a meeting to narrow the issues. The landlord’s claim summary also flags the matters that shape the final figure, contractor preliminaries and professional oversight, the diminution cap under Section 18(1) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927, and the treatment of VAT, so both sides can see how the claim is built.

Site Photographs

Photographs from the AXIOS inspection, cross-referenced to the schedule: the rendered front elevation, the stripped-out ground-floor shop, and the rear elevation, extension and yard. Identifying details have been removed from the photographs and the location is given only to area level.

What AXIOS Delivered

• A terminal Schedule of Dilapidations covering the whole demise: shop, two flats and both elevations
• More than sixty scheduled breaches, each referenced to the relevant lease clause
• Remedial works described and costed across repair, redecoration and reinstatement
• A full photographic appendix cross-referenced to the schedule
• A landlord’s claim summary with preliminaries, professional allowances and Section 18(1) and VAT considerations
• A Protocol-compliant document, endorsed by the surveyor and served on the tenant

Outcome

AXIOS delivered a complete, evidenced terminal Schedule of Dilapidations that put a clear, costed figure on the landlord’s claim and set it out in the form the Dilapidations Protocol requires. By tying every breach to the lease and supporting it with photographs, the schedule gave the landlord a robust basis to recover the cost of the tenant’s unperformed obligations, and a clear framework for the negotiation that follows service.