Question about Schedule of Condition
Discussion
I am in the process of leasing on retail premises. It's a listed building and it's received little attention other than patching up for a long time.
I plan to have a Schedule of Condition by an appropriately qualified surveyor. The question is whether it needs to be acknowledged or accepted by the landlord, or whether I can simply hang on to it and produce it when necessary lest the landlord attempt to charge me for improving the premises beyond their current condition when the lease is terminated?
TIA
I plan to have a Schedule of Condition by an appropriately qualified surveyor. The question is whether it needs to be acknowledged or accepted by the landlord, or whether I can simply hang on to it and produce it when necessary lest the landlord attempt to charge me for improving the premises beyond their current condition when the lease is terminated?
TIA
I did this, grade II*.
Personally I would get it agreed in writing by the LL and make sure you know exactly what you are in for in terms of liabilities for the building as a whole.
For me it was the internals, a proportion of the roof and the full front façade which came very close to needing replacement. I got out before hand but the neighbouring business ended up with a 20K+ bill.
Personally I would get it agreed in writing by the LL and make sure you know exactly what you are in for in terms of liabilities for the building as a whole.
For me it was the internals, a proportion of the roof and the full front façade which came very close to needing replacement. I got out before hand but the neighbouring business ended up with a 20K+ bill.
It needs to be written into the Lease.
The Schedule is useless, if the repairing clause does not contain some accompanying text limiting the Tenants's obligation to repair to not be at a better level than evidenced on the SoC dated.......
Otherwise it's just pretty pictures tacked onto the end.
The Schedule is useless, if the repairing clause does not contain some accompanying text limiting the Tenants's obligation to repair to not be at a better level than evidenced on the SoC dated.......
Otherwise it's just pretty pictures tacked onto the end.
As above, although make sure the surveyor has a close look at the roof - I did some work for a client on a photographic schedule of condition of a listed building & it was ultimately agreed to leave the repairing obligations for the roof with the landlord even though the principle of a schedule of condition had been agreed previously.

Well, there is a little bit more...
The lease is being assigned by the existing leaseholder who has moved their business to larger premises nearby, and who acquired the lease when they bought the business a couple of years ago. It seems there is no SoC attached to the lease at present and from the landlord's point of view there is no need to accept such an attachment now.
The location is very desirable and I am considering getting a SoC done anyway and using it as evidence should it be necessary in the future. It seems unlikely that a court would allow a landlord to get their premises rebuilt to as new condition at the tenant's expense when the lease was over if they were a bit ropy to start with?
It's worthless.
For a start you need to have the condition documented at the start of the original lease, and secondly. Courts will typically give very little protection over and above what's written in the lease.
The way to deal with this is to work up an idea of the total dilap liability and build it into the deal.
For a start you need to have the condition documented at the start of the original lease, and secondly. Courts will typically give very little protection over and above what's written in the lease.
The way to deal with this is to work up an idea of the total dilap liability and build it into the deal.
singlecoil said:

It seems unlikely that a court would allow a landlord to get their premises rebuilt to as new condition at the tenant's expense when the lease was over if they were a bit ropy to start with?
As surveyor says it needs to be factored in to the deal at the outset, with a lease which has been running for a number of years by taking an assignment you are immediately assuming a liability of some size.
singlecoil said:
Hmm. I need to smoke on my pipe and put that in.
I'll make it happen one way or the other though. There's a reason why commercial property is so hard to come by in that area, and I need to consider not only the potential risk but the potential reward.
As long as you have factored it in that's fine, but you need to properly assess your dilapidations liability as they can often be enormous.I'll make it happen one way or the other though. There's a reason why commercial property is so hard to come by in that area, and I need to consider not only the potential risk but the potential reward.
Muncher said:
singlecoil said:
Hmm. I need to smoke on my pipe and put that in.
I'll make it happen one way or the other though. There's a reason why commercial property is so hard to come by in that area, and I need to consider not only the potential risk but the potential reward.
As long as you have factored it in that's fine, but you need to properly assess your dilapidations liability as they can often be enormous.I'll make it happen one way or the other though. There's a reason why commercial property is so hard to come by in that area, and I need to consider not only the potential risk but the potential reward.
As long as you know what *could* happen and go into it knowing how expensive it can be then you can make an informed decision.
Last place I had I got the local listed buildings officer in from the council to look at alterations and repairs with me. Verbally her put my mind at rest but even he wouldn't put anything in writing!
I paid about £150 for him to do a site visit and talk me though the bits he was interested in and discuss repairs and replacements etc.
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