Dilapidations

What we do: Whether you're a landlord protecting asset value or a tenant managing lease-end liability or break options, we quantify dilapidations obligations, provide strategic advice and help you negotiate fair outcomes.

For tenants:

  • Pre-lease assessments (understand what you're taking on)

  • Mid-lease advice (plan your exit strategy)

  • Schedules of condition (limit your liability from day one)

  • Dilapidations assessments for tax reporting purposes

  • Claims defence and negotiation

For landlords:

  • Lease-end assessments

  • Schedule of dilapidations preparation

  • Claims negotiation and recovery

  • Reinstatement project oversight

For investors/M&A transactions:

  • Dilapidations assessments as part of technical due diligence

Track record:
We've negotiated dilapidations settlements saving tenant clients 47% to 87% on initial landlord claims, and recovered 85%+ of costs for landlords.

How our team’s dilapidations work has helped our clients make better property decisions

Dirty, broken window with spiderwebs and damaged wire mesh, with blurred outdoor scenery in the background. It is of a commercial property and depicts disrepair in a dilapidations or building survey context.
Empty modern conference room with large windows overlooking a cityscape, long table with beige chairs, wall-mounted TV, and built-in seating with black cushions. It is of a commercial property and depicts reinstatement in a dilapidations context.

The case studies* below show the types of dilapidations projects we handle. We work for investors, landlords and tenants delivering claims management, portfolio dilapidations management and dilapidations assessments. Our negotiation-trained team members have provided clients with significant tactical advantages across all aspects of dilapidations over the years.

Each example shows what the client needed, what was found, and how it affected their business decisions.

*Where indicated, projects were delivered by the team member indicated prior to them joining Slipperfield. We present these as examples of the breadth of experience of the individuals named and the value they added to their clients.
Several open paint buckets and smaller cups filled with various bright colors of paint, such as orange, yellow, green, blue, red, and black, scattered on a rough ground surface. It depicts failure to decorate in a dilapidations context.
Green emergency exit sign with a running figure and an arrow pointing downward, mounted on a yellow brick wall. It depicts statutory compliance in a dilapidations or technical due diligence or building survey context.

  • Acting for an international retail client, Gillian led the delivery of schedules of condition in respect of new sites in order to minimise the client’s end of term dilapidations liability.  Gillian also oversaw the delivery of dilapidations management advice in respect of three properties in Ireland for the same client, where she advised on the best exit and negotiating strategies for the client in order to minimise their dilapidations obligations.

  • Acting for an international manufacturing client in several business acquisitions, Gillian led and oversaw the delivery of a schedule of condition and dilapidations assessment advice that helped the client understand what leasehold liability it was acquiring as part of the transaction. The client was able to build mitigation into its deal structure to allow the transaction to proceed in full knowledge of the property-related contractual lease liability, giving the client the information it needed to accrue for its leasehold liability.

  • Acting for a Fortune 500 corporate with some 700K sq ft of leasehold UK and Ireland properties, Gillian led the portfolio dilapidations management of the client portfolio, directing strategies around break options and other lease events to minimise the client’s dilapidations liabilities and aid its financial and tax planning around dilapidations.

  • Acting for a Fortune 500 corporate, Gillian and her team assessed the client’s dilapidations liability during the lease term. Towards the end of the term, the landlord served a schedule of dilapidations on the client and Gillian defended the claim achieving a 72% saving on the landlord’s claim through careful negotiation in full consultation with the client’s legal advisors.

  • Gillian provided an assessment of the dilapidations in respect of two office buildings in Glasgow that were proposed to be let on full repairing and insuring terms. She provided advice as to how to mitigate particularly onerous proposed lease clauses and helped the client mitigate the potential liability via preparation of a schedule of condition.

  • Acting for an international company downsizing from a full repairing obligation of a whole office building to one floor on internal repairing terms, Gillian led the negotiations of the landlord’s claim of £2.36M to a commercial settlement of £750K, saving the client over £1.6M (68% saving).

  • Acting for an international law firm and working closely with its litigation team, Gillian defended a c.£1M claim, reducing it by over 58% through expert analysis of the landlord’s claim and negotiation.

  • Gillian assessed the dilapidations liabilities of over 100K sq ft of multi-landlord portfolio of industrial assets in the north east on behalf of a client planning its exit strategy from the units to a single headquarter building, identifying strengths and weaknesses around each circumstance and aiding the client’s financial planning around each.

  • Dilapidations appraisal of 200K sq ft city offices, pre-lease expiry. Gillian led a team of specialists to inspect and report on the tenant's dilapidations obligations then worked closely with the tenant's solicitors to advise on the best strategy to adopt to minimise the claim, given the client's preference to negotiate with the landlord directly. Settlement was in line with her initial appraisal, at just over £4M.

  • Client was a mid-landlord. Gillian prepared the defence to the landlord’s claim of £378K and negotiated a saving of over £105K for the client, thereafter recovering 100% of the client’s loss from the sub-tenant.

  • Tenant break of six leases totalling just under 200.5K sq ft on a West London industrial estate. Claim was £1.74M, negotiated to a settlement of £1.2M payment, plus tenant's strip out works valued at £300K.